Hair Dryer Brush Dos and Don’ts

A hair dryer brush is a 2-in-1 beauty tool that styles and dries your hair in one step, giving you a polished at-home blowout. Its bristles detangle and smooth your strands while heat dries them for salon-level results. To ensure your strands stay healthy while styling, coat your hair in a heat protectant spray before using it. And remember to spritz on some hairspray afterward to set your style. It’s a hybrid of a blow dryer and a brush A hair dryer brush combines two beauty products, a blow dryer and a brush, to create waves, curls or a smooth, straight blowout in one easy step. Its popularity is largely thanks to TikTok videos and reviews from beauty experts. However, it can also cause damage to your hair if used incorrectly. To help protect your strands, you should always coat your hair with a heat protectant before styling and let it partially air dry before using a hair dryer brush. You should also avoid brushing firmly or brushing too fast. In addition, it is a good idea to use a blow dryer brush that has multiple heat and speed settings. This blow dryer brush has a wide range of heat and speed settings, including a cool setting to seal the cuticle and reduce frizz. It is also lightweight and comes with a detangling paddle and a mix of nylon and boar-style bristles to smooth out flyaways. It’s easy to use Hair dryer brushes have become a beauty industry staple, and it’s no wonder—they save us time by eliminating the need to separately use a brush and a blow dryer. But they can also cause damage if used improperly, so it’s important to know the dos and don’ts. TZR spoke to two stylists to get the scoop on how to properly use this tool to achieve that fresh-from-the-salon look at home. During our lab tests, this model from Revlon won the best overall score for its smoothing abilities. Its dual bristles detangle and style while a trio of heat settings lets you calibrate the temperature for your hair thickness, and its ionic technology helps reduce frizz and flyaways. Plus, at just over 1 pound, it’s one of the lightest hair dryer brushes on our list. Pro Tip: When using the hair dryer brush, it’s best to start on wet hair. This prevents strands from over-drying, which is a major cause of damage. To avoid this, make sure to use a heat protectant and only begin drying when your hair is partway dry. It’s safe While hair dryer brushes deliver heat to your strands, they’re not necessarily damaging, says Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab pros. They’re especially safe if you coat your hair with a heat protectant, which acts as a barrier between the hot tool and the strands and helps retain moisture. Christen adds that you should also look for a brush with bristles that are either nylon or tufted, as they’re less likely to pull and snag your strands. He also prefers a ceramic barrel, which promotes even heating to prevent damage. But like any hot tool, it’s important to use them correctly. First, make sure your hair is at least 80 percent dry before using the brush. Soaking wet strands can snag and rip at the bristles, leading to hair breakage over time. And be sure to clean the brushes regularly with shampoo, which keeps them smelling fresh and looking new. Also, avoid washing the brushes with water or using soap on them, as this can cause them to get waterlogged and damage the motor. It’s damaging Like any hot tool that exposes hair to high heat for extended periods of time, the hair dryer brush can be damaging if not used properly. The bristles on these brushes can snag and pull at strands, which can lead to hair breakage over time. Additionally, using a hair dryer brush on sopping wet hair doubles the amount of time the strands are exposed to the hot tool and increases the risk for damage. GH Beauty Lab experts recommend coating the brush in a heat protectant before using it and waiting until your hair is at least partially dry to use the hair dryer brush. Claire Sullivan is a senior beauty and commerce editor who has been writing about beauty products for years, including volumizing shampoos and wavy hair products. She has also written for magazines such as WWD and Footwear News. She has extensive experience with testing products for efficacy and ease of use. She worked closely with Danusia Wnek, a senior chemist in the Beauty, Health & Sustainability Lab, to research and test this product.