If you follow the curly community on Reddit, TikTok or Instagram, you may have heard of brushing through your shampoo and seen some pretty impressive results. But why does it work? And how do you do it without tangling/breaking your hair?

Why brush through shampoo

Brushing through shampoo is a way to make sure the shampoo is well distributed over every strand. This is helpful especially for dense hair, as normally it can be a challenge to distribute shampoo.

This technique is mainly useful for hair more of the fine wavy side. That's because wavy hair is easily weighed down by everyday dirt and buildup. Doing a better job removing all that grime helps tighten up curls.

Why AI says to not brush through shampoo

If you found this website through search, AI might have told you not to brush through shampoo and that it will damage your hair. That's because AI is trained on conventional haircare recommendations. Most damage from brushing is caused by forcing a brush through your hair. If you use the techniques in this post, you will not be forcing the brush through your hair.

Tools for brushing shampoo

You'll want to use a brush specifically designed for wet detangling and shaping of wavy/curly hair such as the Bounce Curl brush, Denman Brush, or UNbrush.

Bounce Curl Define EdgeLift Brush

Designed specifically for detangling and shaping wavy/curly hair

Buy at Bounce Curl (CURLSBOT10 for 10% off)

Denman Brush

Classic brush for detangling and defining curls

Buy at UltaBuy on Amazon

UNbrush Detangling Hair Brush

Detangling brush for wet or dry hair

Buy at UltaBuy on Amazon

How to brush through shampoo

Don't try to brush through regular shampoo as a first step in the shower! Wet hair is very delicate and this can damage your hair. You need slip to get that brush through.

If you have slip the brush will GLIDE through your hair. If it's not gliding through it doesn't have enough slip and you should not try to brush through.

Here are two strategies for getting that much-needed slip

Strategy 1: Use a shampoo with slip

Many shampoos have conditioning ingredients that give it the same slip that conditioners have. I find that these usually have enough slip for brushing through, but may work better for wavy than curly hair.

Kristin Ess Moisture Rich Curl Shampoo

A shampoo with excellent slip for brushing through

CGM Approved

Sulfate FreeSilicone Free

Buy at UltaBuy on Amazon

Analyze with Curlsbot

Bounce Curl Pure Silk Moisturizing Shampoo

A gentle clarifying shampoo with slip when water is added and scrunched in

CGM Approved

Sulfate FreeSilicone Free

Buy at Bounce Curl (CURLSBOT10 for 10% off)

Analyze with Curlsbot

Strategy 2: Reverse shampoo-condition

I'm a big fan of reverse shampoo-condition method. In this method you condition and detangle first, then you add shampoo either without rinsing or after a quick rinse (but not so much rinse that you entirely lose the slip of the conditioner). The hair should have enough slip that you can brush the shampoo through.

If you're looking for great shampoos and conditioners, try our porosity quiz.

Don't forget to rinse

Definitely don't leave the shampoo in your hair! Make sure it's well rinsed out. I don't know what would happen if you left shampoo in but I think it would be bad.

Should you condition afterwards?

You may not need to condition after brushing through shampoo, because if you used strategy 1 then the shampoo has conditioning properties and if you did strategy 2 you already used conditioner before the shampoo. Conditioners have substantive ingredients that form enough of a bond with the hair that some will stay on even after shampooing.

Some people find their hair looks great without adding more conditioner. I personally add a lightweight leave in just to my ends, but if you have dryer high porosity hair you might want to do a full conditioning routine.

Tips for successfully brushing through shampoo