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A well-made brush with a combination of nylon and boar bristles that effectively detangles and removes debris all at the same time. Read More
A very attractive and lightweight brush that breezes through tangles and is easy to store or pack for a trip. Read More
Though a wonder at taking knots out of wet and dry hair, this brush is so lightweight that it doesn’t feel as durable and well-made as other options. Read More
Though this sophisticated hair brush is beloved by many stylists for its detangling prowess, it’s exceptionally rough on the scalp. Read More
This is a pretty brush that effectively detangles and feels nice on the scalp, but is smaller in surface area than other options Read More
For as long as I can remember, brushing my hair has been no easy feat. I sometimes delay showering just so I don’t have to spend copious amounts of time brushing through my tangled hair afterward. Judging by all the memes out there about the wonders of dry shampoo and the viral TikTok trend of an “everything shower,” I doubt I’m alone in this plight. For the unacquainted, the TikTok “everything shower” is a thorough shower routine that doesn’t involve just your classic shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, but also a bar soap, another body wash, a hair mask, body scrub, a razor, shave oil or cream, body butter, and body oil. You can check out the dozens of videos TikTok users have made showcasing all the products found in their “everything shower” routines with a quick search of everything showers over on the app. Now, the “everything shower” doesn’t call for a thorough brushing of wet hair, but we think that adding a hair brushing step to this rather comprehensive grooming routine would serve everyone better. After all, who doesn’t get a kick out of combing their fingers through their hair post-shower without any tangles, knots, or kinks?
In hopes of making the process of detangling hair quicker and more pleasant for us all, we tested 12 of the market’s best hair brushes across a variety of price points, brands, shapes, and sizes to see which ones glide through strands and leave hair smooth and unsnarled in mere minutes, ultimately leaving us with the absolute best hair brushes.
During our extensive testing process of hair brushes, we found three clear front runners: the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush
(available at Amazon)
, which earned our Best Overall spot; the Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Hair Brush (available at Amazon), which earned a Best Runner-Up title, and the Wet Brush Original Detangler Hair Brush (available at Amazon), which we elected as the Best for Wet Hair. All three hair brushes feel high-quality, performed well, and were relatively easy to clean—but ultimately, the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush came out on top because of its durability and reasonable price.
The Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush won our Best Overall spot for best hair brushes its detangling abilities and quality build.
The Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Hair Brush is one of our best hair brushes picks for its high-quality build.
As one of the best hair brushes we've tested, the Wet Brush Original Detangler Hair Brush detangles wet hair in a pinch.
The Mason Pearson Hair Brush won Best Splurge among the best hair brushes for its high-end design.
The Drybar Super Lemon Drop won our Most Versatile spot amongst the best hair brushes for its seamless ability to detangle and smooth wet and dry hair.
Effectively detangles
Feels great on the scalp
Available in a variety of shapes and sizes
Portable
Awkward to hold
Sleek
Effectively detangles
Portable
Not suitable for styling
Abrasive on the scalp
Sleek
Durable
Heavy
Doesn’t detangle dry hair well
Abrasive on the scalp
Effectively detangles dry hair
Feels nice on the scalp
Doesn’t effectively detangle wet hair
Not portable
Too large
Available in various shapes and sizes
Gentle on the scalp
Doesn’t effectively detangle wet hair
Plenty of surface area
Attractive
Not durable
Snags on small tangles
Abrasive on the scalp
I'm Brigitt Earley, a lifestyle writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience testing all different types of beauty products. I have thick, slightly wavy (but often straightened) brown hair that currently lands right at my collarbone. (Though, I had hair well past the middle of my back for the majority of my life.) Having a quality hair brush—one that smoothes hair without excessive tugging—has always been a necessity for me. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of hair brushes and typically reach for the Wet Brush, but if I’m being honest, I’ve never found anything I couldn’t live without. So I wondered: Was there a unicorn out there?
We combed through best-seller lists across retailers, beauty blogs, social media, and other best-of lists to find the best hair brushes on the market. Then, we put each of the hair brushes to the test, on both dry and wet hair, pitting the hair brushes from top-rated brands against one another to find a winner.
The testing process was simple: I ran all of the hair brushes through my entire head of hair twice—once when my hair was dry and once when my hair was wet. I also brushed my dry hair back into a ponytail to test how well each hair brush could smooth strands while styling my hair. I evaluated the build and aesthetic of the hair brushes as well. When I finished testing, I teamed up with Reviewed’s team of scientists to score and weigh the results on a scientifically calibrated rubric.
During the process, I answered the following questions about the hair brushes:
The Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush (top), Wet Brush Original Detangler (center), and Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Brush (bottom) brushes were the best hair brushes we tested.
When it comes to hair brushes, there are a couple of things you should know that may influence your purchasing decision:
There are many different types of hair brushes out there, from vented paddle brushes and round thermal brushes to small teasing brushes and wide-tooth combs. In our quest to find the best hair brushes, we only considered paddle brushes made of boar bristles, nylon bristles, or a combination of both. We also selected hair brushes meant simply for brushing hair—not for blow drying or creating specific hairstyles. That said, it was a bonus if a hair brush styled my hair in a ponytail with ease. These hair brushes are good everyday choices, rather than specialty options. Below is an in-depth look at each type of bristle and their respective functions:
Boar bristles: Known for their coarse, rough texture, boar bristles are designed to distribute oils on the scalp in addition to sloughing away dead skin cells and other particles of residue that may claim residence on the scalp. These bristles tend to cling onto stray hairs and product buildup, making them somewhat difficult to clean. When tested, the boar bristles on the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush were able to rid my scalp of dandruff and product buildup.
Nylon bristles: Unlike their boar bristle counterparts, nylon bristles are bendable and do the job of undoing pesky knots and tangles. Furthermore, nylon bristles should not make you feel uncomfortable while freeing your hair of fussy knots and tangles. Not all nylon bristles are made the same, but as we found in our testing, some nylon bristles—like on the Conair Pro hair brush, for instance—tend to scratch at the hair and scalp. However, nylon bristles that are equipped with tips shaped like a ball—better known as ballpoint tips—tend to provide a more comfortable hair-brushing experience (an exception to this would be the Tangle Teezer Original, which doesn’t have ballpoint tips on its nylon bristles). In addition to the Tangle Teezer Original, standout hair brushes with high-quality nylon bristles include the Wet Brush Original Detangler Hair Brush, our best for wet hair pick, and the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush, our best overall and top pick.
A high-quality hair brush (like the über-expensive Mason Pearson Hair Brush) should have a combination of boar and nylon bristles. In fact, professional hairstylists even stand by hair brushes that have a mix of both types of bristles. Having a hair brush with both boar and nylon bristles will ensure that your scalp’s natural oils will be evenly distributed throughout the head, excess buildup will be eliminated, and knots will be undone.
Another aspect of hair brushes that should be kept top of mind is surface area. Generally speaking, thicker hair types would fare best with a hair brush that has a wide surface area, given that it allows more hair to be picked up through each pass of the brush. Meanwhile, surface area isn’t necessarily a top concern for fine hair types since they don’t have as much hair as those with a thick hair type. That said, fine hair types can go with any type of hair brush, regardless of surface area. With thick, wavy hair, I thought the wide surface area of the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush tended to all my hair’s needs just fine.
It surprised me to see just how much the price of hair brushes can vary. But the results of our tests show that you don’t need to splurge to get a high-quality product. In fact, our top pick for the best hair brush—the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush—is one of the more affordable hair brushes we tested and rings in at a relatively affordable price of $14.99. Our splurge pick—the Mason Pearson Hair Brush—a brush that costs nearly $250 more than our overall pick—scored just below in performance, but it ultimately landed as my fourth favorite due to its sophisticated, luxurious design. In a nutshell, you don’t have to spend over $100 to get a quality hairbrush.
All 12 of these hair brushes are available on Amazon. If you need a new hair brush in a pinch, be sure to sign up to become an Amazon Prime member, and you’ll be able to get the brush delivered straight to your door with free shipping—all within 24 hours, and sometimes on the same day as purchase. Speedy shipping isn’t the only perk with a Prime membership. You’ll also have access to discounts on dozens of items from a variety of categories during Amazon’s biggest shopping events of the year like Prime Day, the Beauty Haul sale, and the Big Spring sale. We’d be remiss not to point out that our best overall pick, the Urtehone Boar Bristle Hair Brush, has historically been earmarked on a myriad of occasions, including during the Big Spring Sale and right before big holidays like Valentine’s Day. That said, make sure to always be on the look out for deals on this hair brush, and your wallet (and more importantly, your hair!) will thank you for it. Shop the Best Overall pick from Urtheone at Amazon
As the one-stop shop for pretty much any beauty product you can think of, Sephora carries a small selection of some our favorite hair brushes as well. The retailer carries two of our top favorites: the Brigeo Vegan Boar Bristle Brush, our pick for Best Runner-Up, and the Drybar Super Lemon Drop, which currently holds our Most Versatile title. With each Sephora purchase—including these two hair brushes—you can earn points by enrolling in the retailer’s Beauty Insider reward program. You can use the points to receive a Sephora gift set filled with sample sizes of beauty products across the categories of skincare, haircare, fragrance, makeup, and more. Otherwise, the points can be used towards taking a few dollars off future purchases. Based on how much you spend at Sephora every year, the Insider program will give you a status—Beauty Insider, VIB, or Rouge—which ultimately will determine when you can participate in the Sephora Savings event, a bi-annual sale where Rouge, VIB, and Beauty Insiders can get 20%, 15%, and 10% off their purchases, respectively. Shop the Runner-Up pick from Briogeo at Sephora
Shop the Most Versatile pick from Drybar at Sephora
Ulta stocks some of our favorite hair brushes, including the Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Hair Brush and the Drybar Super Lemon Drop. The retailer also carries a selection of hair brushes that fall towards the bottom of our list, such as the Tangle Teezer Original and the Pattern Beauty Shower Brush. And, of course, purchasing one of these hair brushes from Ulta will pay off in due time. The retailer also has its own rewards program called Ulta Beauty Rewards in which members can collect points to save on beauty service appointments and purchases both in-store and online. Some perfect opportunities to use these points are at one of Ulta’s many annual savings events, such as the Spring Haul sale, and the Semi-Annual Beauty Event that typically takes place every March and September. Ulta assigns each Beauty Rewards member a status based on how much they spend in a calendar year. Platinum members are those who spend at least $500 or more and Diamond members had to have spent at least $1200. Even if you don’t meet these spending thresholds but signed up to be a Beauty Rewards member, you’re given the status as Member Free. Shop the Runner-Up pick from Briogeo at Ulta
Brigitt Earley is a freelance writer and editor based in NJ. Her work has appeared in a number of lifestyle publications, including Real Simple and Apartment Therapy. She’s a new mom, runs an Instagram account full of the most delicious food she can find, and loves to hate a good barre class.
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