You've Been Brushing Your Hair Wrong This Entire Time, Experts Say

You'd think something we do as frequently as brushing our hair is something we'd have nailed by this age - but it turns out we've been doing the task all wrong.

And what's worse, our bad brushing habits are causing severe damage our locks.

Combing too hard, ripping out knots and using the wrong brush are leaving us with longterm damage to our hair - and millions of women are doing it.

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According to a new study of 2000 women, one in four of us are worrying about the damage we're doing to our hair.

Diving into the specifics, a fifth of women believe its ok to 'roughly' brush their hair to tear through the knots and tangles, while more than a fifth share their hairbrush with others.

Half of the women asked admit to brushing their hair from the scalp downwards, which is considered a huge no-no in the hair world.

Shaun Pulfrey, founder of Tangle Teezer, who conducted the survey, said: "It's worrying to see just how many women are brushing their hair incorrectly and causing unnecessary damage to their hair.

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"No matter what the hair texture, it's important to use an intelligent hairbrush which is gentle.

"It's also concerning that women are using one brush for all tasks, a good way to look at this is you wouldn't use a foundation brush to apply blusher, so why use a detangling brush to blow dry hair?

"No matter how tempting it is to pull or cut knots, it's always best to use a detangling hairbrush."

The study also found most women (three quarters in fact) admitted to using the same hairbrush for all types of haircare, such as combing when wet, detangling and blowdrying.

While the biggest haircare concerns for women, were found to be split ends (40 per cent), frizz (34 per cent) and thinning (29 per cent).

Tangle Teezer has listed the main ways women are brushing their hair wrong while also making a short quiz to identify if you're a culprit.

1. Avoiding brushing when it's wet over fears this will break the hair
2. Brushing too hard
3. Brushing from the scalp downwards
4. Using an old and worn hairbrush
5. Using a hairbrush that isn't specifically for detangling
6. Sharing a hairbrush
7. Ripping out big knots / tangles
8. Not using a hairbrush specifically for their hair type
9. Using a hairbrush that doesn't have flexible teeth / bristles
10. Using one hairbrush for everything

Anyone else seeeriously going to be changing their ways from now on?

Topics: Beauty, Hair

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance writer working for Tyla. After graduating with an English Lit and Media degree from the University of Sussex, Ciara held jobs at GLAMOUR and Yahoo Style before packing up for a solo travelling trip around South America.

@ciarasheppard