Mason Pearson nylon brush has wrecked my daughter's hair..

[painterly]

I'm a bit cross about this. I've always wanted one of these brushes and was bought one for Christmas. My daughter has thick wavy hair and has always struggled to find a brush that will not hurt when brushing. She got very excited about my brush, tried it and found it didn't hurt. So she used it daily and within a month I realised it had started clumping, dreadlock style, on the top surface of her hair.

I am still struggling to sort it out with comb and conditioner, a knot per night as it is so tangled. The hair is really damaged and looks like it has split along the shaft. I'm now going to have to give her quite a vigorous haircut (it's currently below her shoulder blades and the damage is at ear level).

Has anyone else experienced this? Should I contact them with photos?

Can you take her to a hairdresser for advice? Sounds awful and sore on her too having the knots combed out.

I've Mason Pearson brushes, but they are bristle and nylon, or just bristle (I think).

I haven't had this problem. Nor has my dd, who has very long hair

The opposite, in fact: I think they're very good.

How old is your dd? Was she brushing her own hair? Is she brushing properly?

I know it might sound odd but she may not know how to brush properly. I still brush dd's hair, though I do let her have a go at brushing her hair, and she is quite old. It's a skill. Really. My dh has short hair, and has always had short hair, and he is unbelievably clown-like if he tries. He just doesn't seem to get that you start with a small section, near the bottom, then work on sections until you can brush cleanly from top to bottom.

I have a dd with waist length medium thick hair, and we find that the M/P is the best brush in terms of comfort (less ouch-y, if you see what I mean) but the bristles are not really long enough to penetrate through to the scalp and thus get all the knots out. So we do the first brush with the M/P, and then when a lot of the knots out, do a second run with the tangle teaser. She is 10 and mainly does her own hair, but I give it a good brush through every 3 days or so.

Brush/comb from the bottom not the top. Work up a bit at a time. This really does work on tangled hair.

Thanks for all your responses. Yes she does brush it by herself and yes, she does start at the top and drag it all the way to the bottom. The thing is when she was brushing, the hair looked fine and well brushed (as much as a 5 yr old can do), but then after a week or so the matting started and the actual hair fibres look like they've been shredded. I think I'm going to cut it off as short as I dare and maybe take a pic to show a hairdresser. Her hair is very similar to mine, but in all my years of dying/straightening/backcombing I have never, ever seen damage like it! Maybe she was just brushing wrong, but still, 'amazing' hairbrushes surely shouldn't be able to damage your hair in a way the cheap ones can't?!

I don't think she was brushing her hair at all to get it matted like that. A hair brush just doesn't do damage like that - it's caused by a large tangle that hasn't been untangled and has been left to get bigger, then torn at (possibly with fingers) to get it out. Probably aided by the inclusion of something sticky somewhere along the line.

Natural bristle hairbrushes are best for long, thick hair. MP ones are very good, whatever the bristle.

In future maybe comb her hair through first to make sure there are no large tangles then leave her to do the brushing bit.

If she has hair that knots easily have you tried using a Tangle Teezer (can be bought in Boots)?

My daughter has hair nearly to her waist and would seriously struggle to allow anyone brush her hair until we got one of these. We start at the roots and work the knots out down through the hair. Brilliant invention (and one I believe the Dragons passed up on)

If you do try one and you find an improvement in the quality of your daughters hair, then you will know that it is from the other brush that her hair was getting damaged (so long as nothing else changes in her diet/shampoos etc)

i think at 5 you should have been brushing her hair after her own attempts each morning and night TBH. especially with thick wavy hair and why did you continue to let her use it for a month if you noticed teh matting afetr a week?

I find the Tangle Tamer the best brush for DD1's and my thick long wavy hair. It has been life changing!

I'd try washing it and leaving an intensive conditioner on then trying to comb it through with the conditioner on, then rinsing. Apply a serum like Frizz Ease before drying. Only brush the hair while it is dry. Then take her for a good haircut - may not need to be as drastic as you think, probably just taking an inch off will sort it out.

Thank you for your replies. She has a tangle teaser and was using it up until now when she spotted my MP. I had to detangle the large knots so used conditioner and a comb, starting carefully from the bottom and working to the top. I keep finding it reknots as it is damaged. Maybe it was me doing the damage when I undid the knots? I wasn't pulling roughly but clearly I wasn't just gently combing either.

She really hates anyone going near her head and screams if it pulls at all so I had been just combing it through with conditioner when I wash it once a week and leaving it at that (this is what I do with my own hair and I never get tangles!). Brushing tends to make mine go a bit funny as I get ringlets and all sorts depending on how it dries so I wanted to do the same with her, but when she spotted the MP she decided to do the '100 brushes a day' thing.

Booyhoo I have 3 kids, one of which is only 7 mo old and is feeding non-stop so sometimes things do get left a bit longer when I'm exhausted, but I was just surprised that it has only been since she was using the MP that we started having this issue.

Thanks Fillyjonk, I defnitely think a good haircut will help and I'll be very pleased if it needs less cutting off than it seems! I've taken the MP away and we are going back to the combing with conditioner and the tangle teaser at bath time as that seemed to be working!

I think a Tangle Teezer is a bit different from a Tangle Tamer:

www.lookfantastic.com/denman-tangle-tamer/10364783.html?utm_source=googleprod&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gp_haircare&affil=thggpsad&gclid=CJLzi-D2hrYCFUTItAodRX4A3Q

This is the thing I was suggesting you should use as it is gentle on the hair shaft and it still gets the knots out:
www.lookfantastic.com/tangle-teezer-original-orange/10616769.html

Brushing is to detangle hair, nothing else. The whole Mason Pearson marketing is based on the '100 strokes a day' which will damage hair!

Just get a vent brush, start from the bottom and work your way up til no tangles.

The matting is because that style of brush is designed to glide over the top layer of hair only, not actually detangling it at all! Pointless and in my top ten of annoying products people seem bamboozled by.

Amazing Fillyjonk and Whatcha - I actually have both of these (bought by various relatives when I've complained about dealing with her hair in the past) and used to use both which must have been why we weren't having any issues. I think you have all confirmed my thoughts about the MP! Sorry to those of you who are having a better time with it. Our family hair clearly has it's own special needs. Thank you for setting me straight.

As a hairdresser I would probably agree with the others in that the cause of knots is not down to the brush. If your only washing her hair and combing the conditioner through once a week then I'd say that's the next problem. Your dd is 5 and though you have similar hair you probably don't run and bounce around a lot during the day and you prob don't touch/handle your hair in the same way a 5yo would. If you don't want to wash it more than once a week that's fine but I would prob spray a leave in conditioner daily or every other day and comb through to keep the tangles out. I highly doubt the hair is actually damaged either. When the hairs knotted the hairs cuticle doesn't lay flat and is a bit ruffled so I reckon it's prob just that and once you have managed to get the knots out give her a good shampoo and condition and it will be fine.

also, if her hair is shoulder length and hard to manage it should be put in a tight ponytail and plaited daily to stop it tangling so much.

Also plait it at night, if it's comfortable for her.

I have used MP hairbrushes since 1959 and won't hear a word said against them!

Also I think 5 is a bit young to let a child look after their own hair and not expect a head of tangles or matting. With my own dds, two of them had tangly hair and I just used to cut the worse bits off when it got really bad.

Ha! Just realised my post was completely unhelpful!

Couldn't recommend the Tangle Teezer highly enough. My dd has incredibly long, thick hair and she has used this since the Dragons rejected it - she is now 12 years old and won't use anything else. They come in great colours and we just replace it when the teeth get a bit gnarly (due to my dd's standard of care rather than quality issues!). They saved my mornings...

MP brushes don't even touch my long thick wavy hair. I have used denman brushes for decades but it's tangle teezer all the way for my girls.

Mine have straight hair one fairly thick and one fine and I find the MP really good , in fact they hate any other brush.

My ds has long hair half way down his back when wet and so curly its sholder lenght when dry. He is 5 and there is no way i would let just him brush his hair on his own because he often brushes knots into him hair rather then out.
His hair gets very knoted after a bad dream and sleeping in the car so I use a mix of pre boiled water and a squese of lush american cream conditioner in a spray bottle before brushing. Plus a dreep condition with a coconut milk (canned is great cus its thicker on top if you dont shake it) and comb it though with a wide comb/shower comb.
Fine Combing hair wet can really damage it so we avoid it at all costs.

5 is too young to brush your own hair. It's not the brush. My dd had a Mason Pearson- she called it the non- hurty brush- but it was only non hurty because it doesn't get to the underlayers unless you brush it in sections. Your dd has been smoothing the surface, but not actually brushing her hair properly.