#WaverWednesday: Should You Use a Hard Brush for 360 Waves?

Throughout your wave journey, you’ll find yourself revisiting concepts on brushes and other products. Choosing the right tool has a major impact on your hairstyle. Over the next three weeks we’ll take an in-depth look at hard, medium, and soft brushes and how to style your wave.

This week, we’ll go over hard brushes: the advantages, the disadvantages, and determine how to fit one in your rotation. If you just started following our #WaverWednesday series, check out our very first journal to get up to speed before reading this.

Bristles

Most hard brushes will come in two forms. Some hard brushes are made with nylon bristles, or what some barbers call flex bristles. Other hard brushes are made with boar bristle, and you’ll notice the word “re-enforced” on a lot of hard brushes to confirm its consistency. Some hard brushes are mixed with boar and flex bristles, but those are rare in hard brushes.

Advantages

During the fall and winter months when you’re wolfing, this will be your main go-to brush to start off your brush sessions. Some wavers use their hard brush as a shower brush as well so it can help in two areas that your other brushes can’t. Hard brushes also help stimulate the scalp to promote healthier hair growth.

Disadvantages

When you get a low fresh cut, this brush might have to sit on the shelf for a few weeks. You can still use it, but I'm sure you’re scalp won’t be happy if it’s not properly adjusted to that feeling. If you have a genetic disposition to thinning hair I would recommend staying away from hard brushes. There’s still ways to get hard brushing in with some medium brushes, but we’ll get into that next week. The main misconception about hard brushes is that most wavers think you have to put in the same amount of time with every brush to reap its benefits. The fact of the matter is you don’t, you can brush with your hard brush for at least 30 seconds to a minute. Then continue your brush session with brushes that will put less stress on your hair. Speed is another factor; you can get much better results with your hard brush by brushing slow than brushing at a faster pace.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this, next week we’ll talk about medium brushes. If you’re interested in showing your progress, post a picture on Instagram using the hash tag #WaverWednesday. See y’all next week and keep those brushes moving!

-Kado

Kado is the founder of Elite Spins, a digital community for wavers to share product reviews, methods, and tips. Connect with him personally on Instagram and follow the Elite Spins page.