As a stylist, your brushes are some of your most important tools at the chair. However, not all of us take proper care of these essential tools (or even know how), even though high-quality brushes can sometimes be a costly investment. How long should your brushes last? And how do you get them to last that long?

We asked Joel Calfee, Director of Education at Wet Brush, creators ofThe Original Detangler, for his top tips for getting the most out of your brushes at the chair. Here’s what he said:

Tip #1:  Clean Your Brush

Cleaning your brush after each client is not only a required practice, it also ensures your brush cushion will be flexible and supple to give you the easiest and most pain-free detangling experience behind the chair. Build-up of products, skin cells, and oils can have hardening effect on your brush cushion. Not to mention they transfer onto to freshly styled hair (yuck!). 

Tip #2:  Proper Storage

Haphazardly throwing your brushes into a drawer could contribute to an early demise. Avoid storing your brushes face down when they’re not in use and be careful not to crush them with anything on top of them. Instead, try storing them on their sides facing each other with your brush heads alternating on either end.

Tip #3:  Proper Usage

Like most tools, there are right and wrong ways to use brushes—the same goes for your Wet Brush. Each style of Wet Brush has a design function to maximize your efforts. The Pro Detangler is best for wet or dry detangling at the chair or mirror; the FlexDry should be your go-to for drying with heat; the Pro Shine Enhancer is designed for dry styling, smoothing, and refreshing hair. 

Tip #4:  Sanitation & Disinfection

Brushes need to be sanitized and disinfected after each use behind the chair. To get the longest lifespan out of your cushion-backed brushes, avoid soaking them. Instead, wash them while holding them sideways to sanitize and avoid moisture and contaminants getting trapped within the brush. To disinfect, spray them with an industry approved disinfectant ensuring they stay wet for the length of time required by the manufacturer. Alternatively, a UV light sanitizing apparatus can be employed to disinfect brushes after cleaning. 

Tip #5:  Get a NEW BRUSH

This tip has more to do with effectiveness than lifespan. At some point you need to replace your brushes. Like a toothbrush being used every day, they lose their effectiveness after prolonged usage. And depending to how often you use a certain brush or how you use it, that timeframe could be between 6-8 months behind the chair. A good rule of thumb is to replace your brushes twice a year.  Setting a semi-annual brush refresh in January/July ensures peak performance all year round. And with all the fashion forward prints, patterns, and colors available from Wet Brush, you can also be certain that your brushes will look just as amazing at your station as the hair you create with them.

Wet Brush is giving us another reason to take good care of our brushes: The brand recently announced a new customization feature available exclusively on WetBrush.com. Users can now take their hair routine to the next level by creating a one-of-a-kind Wet Brush design that they can share with family, friends, clients, teammates—the opportunities are endless.

Branded “Wet Brush Your Way,” consumers now can express themselves via a custom design on their iconic Wet Brush Original Detangler®. Creating a personalized brush starts with choosing one of five color options: black, pink, purple, sky blue, and marble white. From there, they can unleash their creativity to enhance the design with text, icons, and imagery using the library of fonts and emojis available on WetBrush.com, or by uploading their own artwork or logo. You design, Wet Brush does what it does best: detangles.

“At Wet Brush, we are always dreaming big to find ways to deliver the best products and experience to our community,” says Melissa Ayers, VP Brand Strategy & Growth for Wet Brush. “We often hear from consumers who love Wet Brush so much that they collect multiple brushes at a time. The combination of our exclusive Intelliflex® bristles that effortlessly glide through hair and our trend-forward designs, makes our brushes an extension of people’s individuality. Wet Brush Your Way is the next step. Whether you’re planning for a family reunion, milestone birthday, bachelorette party, or just want something that’s uniquely yours, Wet Brush is there to celebrate you.”

The perfect group gift for special events, sports teams, and more—customers can choose from quantities of 5, 10, 25, 50, or 100 units ranging in price from $125-$1,100. This feature will be available exclusively on WetBrush.com just in time for the 2023 holiday rush.