People regularly ask me what kind of boar brush they should buy. So I thought this would be a useful list that I can reference. From my experience this page lists some of the best boar brushes. The key attributes of the best brushes are hard bristles, long lasting bristles and in my opinion nylon reinforced bristles are better than pure boar bristles. One other important attribute is widely spaced bristle groups — if the bristles are too close together and your hair is even thin to medium thickness you will struggle to brush your scalp.
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Chi Turbo Ceramic Round Vented Reinforced Boar Bristled Brush
Around $15
I’m using this brush at the moment. I’ve been using it for around three months now every day and there is very little wear. It’s almost as tough as the day I bought it. The bristles are reinforced and are sharp so they scrape your scalp quite roughly — which is good for exfoliation.
Despite the reviews of this brush saying it does not last very long, I have found this brush to hard wearing. If anyone has any comments about the production quality of the brush, please let us know in the comments. -
Mason Pearson Sensitive Brush Sb3
Around $135
This is probably one of the best brushes in the world in terms of quality of build, ease of cleaning and durability. However it is a very expensive for a brush! If you’re careful with it you could make it last a couple of years and that might make the expense worthwhile. You can see this brush has very widely spaced bristle groups, making it easy to use even if you have medium-thick hair. Although it’s designed for people with very thin hair, I would say this brush is good for people with slightly thicker hair due to the widely spaced bristles. It also comes with a cleaner.
The bristles on this brush are a little softer to reduce any possibility of hair shaft damage. However this means it’s slightly less effective as a scalp exfoliator and circulation stimulator. -
Phillips Monster Vent Mv-1 Brush Reinforced Bristles 5″ Diameter
Around $25
This is another example of a reinforced boar brush. The Phillips Monster boar brush also uses nylon to reinforce the boar bristles. This makes the bristles sturdier and harder wearing. The advantage of this brush is longer bristles, which is useful for anyone with thick hair because it means you can brush all of your hair down to your scalp (the long bristles reach through all the layers of your hair).
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Around $33
One of the advantages of this brush are the wide spacing between the bristles, making it easier to brush the hair and scalp. Boar brushes can be very difficult to pass through hair — even if the hair is average thickness. This brush has long long widely spaced bristles, which makes it easy to use but they are not tough enough to particularly energise the scalp, as vigorously as harder bristled reinforced brushes.
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Bass Professional Style Cushion 100% Wild Boar Brush
Around $15
This Wild Boar Brush is great for that hard to curl hair and even very thick hair. It also has rubber rings for more enhanced grip and control. This effectively works in a way like a curling iron or straightening iron when used with your hair dryer, only with the benefits of an all natural bristle brush. It is available with a more contemporary white nylon handle or a more traditional looking Light Wood finish handle.
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Phillips Mini Monster Vent Mmv5v 2 1/2” Brush
Around $12
This is the smaller sibling for the Phillips Monster Vent above. This is ideal for those that are perhaps looking for a smaller more compact brush. It has a vented hollow inner barrow which reduces weight making it much easier to handle. Also it has the same build quality with a handle made from polished hard wood. It of course comes with Boar natural bristles with strands of poly-tipped nylon for durability.
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Mason Pearson Pocket Size Bristle and Nylon Brush
Around $35
This brush also has the advantage of having both nylon and Boar bristles which better for regular brushing. This brush also has a pneumatic rubber cushion for a smoother brushing experience. It cleans the hair, invigorates the scalp which increases blood flow to the head making the roots stronger. This brush comes in a handy compact size, a brush that you can take anywhere.
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Diane Palm Brush, Extra Firm Reinforced Boar Bristles
Around $3.50
I used this brush for about 6 months and I have to say it’s pretty good — especially for $3.50! It only lasted about six months before the bristles started bending in at angles unfortunately, but it was a good firm tough brush while it lasted. It gives great exfoliation and blood circulation stimulation. For anyone looking for a cheap brush this is perfect. Of all the budget brushes this is the one to go for because it has firm reinforced bristles.
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Conair Bamboo Naturals Large Round Porcupine Brush
Around $25
This is an interesting brush using one of the most renewable materials on the planet, Bamboo. This gives you a nice solid brush, with the Boar bristles giving you an enhanced brushing experience with one nylon filament per bundle of Boar hair. This gives you the ultimate control for thick long hair, with its more ergonomic thick barrel.
Boar brushes are brushes made from the hairs of boars. The bristles are very tough, durable and quite rigid — although they do have some flex. They tend to be slightly sharp on the ends, partly because the bristles are very tough — at least on hard bristled boar brushes.
I use a hard bristle boar brush regularly because it is great for regularly exfoliating your scalp and promoting increased blood circulation to the scalp surface by mildly agitating the skin. But I have found that some brushes are much better than others. For example, the cheap military issue style boar brush wears out extremely quickly, where as more expensive brushes can last a lifetime. So i’ve decided to catalogue some good examples of boar brushes here on nicehair.org.
What if you want a vegan/vegetarian hards bristled brush?
Boar bristle brushes are probably the best brushes in the world for scalp exfoliation, adding hair volume and minimizing hair damage, but if you’re vegan or vegetarian you’re unlikely to want to use one. So what is the alternative? There may be an alternative in ‘cactus bristle brushes’, although I’m yet to try these out yet. I’ve just ordered one, so I’ll give it a try and post up my findings to nicehair.org in the coming weeks.
Update: My cactus brush arrived and I immediately tested it. Unfortunately I found the bristles are far too close together making it impossible to brush my hair. I’ll provide a more detailed post on this and what cactus brushes to use for your hair, scalp exfoliation and stimulation at a later date.
Want to Learn More About Boar Bristle Brushes?
This video gives a great introduction to the benefits of boar bristle brushes, why they’re particularly favored by professionals and how to use them.
The bottom line
Get a reinforced hard bristle boar bristle brush with widely spaced bristle groups — it’s probably the best type of brush you can use for your hair. It doesn’t need to be expensive. Make sure you wash your brush regularly to remove built up dead skin cells. Only use the brush on dry hair.
