If I had it my way, I’d run a brush through my hair and call it a day. I enjoy a long skincare and makeup routine, but styling my hair feels like a chore. Yet this ultra-low-effort approach doesn’t always pay off when it comes to curls, notoriously finicky.
Plus, curls signify much more than a mere hair type: They’re personal and political, especially for Black folks, whose hair has long been subject to discriminatory legislation and control.
Curls also engender their own language: To help guide care for curls, different categories have emerged to help chart the course. One handy guide is a numerical range, from 1a to 4c, with pin-straight hair on one end and tightly coiled curls on the other, denoting the type of curl one possesses.
This is all to say that curl care and styling vary widely, even wildly, from person to person, depending on their specific curl profile and much more.
As for me, I have dehydrated, frizzy curls that range from 2b to 3b, comprised of ringlets, loose curls, and a spattering of waves.
TikTok, Reddit, and the rest of the internet tell me I should be devoting ample time to styling my curls, incorporating multiple steps to encourage formation and definition. These methods do pay off for many adherents, yet I wholly lack the will.
Hence, my interest in curly-hair brushes. I’ve been seeking a tool that would do this work for me, taking the steps off my hands so I could glean results in less time and with less energy.
Two brushes kept coming up in my research. One was the famed Denman brush, a decades-strong stalwart that combines its carefully spaced rows of bristles with the tension of brushing to define curls while detangling wet hair.
The other was Bounce Curl’s Define EdgeLift brush, which went viral almost immediately upon release for its ability to define and volumize curls all in one tool. Designed to work as a heatless curling tool, it’s something of an all-in-one, with its side edges working to separate curls, its front end adding definition without breakage, and its top edge clumping short hair and bangs.
I put the two hairbrushes to the test for months. They both did the job but with different results: For my curls, the Denman brush produced sleeker, smoother ringlets, while the Bounce Curl amped up my curls’ volume and lifted my hair at the root, executing full, fluffy curls.
