Round brushes get all the attention because they shape a blow-out. The brushes in this guide do the quieter work: getting hair dry fast, detangling without breaking it, brushing a set out, and moving through thick hair without a fight. Six Avanti brushes at ProHair fall into this group, and they divide cleanly into three jobs.
The three jobs
1. Rough-drying — skeleton and tunnel vent brushes
The first 80% of drying should be done fast, with air, and with as little tension as possible. A brush built for this is mostly holes: the frame exists to separate the hair and let air through it, not to smooth anything.
The Avanti Large Skeleton Brush is the pure version — an open frame with ball-tipped bristles, where airflow through the body is the entire design. It is the brush you use between towel-drying and picking up a round brush, and using one properly shortens a blow-out more than any dryer upgrade will.
The Avanti Large Tunnel Vent Brush does the same job with a solid back. The tunnel gives you the airflow; the closed back gives you something to smooth against. That makes it the better choice if you want to dry and direct at the same time — pushing a fringe into place, laying a side part — rather than simply removing water.
The Avanti Ultra Tourmaline Ceramic Vent Brush is the upgrade on both. Eight bristle rows give enough grip to actually move coarse hair rather than slide over the top of it, and the ceramic and tourmaline in the body means it behaves like a thermal tool under the dryer — holding some heat, contributing to the ionic effect that keeps frizz down. If your hair is thick or coarse and a normal vent brush feels like it is doing nothing, this is the one.
2. Brushing out and detangling — cushion brushes
A cushion brush has its bristles set into a flexible rubber pad rather than a rigid base. The pad gives before the bristles do. That single fact is why a cushion brush is the right tool for a sensitive scalp, for detangling, and for brushing out a set without tearing it apart.
Avanti makes three, and the differences matter:
- Ultra Oval Tourmaline Cushion Brush — the classic shape, ball-tipped nylon on a soft-rubber cushion. Narrow enough to be controllable, and the choice if most brushes feel scratchy to you. This is the daily brush for the majority of people.
- Ultra Rectangular Tourmaline Cushion Brush — the same cushion and bristle with a wider pad. A wide pad covers the length in fewer strokes, which is the entire reason to choose rectangular over oval. If your hair is long, this is the faster brush.
- Ultra Ceramic Cushion Brush with Silicone Gel Handle — a ceramic-bodied cushion brush with the same silicone grip as Avanti's gel-handle round brushes. If you have grip or wrist pain, or you are brushing out clients all day, the cushioned handle takes noticeably less force to hold through a long brush-out than a hard handle does.
3. Everything else
Two jobs these brushes should not be asked to do: shaping a blow-out (that is a thermal round brush) and drying curls (that is a diffuser, and ideally no brush at all).
Bristle types, plainly
| Bristle | What it does | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Ball-tipped nylon | Firm grip, glides through without catching, the rounded tip protects the scalp. The workhorse. | Once the balls wear off the tips, replace it — a bare nylon end scratches. |
| Plain nylon | More grip, better on thick hair that a softer bristle slides over. | Less forgiving on a tender scalp. |
| Boar or mixed boar | Fine and closely packed, distributes the hair's own oils down the strand. Maximum polish. | Struggles for grip on very thick hair on its own — a mix is better. |
Detangling without breaking hair
Most breakage in a bathroom happens with a brush, not a hot tool, and almost all of it comes from brushing from the roots down. That drags every knot in the hair into one compacted knot at the ends, and then you pull through it.
- Start at the ends. Take the bottom two inches, brush them clear, then move up two inches and repeat, working toward the scalp.
- Hold above where you are brushing. Your other hand takes the tension so the scalp does not.
- Wet hair is fragile. A cushion brush is usable on damp hair; a fine boar brush is not. If the hair is soaking and tangled, a wide-tooth comb and a detangling product come first.
- Do not force a knot. Work it apart with fingers. Every knot you rip through is a handful of strands snapped mid-length, and those are the flyaways you will be fighting in six months.
Cleaning
Pull the shed hair out of the bed weekly — the end of a tail comb makes short work of it. Once a month, swish the bristle bed (not the handle) in warm water with a drop of shampoo, rinse, shake hard and dry bristles-down so water does not sit in the cushion. A cushion brush with water trapped under the pad will eventually smell, and that is usually what people mistake for a worn-out brush.
Which to buy
- One daily brush, normal hair → Ultra Oval Tourmaline Cushion Brush
- Long hair, fewer strokes → Ultra Rectangular Tourmaline Cushion Brush
- Sore hands, or all-day use → Ceramic Cushion Brush, gel handle
- Speeding up the drying → Large Skeleton Brush
- Drying and directing together → Large Tunnel Vent Brush
- Thick or coarse hair → Ultra Tourmaline Ceramic Vent Brush, eight rows
A realistic kit for one person is two brushes: a skeleton or vent brush for drying, and a cushion brush for everything else. Add a round brush when you want shape rather than just dry.
Keep reading
The Complete Avanti Buying Guide · Thermal round brushes · Hair dryers