Why You Shouldn't Brush Wavy Hair

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When I first discovered that my hair was naturally wavy and found the curly girl method, I was confused by hearing “Do not brush wavy hair!”. I had spent my whole life brushing my hair after getting out of the shower, and at the start of each day, at minimum.

I also grew up hearing things like “Your hair is a mess, it needs brushed!” So, I thought of brushing your hair as an essential part of taking care of your hair and keeping it from looking bad.

For those of you who are where I was a few years ago, I wanted to dive deeper into why you shouldn’t brush wavy hair. Hopefully, this will help you understand the benefits of not brushing wavy hair.

Why You Shouldn’t Brush Wavy Hair

Brushing naturally wavy hair can flatten it or pull it straight. Similar to how a curl is made by twisting a lot of hairs around a curling iron to form 1 curl, natural waves are made up of large groups of hair. Brushing or combing hair will separate the hairs, destroying the wave. 

Wavy hair is often more delicate than curly hair, so it has to be treated gently to avoid destroying waves. Even curly hair can sometimes be flattened, pulled straight, or made “poofy” if brushed or combed.

I find the visualization of using a curling iron helpful. When a straight-haired person using a curling iron to make a single curl, they wrap hundreds of hair around the iron to make 1 curl. Natural curls and natural waves work the same way. 100+ hairs with the same pattern will create a group that becomes 1 wave.

If you brush or comb your hair (or even rake your fingers through your hair) this will break your waves apart making them skinnier and potentially more fragile. Many people with wavy hair don’t know they have wavy hair until they stop brushing it. Brushing makes that big of a difference in hair pattern!

Brushing wavy hair disrupts your gel or mousse

Most people with naturally wavy hair will choose to use gel or mousse to help preserve their natural texture longer. If you brush your hair when it has gel or mousse in it, you’ll lose many of the benefits that the gel or mousse had to offer.

Products with hold try to help hold your waves together, but a brush can force them apart. Gel and mousse try to assist with frizz, but brushing will introduce more frizz.

Brushing introduces POOF.

I did a whole blog post about how to make your wavy hair less poofy. It’s no coincidence that this post talked about brushing or combing wavy hair pretty high up! For years I thought my hair was straight but frizzy and poofy. That’s just what happens when you brush wavy hair.

Brushing wavy hair doesn’t fix frizz. 

When people with straight hair get a bit of frizz, it’s often because their hairs aren’t well aligned. So re-aligning them with a brush or a comb fixes the frizz. This is why straight-haired people often ask people with wavy or curly hair why they don’t just brush their hair to help with fizz. I did a post on my other blog that showed before and after brushing wavy hair to help show why it’s not a great idea!

If you’re struggling with frizz, these other posts of mine can help!

What causes frizzy wavy hair

How to fix frizzy wavy hair

When you can brush wavy hair

The strictest form of the curly girl method recommends never brushing or combing your hair with anything other than your fingers. As I went into more detail in on my  How To Fix Tangled Wavy Hair post, I think most people with wavy hair will want to use a brush or a comb while in the shower.

It can be really tough, even seemingly impossible, to get tangles worked through with just your fingers. Many people make a slight modification to the curly girl method for themselves, for the sake of being able to comb or brush out tangles in the shower. Typically this is done while conditioner is in their hair, to reduce friction and try to do as little damage as possible while detangling.

Even though my hair is not tangle-prone anymore, I like to use a wide tooth comb while in the shower. It’s just nice to get my hair sorted and aligned. Others choose to use Denman or other brushes while in the shower to de-tangle. My post about fixing tangles has some other specific brush and comb recommendations.

The other main way that wavy or curly haired people will use a brush is to distribute product evenly throughout their hair. The most common type of brush for this use is a Denman brush. People will add in their leave-in conditioner, then brush with the Denman to distribute it evenly. Then add-in their gel and brush it again, etc.

Another way that some people modify the curly girl method to brush their hair, is for assisting with curl clumping during the styling phase. They’ll use a Denman brush to section their hair and apply tension in a way to help enhance their curls. When done around the whole head, this can create really evenly sized curl-clumps, and encourage waves or curls to form in the same direction, as well.

For a while I was using advice from this Manes By Mell video that recommended using a Denman brush to style.  I found that it was really helpful for making the back of my head less of a mess. However, it caused my clumps to be smaller and a bit more stretched out. I suspect this routine is a better option for tighter or more self-supporting waves than what I have.

I enjoyed doing it to experiment though. Ultimately, I think so many aspects of wavy hair care come down to learning what works for your specific hair through trial and error.

Is it unhygienic to not brush your hair?

I think this question gets danced around, but is in the back of the minds of people when they first learn that most people with textured hair don’t’ brush it. I think it’s part of hearing ‘your hair is a mess, go find your brush’ type sentiments as kids. Many of us grew up associating brushing hair with part of a regular hygiene routine.

It’s not dirty to not brush your hair. Brushing hair doesn’t clean it in any way. It may help pull out hairs that have shed from the scalp. However, there is no harm in these staying in your hair until you brush your hair in the shower on your next wash day.

If you’re new to learning how to embrace your naturally wavy hair, here are some more blog posts that you may be interested in:

How to get naturally wavy hair to last longer

How to fix stringy wavy hair

Does wavy hair need gel?