Bombshell Oval Flexible Vent Brush — Ball-Tip Nylon, 9¾″

The same brush as the boar and nylon vent brush, with the boar left out. Same body, same size, same flexible rings — 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.

Vented for blow drying

The head is open rather than solid, 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 concentric rings

Look at the back of the head and you will see concentric oval rings with open channels between them. That is not decoration. A solid back cannot bend; rings hinged against each other can, so the head conforms to the curve of your skull as you pass over it rather than sitting rigid against one high point.

The same structure is what lets the air through.

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 three quarter inches long, three inches across the head. The larger of the two vent brushes, so it covers more ground per pass on long or thick hair.

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 channels 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.