Brush vs. comb - does it really matter?

Some beardsmen find it hard to get into the groove of maintaining their beard.  This can come down to the lack of care factor, or time, but more often than not it's because guys just don't really know where to start when it comes to maintaining a beard.  

A fundamental part of good beard grooming is brushing / combing your beard.  Regularly brushing the beard stimulates the hair follicles, promoting a heartier and healthier. 

Just like with head hair, brushing / combing should be done on a regular basis.  In addition to making the beard look damn good, it also helps to spread the natural oils through the hair, in turn providing much needed oil to the skin beneath.  So if you're struggling with a dry, course beard or dry skin beneath your beard, it's essential that you start brushing and/or combing your beard.  

So then the question arises - brush vs comb. And does it even matter?

Before deciding which one is right for you, it's important to understand what you should be looking for in either a beard brush or comb, as well as the benefits of each.  There are a huge range of brushes and combs on the market, with a big price difference.  So we've set out some of our our key recommendations below.

Beard Brushes

We recommended using a good quality boar's hair brush. Boar's hair is better than synthetic as it has a natural ability to trap any oils into the brush hairs, allowing more even distribution around your beard.  

Regular brushing will not only help to evenly distribute the oils throughout your beard / skin, it will also help to train your hair follicles to grow in the same direction. 

Surely you've seen that ungroomed beard with hairs growing in all directions? Chances are - that beard won't be getting it's regular grooming shesh. Regular brushing is particularly useful for those growing the almighty mo too - it will help the hairs to grow in uniform.

If you have a shorter beard, we would recommend our BEARDED Beard Brush.  Made with all natural boar's bristles, this beard brush will help stimulate the natural oils beneath your beard. It will also assist in spreading beard oils / balms evenly throughout your beard hair.  The bristles are soft enough to not irritate the skin, but strong enough to get to the base of the beard hairs to dislodge any dry, flaky skin!

Another option is Beardbrand's Boar's Hair Brush. The surface of each bristle is scaly and draws dust and excess product from the hair as you use it. The bristles also stimulates the natural oils (sebum) present in the scalp, and draws them along the hair shafts, essential for keeping hair clean, healthy, shiny, and protected. Its bristles are slightly stiffer than the BEARDED Brush - so would be ideal for those with thicker or longer beards.

Beard Combs

If you've already Googled "beard combs" you'll see that there are thousands of options available. But buyer beware - a bad quality beard comb can have detrimental affects on your beard, resulting in frizzy beard hairs that are split at the ends.

Beard combs are more suited for longer beard hair. They help to detangle the longer beard hair and also assist in the styling of it too! 

A good quality comb will have evenly spread teeth across the comb to allow your beard hair to glide through.  The teeth will also be rounded and cut in such a way to ensure they don't give your beard hair split ends.

Brush vs Combs

In short, it's up to you! It really comes down to what you're wanting to get out of your beard.  If you're going for a fuller, more natural looking beard then a brush would probably work best for you.  Same goes if you want to tame your growth and retain stray hairs.  But if you're wanting more detailed maintenance on a longer beard ( e.g. for styling), then a comb would be your best pick.  A comb will also help you with any regular trimming that might be required (for example to your mo).  

Our advice - get both!