This Historical Haircare Tool is Better Than Conditioner

Have you ever had the experience of teaching someone else about a topic and simultaneously relearning that topic yourself? Well that was exactly what happened to me during the process of researching and creating my last historical hair care video. And what did I relearn the value of? Boar bristle brushing. I have been familiar with the benefits for hair care of boar bristle brushing since I began my historical hair care journey about six years ago when I cut my hair, but I have been quite on and off with it during that time simply because of my own hair type and struggling to find a way for boar bristle brushing to work for my own hair type. But with all that being said, let's jump into a quick mini crash course on boar bristle brushes and what their benefits are for the hair. This is a boar bristle brush. You can see it's made up of these very closely packed stiff boar bristles, and boar bristles are of course from a pig or a boar. But what sets apart a boar bristle brush from a regular brush, by the way don't mind the fact that I'm missing some bristles at the top, this is I've had this for many years now and it's been through a lot of washing and things, but what makes a boar bristle brush different than a regular brush is that a regular brush is designed to detangle the hair. So it's made with relatively distantly spaced very stiff bristles, rigid bristles like plastic ones or wooden ones. And by the way I do think a brush can be a good tool, especially if you have straighter hair, so I'm not bashing it at all. But needless to say, those brushes are a different animal than a boar bristle brush. A boar bristle brush, which only has 100% boar bristles, is not designed to detangle the hair, but rather it's designed as a styling and health maintenance tool for the hair. So how does it do this? First of all, because it's made up of literal hairs, albeit much stiffer hairs than ours, and you're brushing your own hair with it, it does a really really cool unique job at cleansing the hair and smoothing down the hair cuticles, removing dust and debris, and also the coolest thing is that it's basically the historical equivalent of dry shampoo, because it does such a good job at picking up your scalp oils, bringing them away from your scalp, removing any visible greasiness, and then as you bring the brush down the length of your hair, it draws those oils down the length of your hair and conditions your hair. And can I just say that your own natural scalp oils and sebum are life for your hair. There is no commercial or store-bought or plant-based oil that can compete with your own natural scalp oils and sebum. I know to a modern western perspective we're taught that skin oils and scalp oils are inherently dirty and bad and we need to remove them with soap and shampoo as often as possible, but the fact is that your scalp and your hair need scalp oils to remain healthy and to grow. And for example, for those of us with curlier hair, that's why we typically struggle more with dry hair, simply because the texture of our hair tends to prevent our natural oils from traveling down the length of the hair shaft, which is why I personally have to supplement with jojoba oil on my ends. But needless to say, a boar bristle brush is an amazing tool. I mean, if you have straighter hair, there are basically like no caveats. You need to go out there and get yourself a boar bristle brush, especially if you are trying to decrease the amount of times you shampoo your hair or transition completely away from conventional shampoo. It's an amazing tool, not only because it acts as a dry shampoo, but because it doesn't just get rid of those oils the way a dry shampoo does. It actually brings them down the length of your hair, which conditions the length of your hair and helps keep it healthy. It can also really help improve shine because it smooths the cuticle as it goes down. So now I'd like to talk about the different types of boar bristle brushes that are available in the modern day and hopefully clear up a bit of confusion as to why I am personally recommending a 100% boar bristle brush as opposed to what's called a mixed boar bristle brush. So historically speaking, women who used boar bristle brushes only used the 100% boar bristle kind. And in fact, the ones we see in history actually had somewhat longer bristles than the ones we typically see today, and I would love to find a historical replica of one. But anyways, they mostly used 100, they only used 100% boar bristle brushes. But the thing about a 100% boar bristle brush is, like we said earlier, it does not detangle the hair. So you do need to go in first with either your fingers and detangle your hair or with a wide tooth wooden comb or whatever other detangling tool that you prefer that you know is gentle and safe for your hair. Historical women typically would use a wooden wide tooth comb first. Personally, I like to use my fingers first because I prefer finger detangling for my own hair type. Now the thing is, nowadays 100% boar bristle brushes are typically marketed as being for only people with thin or fine hair, and that's because of the fact that they don't penetrate into thicker hair types. But I would argue that that's actually the benefit of a boar bristle brush, and that's why historical women were able to do those 100 strokes a night, as the old adage says. Those weren't 100 strokes with a typical modern hairbrush that was detangling the hair. 100 strokes with one of those would probably be quite damaging, but 100 strokes with a boar bristle brush actually sounds quite health giving to the hair because it does all that conditioning, bringing your scalp oils down, it smooths the hair, it brings shine, it stimulates your scalp really well as you're brushing around your scalp. So that's what they're talking about. Now there are also nowadays available what's called a mixed boar bristle brush which has stiffer typically nylon bristles mixed in with the boar bristles, and it actually does penetrate into the hair. And it can be a great styling tool depending on your own hair type and what you like to do with your hair. So I'm not bashing them, but I'm just explaining to you why I personally recommend the 100% boar bristle brush, because you're able to get all of those health-giving benefits of the boar bristle brush without having to worry about the brush on every single stroke penetrating into your hair, detangling it, and potentially causing damage. Because the more times you attempt to detangle your hair, the more likely some snapping is to occur. So I prefer to keep my boar bristle brushing separate from my detangling. So now I'm going to demonstrate for you how I make a boar bristle brush work for my own hair, which is a thicker and curly hair type. First of all, big disclaimer, I don't even attempt to use a boar bristle brush until later in the week when my curl pattern has relaxed, and I've already been working on finger detangling it in the evenings throughout the days leading up to that. I also like to apply some light oils to my ends in the evenings, not necessarily every evening, but that also helps to get my hair detangled and in a more kind of straightened out state so that the brush is able to go through my hair, or to brush my hair I should say, without causing any matting. Now in these clips you will notice that my hair looks quite oily, and that is because this is literally after like several days after my wash day, and it's not oily from my natural scalp oils because that never happens to me. I wish my scalp would produce more oil, honestly. I have a drier scalp, and I think that's why my hair tends to have a slower growth rate than most people. But anyways, my hair is oily because it is winter and windy and cold here in Canada, and I have been really going crazy with the jojoba oil and shea butter throughout the week. I've been wearing my hair up every day, so a little bit of greasiness is certainly not going to show, and it's nice to know that my ends have been protected and nourished. But this is also a great demo for those of you who do struggle more with an oily scalp and would like to see how a boar bristle brush can help to redistribute those oils. However, I will say that since my hair is literally containing a shea butter, this brush is not going to work as well at redistributing the oil as it would if it was just dealing with your own natural scalp oils, which are obviously much lighter than shea butter. So basically now that my hair is detangled, I simply separate it into small sections and lightly brush with the boar bristle brush each of those sections. I typically start at the bottom and then work my way up to the top, making sure that I get all the way up to my scalp so I can pick up some of those oils on the brush and then draw it back down. What I especially like about this is that for someone like me, I actually have different textures of hair on my head. I like to think of this as kind of a roadmap to my different ancestors' genetics all mixed together on my scalp. So in the front, my hair is straighter and if I do get any oil that's visible on my scalp, it will typically only be in this area. So what I do is I typically focus on the areas of my hair that do have more oil and then I will bring the brush over to the areas of my hair like at the back that are drier and then I'm able to condition those areas with the natural oils or in this case the shea butter and jojoba oil from the sections that are naturally more oily. Now again, it is vitally important when you're using a 100% boar bristle brush to detangle your hair thoroughly first. If you don't do this, the boar bristle brush will cause matting in your hair. So at any point when I'm using the brush, if I feel a tangle in a certain section, I immediately put the brush down and go in with my fingers and remove that tangle first. Another great thing about a boar bristle brush is it can be used as a styling tool when you're putting your hair into any updo. You can actually use it to brush your edges and get them to lie nice and smooth and sleekly.