Hair care

FYI: You're Brushing Your Hair All Wrong

Upgrade your styling routine with these top hair tools that de-frizz, detangle, smooth and more

by Tiffanie Petett | 1 COMMENT

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You Want to Detangle You're Doing It All Wrong: You pull through your tangles with your trusty paddle brush, or try leave-in conditioner and detangling spray, ripping through your hair when you really need to tackle that nest. Then (once it gets painful), up in a top knot it goes.

The damage: When you rake through that tangled heap with a paddle brush, you break strands of your hair, which is like pulling a thread loose on a sweater, says Liz Cunnane-Phillips from Philip Kingsley Trichological Centre in NY. Flowers adds, "Use a wide-toothed comb or something with wide, plastic bristle to minimize damage. The most important thing is to start at bottom and work your way up. Starting from the top can increase the amount of tangles."

The fix: Tangle Teezer

How it helps: Ergonomically designed to allow a firm, wrap-around hold, giving you full control of your style. Uniquely structured teeth flex over feisty tangles without any unruly pulling or tugging. Our intern Allie admits, "Nothing sends my hair to rat's nest territory faster than lathering and rinsing. But the little brush put up a valiant effort against my tangles, and managed to get through them without causing me to tear up. I was also able to detangle my hair in about half the time it normally takes me (I scientifically measured this by seeing how far into an episode of "The Vampire Diaries" I got before my hair was smooth). Bonus: it didn't make the ends of my hair break off, something that is inevitable with other brushes."

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