If you like to straighten your hair regularly, but want to cut down the time you spend doing it and the risk of damage, all without compromising on the quality of your style, then you have found your new best friend – the hairbrush straightener!
Hairbrush straighteners are the answer to your hair-straightening woes, and once you get the hang of using it, you won’t look back! They can save you time, hassle, give you excellent results and they are easy to get the hang of. We are going to talk you through using a hairbrush straightener so that you can get the best results from yours.
Table Of Contents
Straightening Your Hair With A Straightening Brush
Start Afresh!
First things first, if you are going to wash your hair then before you straighten it is the time to do it. Exposing your newly straightened hair to water will allow your natural curls and waves to release and reform. Therefore, washing your hair before you start styling it will help you to maintain for style for longer, and it will look and feel much better if it is clean anyway!
Protect Your Locks
Once you have shampooed and conditioned your hair, apply some heat protectant to it. You can get it in the form of a serum, oil or spray so choose a type that is best for your hair type. This nourishes and gives your hair a little extra resilience against the heat treatment. Sure, straightening brushes are gentler on your hair than traditional flatirons, but you still need to take care of them, so don’t forget this important step.
Spray some in your hands or straight on your hair then work it through your hair with your fingers. Make sure there is plenty on the ends as this is where your hair is the most delicate and more prone to splitting. You may, in fact, prefer to add it straight to the ends and then work it upwards by raking through with your fingers, as this will prevent any build-up of product at the roots, which could otherwise make it look greasy.
Remember – your hair straightening brush is not a detangling brush, so you shouldn’t use it in place of your regular hairbrush, but rather in combination with it. Make sure you comb through and remove and knots ant tangles before you start heat treating it.
Dry Your Hair Thoroughly
It doesn’t matter if you prefer to air dry or blow dry your hair, but before you go anywhere near it with a hair straightening brush, you need to ensure it is dry. Otherwise, the high temperatures of the device will cause your hair to singe, permanently damaging your hair.
Divide You Hair Up
The thicker your hair is, the more you will need to divide it, to make your job easier. But no matter how thick it is, you will still need you roughly divide it into left, right and back, or alternatively, you can scoop it all into the top of your head and gradually let small sections down as you work around them. It is easiest if you have some hair clips that you can pin it up with.
Switch on your hairbrush straightener and set the right temperature for your hair type. Dyed hair will need a lower temperature than your normal hair type would, but we would always recommend starting from the lowest temperature and then increasing it if you need to.
Start Brushing
Take the first section of hair in one hand, then hold the hairbrush straightener up by the roots, but underneath your hair, so that the bristles are poking outwards. This gives your hair some lift and volume at the roots, while still straightening it efficiently.
Lay the bunch of hair through the bristles and brush firmly but gently down the strands of hair. You want to use small bunches of hair for this. If you cannot see the tips of the bristles through the bunch of hair, then this means that you are using too big of a bunch of hair at once. This will mean that the heat is not going to reach the strands evenly and therefore you won’t get optimal results and it will take longer.
Don’t brush through too quickly, otherwise, the heat won’t have a chance to act on the hairs. Instead, brush through slowly, but don’t stop and hold it still at any stage, otherwise you may overheat your hair.
Top tip: we find that starting from the back and working forwards is easiest, then once you have finished that level, let some more hair down from the top and begin working from the back towards the front on that area.
Finishing Touches
Once you have worked through all of your hair and are happy with your new style, switch off the hairbrush straightener and leave it too cool. You can apply some hairspray to your hair to keep it in place. You may find that you can use the heat protectant as a hairspray too – so check on the bottle as this can save you buying two different products.
After you have applied the hairspray and the hairbrush straightener has cooled don’t forget to clean it before putting it away. Wipe it with a clean cloth to remove any residue each time you use it to prevent a build-up which could shorten the lifespan of your straightener.
Touching Up
Unless you wash your hair every day, you will probably find that your straightened style holds for a few days. If it does start to spring back again, you can touch it up with your hairbrush straightener again, but this time you probably won’t need to use such a high temperature. To preserve the health of your hair, always start from with a low temperature and only increase it if you find it isn’t working.
Why We Love Hairbrush Straighteners
- Even heat distribution, so straightening takes few passes
- Fewer passes of the straightener mean straightening takes less time
- Lower heat required and you don’t clamp down on hair so less chance of heat damage
- Incredibly easy to use
- Far less fiddly than using a flat iron
Conclusion
So now you can see how fantastically easy straightening your hair with a hairbrush straightener really is! It is quick, gentler on your hair and it gives you fabulous results that you can easily touch up. If you haven’t already got one, take a look at our article where we compare hairbrush straighteners to see which one is right for you!
I love this but my hair is very thick can it work on it