It’s happened to most girls and ladies with long hair at least once before: your round curling brush gets stuck, hopelessly entangled, in your tresses. The more you fidget, the more you struggle, the worse it gets.
Pretty soon your ears start ringing and you start sweating: are you going to have to cut it free? It’s the stuff of nightmares, but it doesn’t have to be if you know a few tricks for freeing the brush.
I’ll tell you what to do in this article, and don’t worry: chances are it won’t hurt or damage your hair.
Step 1: Stop Yanking on the Brush!
Before you do anything else, you’ve got to stop making things worse. Stop pulling and twisting the brush! Especially once the brush gets caught up and you can’t gently tug it loose, the urge is to give it one good yank and hope that it will pop free.
This is a mistake, and if you’ve ever tried before, you already know why. It will break or pull out your hair and it will certainly hurt.
Stay calm, take your hands off the brush, and then start methodically assessing the situation. Do things the right way and it won’t even take very long to get the brush out.
Step 2: Assess the Tangle, if You Can
Depending on where you’ve gotten the brush stuck, you may or may not be able to see it and properly assess the tangle.
If you can see it, get eyes on it: is your hair wrapped around the bristles, around the base of the brush, or maybe trapped under a piece of trim or a lining? Determining the scope of the problem will help you approach it in a logical and effective way.
If you can’t see exactly where the brush has gotten tangled, use a mirror. If that’s not an option or just not working, get your hair that’s free out of the way and start tracing the hair that is caught to see if you can’t feel what the problem is.
Step 3: Get Help from a Friend or Family Member if Nearby
Chances are good the smartest thing you can do when a round curling brush gets tangled is to ask a family member or friend that you trust for help. An extra pair of hands is always helpful as is getting a new viewing angle on the issue.
They can hold the brush while you untangle or, a better option, you hold the brush and let them untangle if they know what they are doing.
No matter what happens, don’t let someone try to “help” you by jerking the brush free themselves; hilariously, one of my dear friends had her husband pull a brush out like he was trying to start up a lawn mower!
It was hilarious to hear about, but not for my friend who lost a small chunk of hair and shed more than a few tears!
Step 4: Grab a Pencil, Chopstick, or Comb Handle and Work at the Tangle
Whether you’re tackling the problem yourself or having someone help you, the best trick I’ve learned for easily and painlessly clearing a tangle is to grab a thin implement to help you.
A pencil or a thin comb handle can work, but the very best thing you can use is a chopstick or similarly sized hairpin.
You can work the narrow end of your tool under the tangles and gently but surely start backing them off and removing them. Once you get enough of them clear, you should be able to pull the brush free, but if it’s a really ugly tangle, you’ll still be able to work through all of them.
If the hair still seems stuck fast, work at it patiently and it will start to loosen up.
Step 5: Address Small Strands One at a Time, Not All At Once
Here’s another pro tip for beating a belligerent brush: find the smallest part of the tangle and get that free first. This will allow the brush to move more, which will give you, hopefully, some slack to tackle the really gnarly tangles.
Obviously, this is much easier if you can see what you are doing or if you have someone helping. If you can’t see the brush and are desperately trying to work it out yourself using your tool, attack the tangle that feels loosest first.
Step 6: If the Tangle is Bad, Apply Some Hair Oil and Try Again
If, no matter what you and your helper try, you just can’t loosen up the tangle to pull the brush out, apply hair oil all over the affected area. This will reduce friction and hopefully allow you to gently pull the brush free or start working the tangles out as before.
Coconut and argan oil are my go-to choices, but you can use any hair-safe oil you want to or even a little bit of olive oil in a pinch. If you don’t have any oil of any kind, try a leave-in conditioner.
Once again, patience is called for: apply the oil, massage it in where you can and then give it four or five minutes to fully penetrate and saturate your hair.
Once that’s done, gingerly try to pull the brush. If it’s still stuck fast, go back to work with your chopstick or other tool. It should, finally, start to loosen up in no time!
Step 7: If All Else Fails, Snip Strategically
Sadly, all of this might have failed to get the brush out of your hair. This usually doesn’t happen, despite what some people might tell you, but every now and then you might have to sacrifice a few locks to the beast.
Grab the best, sharpest scissors you have and carefully snip some of the hair that won’t come loose. For every cut you make, try to loosen the brush and remove it. With a little luck, you’ll get the worst of the culprits early on and the brush will come out.
If you can stand the embarrassment or get to them discreetly, consider heading to a stylist for an emergency consultation.
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Tom has lived and worked on farms and homesteads from the Carolinas to Kentucky and beyond. He is passionate about helping people prepare for tough times by embracing lifestyles of self-sufficiency.