12 Best Hair Brushes of 2024 - Reviewed

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A well-made brush with a combination of nylon and boar bristles that effectively detangles and removes debris all at the same time. Read More

A very attractive and lightweight brush that breezes through tangles and is easy to store or pack for a trip. Read More

Though a wonder at taking knots out of wet and dry hair, this brush is so lightweight that it doesn’t feel as durable and well-made as other options. Read More

Though this sophisticated hair brush is beloved by many stylists for its detangling prowess, it’s exceptionally rough on the scalp. Read More

This is a pretty brush that effectively detangles and feels nice on the scalp, but is smaller in surface area than other options Read More

Updated July 18, 2024

For as long as I can remember, brushing my hair has been no easy feat. I sometimes delay showering just so I don’t have to spend copious amounts of time brushing through my tangled hair afterward. Judging by all the memes out there about the wonders of dry shampoo and the viral TikTok trend of an "everything shower," I doubt I’m alone in this plight. For the unacquainted, the TikTok "everything shower" is a thorough shower routine that doesn’t involve just your classic shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, but also a bar soap, another body wash, a hair mask, body scrub, a razor, shave oil or cream, body butter, and body oil.

You can check out the dozens of videos TikTok users have made showcasing all the products found in their "everything shower" routines with a quick search of everything showers over on the app. Now, the "everything shower" doesn’t call for a thorough brushing of wet hair, but we think that adding a hair brushing step to this rather comprehensive grooming routine would serve everyone better. After all, who doesn’t get a kick out of combing their fingers through their hair post-shower without any tangles, knots, or kinks?

In hopes of making the process of detangling hair quicker and more pleasant for us all, we tested 12 of the market’s best hair brushes across a variety of price points, brands, shapes, and sizes to see which ones glide through strands and leave hair smooth and unsnarled in mere minutes, ultimately leaving us with the absolute best hair brushes.

During our extensive testing process of hair brushes, we found three clear front runners: the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush (available at Amazon for $12.99) , which earned our Best Overall spot; the Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Hair Brush (available at Amazon), which earned a Best Runner-Up title, and the Wet Brush Original Detangler Hair Brush (available at Amazon), which we elected as the Best for Wet Hair.

All three hair brushes feel high-quality, performed well, and were relatively easy to clean—but ultimately, the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush came out on top because of its durability and reasonable price.

The Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush won our Best Overall spot for best hair brushes its detangling abilities and quality build.

This Urtheone hair brush immediately stood out because it’s the only wooden-handled brush in the pack. While that may not be great if you’re someone who likes to brush your hair while in the shower, I loved this attribute because it made the brush feel especially well-made. It wasn’t too heavy or awkward in hand.

Instead, it felt durable and the extra weight seemed to help it comb through tangles in both dry and wet hair.I’m also fond of the rectangular shape of this brush. Because I have a lot of thick, wavy hair, I gravitate towards hair brushes with a paddle and a wider surface area—exactly what this brush has—although you can choose from a few other sizes.

This brush has a mix of nylon pins and boar bristles—something I’d never tried before. This combination of bristles proved useful, as the nylon did most of the detangling, while the boar raked dry skin flakes and other small particles out of my hair better than the brushes that only contained nylon bristles. Boar bristles also supposedly distribute oil better than plastic ones (though I'm not sure how I would notice this).

If there’s any downside to the combination of bristle types, it’s that the tiny boar bristles in between the nylon ones held onto hair and debris, making this hair brush more difficult to clean.

Though this next feature didn’t affect the scoring process, it’s worth noting that this brush comes with some fun extras, including a wide-tooth comb that can be used for detangling, parting, backcombing, and cleaning the hair brush itself, and some small, colorful hair elastics.

Durable

Plenty of surface area

Effectively detangles

Effectively removes debris

Wooden construction requires more care

Slightly more difficult to clean

The Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Hair Brush is one of our best hair brushes picks for its high-quality build.

This oval hair brush scored close to our overall pick, but has one important difference: It’s prettier. While that may not matter to some, I loved this. The soft purple hue looks nicer on your vanity, plus it’s a bit smaller, which makes it easier to both store at home and take with you on-the-go.

Though the bristles are made of vegan and so-called "cruelty-free" nylon, they look and feel just like traditional boar bristles. They also perform just as well—this brush scored less than a quarter-point behind our pick for the best hair brush. The soft ballpoint tips were gentle on my scalp and didn’t snag on wet or dry hair, curly or straight.

If there’s any downside, it’s that the surface area of this brush is smaller than others, so I had to make more passes through my hair to tackle my entire head. Certainly not a deal-breaker, but this adds extra time to the task.

Because the bristles are very close together, it’s also difficult to rid the brush of hair.

Lightweight

Portable

Effectively detangles

Slightly more difficult to clean

Smaller surface area

As one of the best hair brushes we've tested, the Wet Brush Original Detangler Hair Brush detangles wet hair in a pinch.

For years, the Wet Brush has been my go-to because of its detangling prowess. And our tests proved my instincts about this brush were right. The nylon bristles are designed to be super flexible. In other words, these bristles are supposed to move through snarls without snagging. Still, they’re long enough to get deep into knots and loosen them without causing any discomfort. Despite the name, the Wet Brush worked just as well to detangle dry hair. It also smoothed any lumps getting in the way of a well-styled ponytail.

Though the surface area is on the smaller side (comparable to the Briogeo), it doesn’t seem like such a drawback in this instance because of how well the brush breezes through knots.

But after trying other hair brushes, I realized there was something I didn’t love about the Wet Brush: It’s so lightweight that it almost feels flimsy. While this doesn’t affect its performance (the most important factor for me), it didn’t feel as nice in the hand, and ultimately, made the brush seem less durable than others.

Effectively detangles

Gentle on the scalp

Available in a variety of shapes and sizes

Too lightweight

The Mason Pearson Hair Brush won Best Splurge among the best hair brushes for its high-end design.

This Mason Pearson brush catches your eye because it comes in an attractive, vintage-looking box. When you open it, it feels special and luxurious: The brush is nestled in a red felt cradle to keep it from rattling around inside the box, and it comes with a separate cleaning brush, as well as detailed care cleaning instructions. (None of the other brushes come with anything comparable.)

The brush itself is just as pretty—it looks like the one you might see in a movie or on a TV character’s vanity (think: Marie Antoinette in Sofia Coppola’s 2006 cinematic rendition of the French aristocrat’s life story) with the signature black handle and velvet-red cushion. It makes sense because many hair stylists consider this option, which has a combination of nylon and boar bristles, to be the cream of the crop.

In addition to its impressive build and high-quality packaging, this hair brush garnered points for effectively detangling my wet and dry hair, but lost points for how it felt against the scalp. I loved the surface area of the oval brush but found that the nylon bristles, which lack ballpoint tips, were scratchy against my scalp. (And not in a soothing way!)

There’s something else that’s especially important to note about this brush: It costs eight times the amount of the next most expensive brush we tested.

Sturdy

Effectively detangles

Great weight

Comes with useful accessories

Uncomfortable on the scalp

Slightly more difficult to clean

The Drybar Super Lemon Drop won our Most Versatile spot amongst the best hair brushes for its seamless ability to detangle and smooth wet and dry hair.

This Drybar brush looks and feels very similar to the Briogeo, just in a butter yellow shade rather than a light purple. It has a soft handle that feels luxe. And it has the ideal weight—not too heavy, but not at all flimsy.

Like other brushes that landed in the top five of this list of the best hair brushes, I didn’t have any trouble getting through tangles while my hair was wet or dry. The hair brush even made styling a smooth ponytail feel like a breeze. I didn’t have any problems with static either—the brush left my strands nice and smooth in all instances.

This brush lost points for things that I didn’t consider quite as important, namely a lack of other shapes and sizes and no included care and cleaning instructions.

Attractive

Effectively detangles

Gentle on scalp

Easy to clean

Smaller surface area

The Tangle Teezer looks nothing like the other hair brushes we tested. The "ergonomic" misshapen oval is small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and there’s no handle—you cradle the part of the brush with the bristles in your hand.

Even though my hair is on the shorter side, I found the entire build of the brush awkward—the shape, size, and lack of handle. The movements I had to make with my wrist to brush through my hair felt unnatural because it was hard to complete the sweep through my hair with my hand on the brush. The brush comes in other shapes and sizes, so it’s possible another variety would feel better in my hand.

That said, the brush achieved what it’s designed to do: glide through knotty hair without a fuss. The multi-length "teeth" (i.e., bristles) are super flexible, so they move with tangles rather than pulling at them—something the manufacturer notes is important to avoid breakage.

I also liked the way the nylon bristles felt against my scalp. Although they don’t have ballpoints, they weren’t as scratchy as the ones on the Mason Pearson hair brush. Instead, they felt nice—almost like getting a scalp massage.

Effectively detangles

Feels great on the scalp

Available in a variety of shapes and sizes

Portable

Awkward to hold

The Denman brush doesn’t look like one I would immediately gravitate towards because it’s long and skinny with very tall and stiff bristles. Because the bristles are so large and stiff, they’re rougher on the scalp, which can be painful if you brush in a hurry.

That said, the bristles are situated on a curved cushion that gives them just enough flexibility to successfully detangle on both wet and dry hair. My biggest pain point with this brush, and why it is not one of the best hair brushes, was how difficult it was to style my hair with. Because the bristles are so tall, they don’t grab hair in a way that helps you smooth out any lumps or bumps present. Rather than an overall smooth crown, you still end up with some ridges—especially if your hair is wavy like mine.

The surface area of the brush was also smaller than I like for my thick hair, though this might not be as much of a deal-breaker if you have short or fine locks.

Sleek

Effectively detangles

Portable

Not suitable for styling

Abrasive on the scalp

Like the Denman, the Pattern hair brush is long and skinny with tall and stiff bristles. It’s also on the heavier side. Because of the shape and the weight, it tires my wrist easily—something to be mindful of if you have long hair that takes more than a few minutes to detangle.

The stiff bristles didn’t glide through my hair the way I’d hope, either. Though it performed better in wet hair than it did in dry hair, the brush still got tripped up on mid-sized tangles. To make matters worse, the bristles felt too abrasive on my scalp.

Because of the height of bristles, brushing my hair into a smooth ponytail wasn’t quite as seamless as it was with other brushes, either. The stiff bristles couldn’t grasp the hair the way it needed to to create the sleek-looking ponytail I was after.

Sleek

Durable

Heavy

Doesn’t detangle dry hair well

Abrasive on the scalp

I love paddle brushes reminiscent of this one by GHD, but it turned out to be way too large for my liking. While I can tackle my whole head in just four passes (pretty impressive!), it feels unwieldy and is too large to hug my scalp the way I want a brush to. This also made it more difficult to style hair into a smooth ponytail. What’s more, the size is a hindrance if you travel often and don’t have a separate travel-sized brush dedicated for such.

And though it took tangles out of dry hair in a breeze, the brush underperformed when it came time to brush wet hair. For me, this is arguably more important because I tend to brush my hair when it’s wet to rid it of tangles and then leave it alone once it’s styled.

Effectively detangles dry hair

Feels nice on the scalp

Doesn’t effectively detangle wet hair

Not portable

Too large

This Revlon Detangle & Smooth Berry Cushion Hair Brush looks like a nice cushion brush, but it’s neither here nor there in just about every way.

The brush itself isn’t heavy but isn’t flimsy, so it feels fine in your hand. And the surface area is similar—not too big, not too small.

There are hits and misses when it comes to detangling, too. The brush does a decent job passing through dry hair, but struggles more when it comes time to take tangles out of wet hair, which again, is the more important factor for me.

This brush’s most redeeming characteristic is how gentle the ballpoints are on the scalp. Other positives are less important, like portability and a variety of available shapes and sizes for those who prefer alternate compositions. If you plucked this brush off of the shelf at the drugstore, you likely wouldn’t regret it, but may not seek it out when it comes time for a replacement.

Available in various shapes and sizes

Gentle on the scalp

Doesn’t effectively detangle wet hair

The Conair Pro is a hard plastic hair brush—something I’m not a fan of, because it feels stiff but also flimsy enough to snap in half. It’s also long and skinny, which means the brush itself doesn’t have a large surface area, requiring more passes through my thick head of hair.

What’s more, the ballpoint bristles sit on a plastic base rather than a cushion and are very stiff with not much flex or give, as they don’t have a cushion to compress into. As a result, the brush doesn’t effectively tackle tangles on either wet or dry hair. Instead, it snags often, causing a fair amount of discomfort. I recommend passing over this one—other comparable brushes do a much better job.

Lightweight

Portable

Snags hair

Flimsy

Bristles aren't flexible

I wanted to love this Goody hair brush. Though it does have an eye-catching white and rose gold color scheme and sits at a relatively affordable price point, it underperformed in almost all of the categories. For starters, one of the pins fell out after just one use—not a great indicator of quality.

The bristles also felt too scratchy on my scalp, and they snagged on both wet and dry hair, despite the absence of any significant tangles.

Besides its aesthetically pleasing design, its redeeming qualities included the size of the brush—the surface area is ideal for my taste. But this attribute is not enough to overshadow the brush’s flaws.

Plenty of surface area

Attractive

Not durable

Snags on small tangles

Abrasive on the scalp

I'm Brigitt Earley, a lifestyle writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience testing all different types of beauty products. I have thick, slightly wavy (but often straightened) brown hair that currently lands right at my collarbone. (Though, I had hair well past the middle of my back for the majority of my life.) Having a quality hair brush—one that smoothes hair without excessive tugging—has always been a necessity for me. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of hair brushes and typically reach for the Wet Brush, but if I’m being honest, I’ve never found anything I couldn’t live without. So I wondered: Was there a unicorn out there?

We combed through best-seller lists across retailers, beauty blogs, social media, and other best-of lists to find the best hair brushes on the market. Then, we put each of the hair brushes to the test, on both dry and wet hair, pitting the hair brushes from top-rated brands against one another to find a winner.

The testing process was simple: I ran all of the hair brushes through my entire head of hair twice—once when my hair was dry and once when my hair was wet. I also brushed my dry hair back into a ponytail to test how well each hair brush could smooth strands while styling my hair. I evaluated the build and aesthetic of the hair brushes as well. When I finished testing, I teamed up with Reviewed’s team of scientists to score and weigh the results on a scientifically calibrated rubric.

During the process, I answered the following questions about the hair brushes:

The Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush (top), Wet Brush Original Detangler (center), and Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Brush (bottom) brushes were the best hair brushes we tested.

When it comes to hair brushes, there are a couple of things you should know that may influence your purchasing decision:

There are many different types of hair brushes out there, from vented paddle brushes and round thermal brushes to small teasing brushes and wide-tooth combs.

In our quest to find the best hair brushes, we only considered paddle brushes made of boar bristles, nylon bristles, or a combination of both. We also selected hair brushes meant simply for brushing hair—not for blow drying or creating specific hairstyles. That said, it was a bonus if a hair brush styled my hair in a ponytail with ease. These hair brushes are good everyday choices, rather than specialty options. Below is an in-depth look at each type of bristle and their respective functions:

Boar bristles: Known for their coarse, rough texture, boar bristles are designed to distribute oils on the scalp in addition to sloughing away dead skin cells and other particles of residue that may claim residence on the scalp. These bristles tend to cling onto stray hairs and product buildup, making them somewhat difficult to clean. When tested, the boar bristles on the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush were able to rid my scalp of dandruff and product buildup.

Nylon bristles: Unlike their boar bristle counterparts, nylon bristles are bendable and do the job of undoing pesky knots and tangles. Furthermore, nylon bristles should not make you feel uncomfortable while freeing your hair of fussy knots and tangles. Not all nylon bristles are made the same, but as we found in our testing, some nylon bristles—like on the Conair Pro hair brush, for instance—tend to scratch at the hair and scalp.

However, nylon bristles that are equipped with tips shaped like a ball—better known as ballpoint tips—tend to provide a more comfortable hair-brushing experience (an exception to this would be the Tangle Teezer Original, which doesn’t have ballpoint tips on its nylon bristles). In addition to the Tangle Teezer Original, standout hair brushes with high-quality nylon bristles include the Wet Brush Original Detangler Hair Brush, our best for wet hair pick, and the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush, our best overall and top pick.

A high-quality hair brush (like the über-expensive Mason Pearson Hair Brush) should have a combination of boar and nylon bristles. In fact, professional hairstylists even stand by hair brushes that have a mix of both types of bristles. Having a hair brush with both boar and nylon bristles will ensure that your scalp’s natural oils will be evenly distributed throughout the head, excess buildup will be eliminated, and knots will be undone.

For styles that require additional styling beyond blow drying (i.e., beach waves, bouncy blowouts), Brendnetta Ashley, a hairstylist who also serves as a Schwarzkopf Professional Ambassador and curly and textured hair expert, suggests using a medium or large round brush, a hair brush category that is not included in this list. A round brush is a type of hair brush that gets its name from its cylindrical-shaped head.

Unlike a traditional paddle brush, these brushes' round design is supposed to make adding bounce relatively user-friendly, given that the head allows you to add volume to your hair in an instant. They usually have stiff bristles that are made to brush through every strand.

If you're looking for a round brush that has an exceptionally wide surface area for all your hairstyling needs, try the Olivia Garden Ceramic + Ion Round Thermal Hair Brush. This brush claims to be lightweight and provide what it calls "effortless styling." It’s made with "ion-charged bristles" that are supposed to be gentle on the hair and scalp, mitigate the onset of frizz, and bring shine to the strands.

Another aspect of hair brushes that should be kept top of mind is surface area. Generally speaking, thicker hair types would fare best with a hair brush that has a wide surface area, given that it allows more hair to be picked up through each pass of the brush.

Meanwhile, surface area isn’t necessarily a top concern for fine hair types since they don’t have as much hair as those with a thick hair type. That said, fine hair types can go with any type of hair brush, regardless of surface area. With thick, wavy hair, I thought the wide surface area of the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush tended to all my hair’s needs just fine.

It surprised me to see just how much the price of hair brushes can vary. But the results of our tests show that you don’t need to splurge to get a high-quality product. In fact, our top pick for the best hair brush—the Urtheone Boar Bristle Hair Brush—is one of the more affordable hair brushes we tested and rings in at a relatively affordable price of $14.99.

Our splurge pick—the Mason Pearson Hair Brush—a brush that costs nearly $250 more than our overall pick—scored just below in performance, but it ultimately landed as my fourth favorite due to its sophisticated, luxurious design. In a nutshell, you don’t have to spend over $100 to get a quality hairbrush.

If you need a new hair brush in a pinch, be sure to sign up to become an Amazon Prime member, and you’ll be able to get the brush delivered straight to your door with free shipping—all within 24 hours, and sometimes on the same day as purchase. Speedy shipping isn’t the only perk with a Prime membership. You’ll also have access to discounts on dozens of items from a variety of categories during Amazon’s biggest shopping events of the year like Prime Day, the Beauty Haul sale, and the Big Spring sale.

We’d be remiss not to point out that our best overall pick, the Urtehone Boar Bristle Hair Brush, has historically been earmarked on a myriad of occasions, including during the Big Spring Sale and right before big holidays like Valentine’s Day. That said, make sure to always be on the look out for deals on this hair brush, and your wallet (and more importantly, your hair!) will thank you for it. Shop the Best Overall pick from Urtheone at Amazon

As the one-stop shop for pretty much any beauty product you can think of, Sephora carries a small selection of some our favorite hair brushes as well. The retailer carries two of our top favorites: the Brigeo Vegan Boar Bristle Brush, our pick for Best Runner-Up, and the Drybar Super Lemon Drop, which currently holds our Most Versatile title.

With each Sephora purchase—including these two hair brushes—you can earn points by enrolling in the retailer’s Beauty Insider reward program. You can use the points to receive a Sephora gift set filled with sample sizes of beauty products across the categories of skincare, haircare, fragrance, makeup, and more. Otherwise, the points can be used towards taking a few dollars off future purchases.

Based on how much you spend at Sephora every year, the Insider program will give you a status—Beauty Insider, VIB, or Rouge—which ultimately will determine when you can participate in the Sephora Savings event, a bi-annual sale where Rouge, VIB, and Beauty Insiders can get 20%, 15%, and 10% off their purchases, respectively.

Shop the Runner-Up pick from Briogeo at Sephora

Shop the Most Versatile pick from Drybar at Sephora

Ulta stocks some of our favorite hair brushes, including the Briogeo Vegan Boar Bristle Hair Brush and the Drybar Super Lemon Drop. The retailer also carries a selection of hair brushes that fall towards the bottom of our list, such as the Tangle Teezer Original and the Pattern Beauty Shower Brush. And, of course, purchasing one of these hair brushes from Ulta will pay off in due time. The retailer also has its own rewards program called Ulta Beauty Rewards in which members can collect points to save on beauty service appointments and purchases both in-store and online.

Some perfect opportunities to use these points are at one of Ulta’s many annual savings events, such as the Spring Haul sale, and the Semi-Annual Beauty Event that typically takes place every March and September.

Ulta assigns each Beauty Rewards member a status based on how much they spend in a calendar year. Platinum members are those who spend at least $500 or more and Diamond members had to have spent at least $1200. Even if you don’t meet these spending thresholds but signed up to be a Beauty Rewards member, you’re given the status as Member Free.

Shop the Runner-Up pick from Briogeo at Ulta

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

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Brigitt Earley

Writer

Brigitt Earley is a freelance writer and editor based in NJ. Her work has appeared in a number of lifestyle publications, including Real Simple and Apartment Therapy. She’s a new mom, runs an Instagram account full of the most delicious food she can find, and loves to hate a good barre class.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.