What's The Best Blow Dry Brush For Dry Or Damaged Hair?

May 20, 2019

Anyone who experiments with their hair knows the catch.

With all that styling, teasing and drying (or for the wild types... hair-pulling), your precious strands get stressed and dry, leading to splitting and breakage.

Fortunately, it’s fixable. By using the right brush to repair and rebuild your hair, you can lengthen its lifespan and inches.

Let’s review the best brushes for dry, damaged hair.

Styling damaged hair.

Fried hair is trickier to style while blow drying. Since your hair is more prone to damage, you need a brush that delivers protection as well as style. These are the top three types for weak hair: ceramic, boar bristle and a detangler.

Ceramic brushes.

To style fragile hair, a ceramic round brush is your go-to. This material is both heat-efficient and hair-friendly, emitting a gentler level of smoothing ions that are safer for split ends.

You still get the strong, even heat transfer, but it’s less extreme and harmful than tourmaline or titanium.

Ceramic gives you more protection for your brittle pieces. By helping your hair retain moisture, ceramic counteracts the problem of split ends. How's this possible?

Well, without getting too technical, when the ceramic plate infuses your hair with negative ions, it closes the cuticle which locks in moisture.

By sealing the outer layer of the hair shaft, each glide of the brush leaves your locks softer, sleeker and shinier. You’ll have way fewer fly-always and WAY fewer diva moments, where you’re struggling to resurrect that haggard frizz.

That’s why all salon professionals prefer using a ceramic round brush for dry, damaged hair. We carry a professional ceramic range of brushes in various sizes right here!

Boar bristle brushes.

If you prefer something even gentler, you can opt for a boar bristle brush. The natural texture of the bristles are unique as they glide sebum (oil from your scalp) from your roots to your ends. By coating each strand with a wee bit of oil, the boar bristle brush repairs damaged hair and adds a glossier look.

For heat styling purposes, it’s best to use versions with a combination of boar hair and nylon, as the boar hair on its own won’t conduct much heat. The addition of the nylon bristles generates more thermal energy to smooth your locks.

We carry a range of professional boar bristle and nylon brushes here. 

Detangler brush.

Hair is weakest when wet. So, straight out of the shower, you must gently detangle your drenched mop before heat styling. For the best job, you should be using a professional detangling brush or paddle brush.

Detangling wet hair carefully is an important step in the styling process. You’re essentially preparing your strands for the slightly more aggressive action that comes with blow drying. A regular brush, on the other hand, will just tug wet hair, which is already more prone to breakage when soaked.

Styling short, damaged hair.

If your length is extremely short and damaged—with crispy ends, crinkly texture and all— you need a brush designed for fine hair.

A smaller diameter round ceramic brush gives you more control over the limited length you have. As you rotate the brush, while encircling the strands along, you create the illusion of livelier hair. Think of it as a neat little trick for transforming hair that’s short and brittle.

Always practice safe styling.

To shield your hair from the harm of blow drying, you need a heat-protectant serum. Made with hydrating oils and botanicals, these formulas create a defensive layer of protection for your hair shaft to prevent breakage.

It’s also advisable to use a conditioner that's especially designed for damaged hair. You need that extra level of hydration to fully nourish each strand in preparation for heat styling.

What causes the hair shaft to split in the first place?

When your hair is overly dry or processed, the cuticle develops cracks in the outer layer. This protein breakage means there’s less coating around the hair’s cortex, causing the strand to become dull and thin.

As the condition worsens, your hair will begin splitting up the shaft.

Without a haircut to remove the dead weight, your length might resemble the crunchiness of straw— not cute.  To keep your inches strong and healthy, your hair needs moisture--the same way your skin must be hydrated to avoid peeling.

Trying to revive hair from the dead is a stressful beauty dilemma. Although you can’t completely reverse the damage, you CAN improve its condition.

By using the right styling tools and hairbrushes for dry, damaged hair, you can tame your frizz to reveal softer, more touchable locks— but remember, don’t touch… hair breakage!

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