Bombshell Curved Flexible Vent Brush — Ball-Tip Nylon, 9.5″

The same curved vent brush, with the boar left out. Same body, same size, same separate flexible rows — every bristle on it is ball-tip nylon.

That makes it a lighter brush through the hair, and a different tool rather than a cheaper one.

Why it is curved

Look at it side on and the head is not flat. It curves along its length, which means the bristles meet a long section of hair across more of its arc in a single pass — and it follows the back of your own head without your wrist having to do the work.

The rows are separate, joined by flexible links rather than moulded into one solid plate. Each row can move independently, so when the brush meets resistance it gives at the row rather than transmitting the pull into the hair.

Vented for blow drying

The head is open between the rows, so air from the dryer passes straight through the brush and reaches the section from both sides at once. A solid brush blocks that air, which is why a blowout with the wrong brush takes twice as long and cooks the hair while you wait.

The same open structure is what lets the rows flex. One design, two reasons for it.

All nylon, ball tipped

Every pin is three quarters of an inch and finished with a rounded bead on the end. The bead is what lets you work the brush right down to the scalp without scratching, and the length lets it reach through a thick section rather than skating over the top of it.

Nylon is stiff enough to part hair and get through a knot. Boar is not — boar is soft and works across the surface. So this brush detangles and smooths, and it does that better than a mixed brush does, because nothing softer is getting in the way.

What it does not do

It does not polish. Boar carries the scalp's own oil down the strand, and that is where shine comes from — your own oil moved down the length rather than anything added. There is no boar here, so that does not happen.

If shine is the thing you want, buy the boar and nylon version instead. If what you want is to get through your hair cleanly and quickly, this is the better brush of the two.

It is also the one to choose if you would rather not have an animal product in your hairbrush, and it is easier to keep clean — boar holds onto shed hair far more than nylon does.

The size

Nine and a half inches long, two and a half inches across the head. Narrower than the oval vent brush, which makes it easier to steer around the back of your own head and better on medium-length hair. The oval covers more ground per pass if your hair is very long or very thick.

How to use it

Dry to about eighty per cent before the brush goes near the hair. A brush in soaking hair does nothing but stretch it.

Section, then work from the nape upward, keeping the dryer pointing the same way the brush is travelling — down the hair shaft, never against it. Because the head is vented you can hold the dryer closer to the back of the brush than you would with a solid one, and the air will still reach the hair.

On tangles, start at the ends and work up an inch at a time rather than driving down from the roots.

Looking after it

Push the shed hair out through the gaps between the rows from the back rather than picking at it from the front. The open structure is what makes this quick, and it is the one job an all-nylon brush makes easier than a boar one.

Where it came from

Peter Louis spent twenty-three years behind a chair in Manhattan — a salon on 57th Street, and years of blowouts before that, nine in the morning until ten at night. A supplier would bring a sample, it got used on clients, and it went back with a list of what was still wrong. That went on for years until one came back right.