Welcome to the Art for Hair Blog!

We love creating hand-crafted hair sticks, hair forks and matching jewelry to show off the beauty of long hair! Our blog features our designs, different ways to put long hair up, as well as how to care for and grow long hair and features on other Etsy craftspeople.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Long Hair Care: Brushing

When you have long hair, or are trying to achieve it, gentle hair handling is very important to minimize damage and strand breakage. Do the ends of your hair have split ends, or small white dots a little way up the strand? These are signs of hair damage, and lead to breakage. With too much breakage, hair will appear not to be growing.

Although popular wisdom states that you should use a brush to brush your hair, specifically 100 strokes a day, this is actually not the best idea for long hair. Most brushes damage hair as they have sharp or rough edges, and excessive brushing will literally wear away at hair strands, leaving them weakened and more prone to breakage. The '100 strokes a day' advice originated in times when women could not wash their hair as often as we do now, so the brushing was necessary to distribute scalp oils all the way down the length of the hair.

The ideal tool for long hair is a smooth, wide-tooth comb. This detangles well, and the smooth edges ensure that the hair is not damaged. 'Hair-safe' combs are available from most drug stores and beauty supply stores, and are not expensive. These combs do not have a 'seam' in the middle from being made in a mold. If you have a comb with a 'seam', you can easily sand it off.

Start gently combing from the ends upwards to reduce tension on the hair. Never comb hair when it is wet, as hair is much more elastic and vulnerable to damage when it is wet. To help prevent hair tangling at night and cut down on the combing necessary in the morning, try braiding your hair or putting it in a low bun. Satin pillow cases and sleep caps also help, as they are much more 'slippery' than regular cotton, so preventing hair from rubbing and tangling.

Using a hair-friendly wide-tooth comb and not combing excessively will help you achieve healthy, long hair.

6 comments:

Mharms said...

oh..i used to comb my hair when it is wet. so it is inadvisable? a little bit confused.

Unknown said...

It hurts to comb my hair no matter what. I use the heck out of conditioner. These are great tips though thanks!

Spoonbrain said...

nice tips--tried to drop on you but your ex widget didn't come up--is it working for others?

Art for Hair said...

Thanks for the comments :)

marlyms- yes, it's not really good to comb hair when it's wet, as it's more delicate. If you comb before you wash and wash gently, it shouldn't be too tangled, just wait until it's dry.

mark - sorry about the ec vanishing, I don't know why that is! I can see it now...

Emily Patterson-Kane said...

I personally find a brush with plastic bobble ends is better than a comb because the tines are flexable and bend a bit rather than pulling and snappung hair, most brushes are made that way these days.

Lisa said...

I just learned some stuff I never knew before. We all use the same brush here which obviously was wrong.