Slowly but surely, I am collecting all the items that normal girls have. I am proud to say that I now have both a flat iron and a hair dryer. I have some gunk to put in my hair, as well. After talking to other ladies*, I've found out that barrel brushes are a pretty standard member of the lady's arsenal. Not one to be unprepared, I bought a Conair barrel brush not too long ago. It's been a fun journey.
Previously, my only experience with any barrel brush** was one that I got in a hair care set when I was in middle school. It was one of those sets that comes with three different types of combs and two different brushes. The set was teal, very pretty. That little barrel brush was quite dangerous, however. I managed to wrap my hair around it, but I didn't tell anyone. Instead, I just slowly extricated myself from the brush. After that, the brush and I were mortal enemies. I wouldn't even keep it in my room. I knew it was evil.
Fast forward to October of last year. I had gone to a few salons recently, and my favorite, Salon Edge in North Myrtle Beach, clued me in to how useful the barrel brush could be. The awesome stylist was kind enough to explain what she was doing and why. I find that knowing the use of all these weird hair tools is quite nice. It also makes me want to go buy stuff.
Let's return to the present day. Have you gone shopping for a hair brush lately? The choices are endless. Seriously, most stores have entire aisles dedicated to hair tools. I was in the local Target, which only gives half an aisle over to hair brushes. That, of course, still meant there were multiple versions of the barrel brush.
First, I knew I needed a larger circumference brush. This ruled out the small ones, maybe half total. Next, I knew I wanted one that looked fancy.*** That disqualified a few more, leaving me with maybe a quarter to consider.
I narrowed it down to three that I liked. The first brush was actually kind of simple. It had a wooden handle, with a mixture of bristle types. While it was simple, it seemed well crafted and pleasing to the eye. The second one was a quick drying brush and not fully round. It had little towel like tentacles that were designed to help dry hair. The third brush had retractable bristles. If you were to get your hair stuck, you could push a button on top to pull the bristles into the barrel itself, hence freeing your hair.
While I was tempted to go with the quick release brush, I decided that I wasn't going to be silly and get my hair stuck. I would not live in fear!! I put that one back. My concern with the second brush, the one with the terry type bristles amongst the regular bristles, was that it would get kind of nasty. It too went back to the shelf. This left me with the simple yet nice option, the first brush. I picked it up and rushed off to the register before I could change my mind.
Now, I didn't actually try using my new brush for a couple of weeks. I had to build up the courage, and anyone who could have watched as I tried it out the first few times wouldn't have gotten a good laugh out of it. I still can't make my hair look perfectly flipped out at the ends and such, but I am learning how to use the brush. It does help my hair to come out straighter as I blow dry it. The bristles are also forgiving, meaning that I haven't torn any of my hair out when using the brush.
While I still don't know if I'm using the brush in the manner that a salon professional would, I am happy that it is improving my opinion of my hair. I don't blow dry very often, sometimes as little as once a week. I do think it looks better than when I didn't utilize a brush at all when blow drying. It's all about the baby steps. Someday, I'm going to look like an adult!****
*I use that term loosely. My friends are much too interesting to be ladies.
**For any who are unfamiliar, a barrel brush is a round brush. It looks like a tube with bristles the whole way around.
***I'm allowed to be superficial every once in a while.
****Don't hold your breath.
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