When I first saw the FHI Heat UNbrush trending on TikTok last summer, it was by no means new—but it certainly was captivating. I stopped scrolling as soon as I saw videos of the brush easily gliding through even the most gnarled hair. And I wasn’t alone in my obsession: Videos tagged with #unbrushbrush have garnered over 4 billion collective views. The hollow-backed, square-headed brush was also available through TikTok Shop, so it was extraordinarily easy to buy—and after emailing a representative of the company, I learned that it’s no exaggeration to say that millions of people bought the brush within the first seven months of its TikTok Shop launch.
I was one of them.
My fine, thin hair tangles so easily that all it takes is one gust of wind to whip my hair into knots. Brushing through it has always taken time, patience, and a willingness to wince through the painful tug of a hairbrush. As a kid, I’d throw a tantrum anytime my mom would even suggest combing my hair. As an adult, I’ve learned to soldier through brushing sessions, but I’ve never enjoyed the task.
But after a lifetime of yanking cheap drugstore brushes through my hair, I finally found a brush that snagged only some of the time: the hollow-back Wet Brush, a detangling hairbrush with an oval head and flexible bristles.
My Wet Brush and I were happy enough together for nearly two years, until an endless stream of UNbrush videos started flooding my TikTok feed last summer. I watched clip after clip of folks—with all different hair types—using the UNbrush to effortlessly comb through their tangles, their mouths popping open in surprise when the brush glided through matted locks with minimal tugging. And once I saw a video of a mother brushing through her normally brush-adverse toddler’s hair with nary a teary eye in sight, I was compelled to try the UNbrush—I saw myself in that tender-scalped kid, and I owed it to my younger self to give this mesmerizing hairbrush a shot.
With an apology to my Wet Brush (“It’s not you; it’s me”), I purchased the $18 UNbrush in October 2023. And I haven’t picked up my Wet Brush since.
This lightweight hairbrush has a square head with bristles aligned in even rows, a design that allows hair to travel through straight pathways no matter the angle at which you hold the brush and works through tangles gently with minimal scalp-tugging. But it’s on the pricier side.
When the UNbrush arrived at my doorstep, my matted hair was in desperate need of attention, left tied in a bun for several days. I was skeptical that my new hairbrush would make the rat’s nest on my head any easier to comb out, but I ate my words almost immediately. The brush teased out my snarled locks gently, never snagging as I brought it down the length of my hair, and I didn’t have to hold my hair at the root as I brushed, a technique I would often employ with the Wet Brush to keep my hair from tugging at the scalp. With the UNbrush, I was able to detangle my hair faster and with far less wincing than I ever could with my Wet Brush.
