Does Brushing Your Hair Stimulate Hair Growth?
BY TRYBELLO
Jul 11, 2025
Key Takeaways
- Proper brushing techniques can stimulate blood flow to the scalp, potentially supporting hair growth.
- Brushing distributes natural oils throughout hair strands, improving overall hair health.
- Different hair types require specific brushes and techniques for optimal results.
- While brushing alone won't dramatically increase growth rate, it's an important part of a comprehensive hair care routine.
- Trybello's Bello Hair Helper Spray targets follicles directly with biotin, castor oil, and caffeine to stimulate actual hair growth at the source, delivering visible thickness in as little as 4 weeks with a 120-day money back promise.
Hair Brushing Myths Debunked
❝Perhaps the most persistent myth is the idea that 100 brush strokes per day will stimulate hair growth.
This Victorian-era beauty advice has somehow survived into the modern age, despite lacking scientific support. In reality, excessive brushing can cause friction that damages the hair cuticle, leading to breakage and split ends, precisely the opposite of what you want for hair growth.
❝Another common misconception is that brushing alone can dramatically change your hair growth rate.
Your hair grows from follicles beneath the scalp, with the visible hair being essentially "dead" protein structures. No amount of external stimulation to the hair shaft itself can alter its growth rate, though there are indirect benefits to proper brushing that we'll explore.
❝Many also believe that expensive brushes automatically deliver better results.
While quality matters, the right brush for you depends more on your specific hair type and condition than its price tag. Understanding your hair's unique needs is far more important than investing in luxury hair tools with dubious claims.
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The Science Behind Hair Growth
Each hair on your head follows a predetermined growth cycle with four distinct phases: anagen (growth), catagen (transition), telogen (resting), and exogen (shedding). This cycle is primarily controlled by genetics, hormones, and overall health—not by how often you brush.
The hair growth cycle has 4 phases that are not influenced by how often you brush your hair (image courtesy of Healthline).
Hair Growth Cycle
During the anagen phase, which lasts 2–7 years for most people, hair cells in the follicle divide rapidly, creating the hair shaft that pushes up through the skin.
The catagen phase is a short transitional stage where growth stops and the follicle shrinks. During the telogen phase, the hair rests before eventually shedding in the exogen phase to make way for new growth.
At any given time, about 90% of your hair is in the anagen phase, which explains why we don't lose all our hair at once.
This biological process happens beneath the scalp's surface, where brushing has no direct influence. However, the health of your scalp environment can indirectly affect how efficiently this cycle functions.
Factors Affecting Growth
Genetics plays the most significant role in hair growth, determining your maximum potential growth rate and hair characteristics.
Diet and nutrition provide the building blocks for new hair cells, with proteins, vitamins, and minerals being particularly important. Hormonal balance affects how long hair remains in the growth phase, which is why conditions like thyroid disorders or pregnancy can change hair growth patterns.
Stress levels, age, medications, and overall health conditions all influence hair growth as well. While brushing can't override these fundamental factors, it can help optimize your scalp environment to support the growth process.
Role of Blood Circulation
Here's where brushing starts to show potential benefits. Your hair follicles receive nutrients through blood vessels in your scalp. Better circulation means more nutrients delivered to the follicles, potentially supporting healthier growth. Gentle brushing stimulates blood flow to the scalp, similar to how massage increases circulation to tissues.
Studies have shown that scalp massage, which creates similar stimulation to gentle brushing, may increase hair thickness by stretching the cells of hair follicles and stimulating them to produce thicker hair.
However, it's important to note that this effect is modest and works best as part of a comprehensive approach to hair care rather than a standalone solution.
Brushing Effects on Hair
While brushing won't directly accelerate hair growth, it offers several benefits that contribute to healthier hair.
Scalp Stimulation Benefits
Proper brushing creates gentle stimulation of the scalp, which may help activate hair follicles. This mechanical action increases blood circulation to the scalp, delivering oxygen and nutrients that support follicle health.
Some trichologists believe this improved blood flow can help maintain the anagen (growth) phase of the hair cycle, potentially extending the active growing period.
Oil Distribution
One of the most significant benefits of brushing is the distribution of natural oils (sebum) from your scalp throughout the length of your hair. Your scalp produces these oils to protect and condition your hair naturally, but they tend to concentrate near the roots.
Brushing helps move these beneficial oils down the hair shaft, providing natural conditioning and protection against dryness and breakage.
Damage Risks
Despite its benefits, improper brushing can cause considerable damage. Aggressive brushing, especially when hair is wet and vulnerable, can stretch hair strands beyond their elastic limit, causing breakage, split ends, and cuticle damage.
The friction generated by over-brushing can wear down the protective outer layer of the hair shaft, making it prone to moisture loss and environmental damage too.
Brushing from roots to ends with force can also cause hair to snap, particularly at weak points in the strand. This damage accumulates over time, potentially leading to thinner-looking hair and shorter lengths.
Best Hair Brushing Techniques
Wet vs. Dry Hair
Hair is at its most vulnerable when wet, as water weakens the hydrogen bonds that give hair its strength. Using a regular brush on soaking wet hair can cause significant breakage and damage.
Instead, use a wide-tooth comb or a brush specifically designed for wet hair, starting at the ends and working your way up gradually to detangle without pulling or breaking strands. If you must detangle wet hair, apply a leave-in conditioner or detangling spray first to reduce friction and ease the process.
For maximum growth support, focus your more vigorous brushing sessions on dry hair. Dry brushing allows you to stimulate the scalp more effectively without risking as much damage to the hair shaft.
Brushing Direction
The direction of your brushing strokes can significantly impact both scalp stimulation and potential damage. For optimal scalp blood flow, occasionally brush from the nape of your neck toward the crown, going against the typical growth direction. This technique, sometimes called "inversion brushing," may increase circulation to follicles.
However, for regular detangling and styling, brush in the direction of hair growth from roots to ends to minimize cuticle damage and prevent unnecessary pulling.
Frequency Guidelines
Contrary to old-fashioned advice about 100 strokes daily, most hair types benefit from moderate brushing, once or twice daily is typically sufficient.
Oily hair types may benefit from slightly more frequent brushing to distribute sebum and prevent buildup at the roots. Dry or curly hair types generally need less frequent brushing to avoid disrupting natural curl patterns and causing frizz.
Choosing the Right Brush
Natural Bristle Brushes
Boar bristle brushes remain the gold standard for distributing natural oils throughout your hair. These brushes work by gently gripping the hair and carrying sebum from the roots to the ends, providing natural conditioning. The bristles also effectively remove dust, lint, and product buildup without damaging the hair cuticle.
Synthetic Options
Nylon bristle brushes with ball-tipped ends help prevent scalp scratching while still providing adequate detangling power. These brushes often work well for thicker or more textured hair that might resist natural bristles.
Vented brushes with widely-spaced plastic bristles allow for quicker drying when used with a blow dryer, reducing heat exposure time. While these may not provide the oil-distribution benefits of natural bristles, they can minimize heat damage, which is crucial for retaining length and strength.
Specialized Brushes
For specific scalp stimulation, consider brushes designed explicitly for this purpose. Scalp massaging brushes with silicone bristles can be used in the shower to enhance shampoo distribution while providing gentle exfoliation of the scalp. This helps remove dead skin cells that might block follicles and impede healthy growth.
Real Hair Growth Solutions
Nutrition Impact
What you eat has a far more significant impact on hair growth than any external brushing routine.
Hair follicles require adequate protein, vitamins, and minerals to produce strong, healthy hair. Focus on incorporating plenty of leafy greens, nuts, seeds, lean proteins, and whole grains into your diet to provide the building blocks your follicles need.
Herbal Remedies
Several natural remedies show promise for supporting healthy hair growth when used consistently. Botanicals like saw palmetto, castor oil, and ginseng have shown preliminary benefits in supporting hair thickness and growth in various studies.
Some of these ingredients can be found in specialized hair growth products like Trybello Hair Helper Spray, or used in diluted essential oil form for scalp massage, potentially enhancing the benefits of regular brushing.
Essential Oils
Certain essential oils like lavender oil, rosemary oil, and tea tree oil have traditional uses for scalp health and may support a healthier environment for hair growth. Always dilute essential oils properly in a carrier oil like jojoba or coconut oil before applying to the scalp to prevent irritation.
A few drops of your chosen oil blend massaged into the scalp before gentle brushing can potentially enhance circulation while providing additional botanical benefits to the follicles.
Trybello's Holistic Approach to Hair Growth Beyond Brushing
While brushing provides valuable maintenance benefits, it simply cannot address the fundamental biological processes that control actual hair growth rates. This is why we developed our Bello Hair Helper Spray to work where growth actually happens—at the follicle level beneath your scalp.
Our hair spray delivers powerful nutrients to stimulate hair growth from the follicles.
Trybello Hair Helper Spray’s unique formulation acts like a targeted nutrition system for your hair roots. These are some of the powerful ingredients found in our hair spray:
- Biotin serves as the essential building block for keratin synthesis.
- Castor Oil contains ricinoleic acid that moisturizes the scalp and removes dry, flaky scalp.
- Caffeine penetrates directly to follicle cells to extend the active growth phase and awaken dormant hair production sites.
By applying once or twice daily to clean, towel-dried scalp with gentle circular massage motions, you can experience measurable improvements in your hair thickness and density in as little as 4 weeks, not just the appearance of healthier hair that good brushing provides.
We’re so confident in our product that we’re offering a 120-day growth guarantee; get a full refund if you don’t see results!
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