I didn’t know that something as clever as an anti-static hairbrush existed until stumbling across it on a shoot with Michael Douglas last month. And I bet you didn’t think Michael Douglas was a hairdresser!
But seriously: the namesake of the American ‘Wall Street’ actor is a star in his own right. He is the resident ‘Street Barber’ on BBC’s The ONE Show and has been Davina’ McCall’s hairdresser for the last 15 years.
So what is it Michael?
The Braun Satin Hair 7 Iontec brush
Hair can build up static electricity quite easily due to the environment. Static is produced by a surrounding that has lots of electricity (a studio!) or friction to the hair (brushing, blowdrying, wearing and removing a hat or a tight jumper etc.) Once static has taken hold, it’s difficult to remove without washing or covering the hair with some kind of sticky product.
Static is caused by there being too many positive ions on the strands of the hair. When this happens they fight against each other and the hair strands start to repel each other – just like two magnets.
So the brush (which contains batteries) pushes out negative ions onto the hair therefore neutralising the positive static effect.
As you can imagine having hair going mad with static in my work of photography for hair advertising is a nightmare. So the brush is brilliant for getting more control over the hair.
Sweet!
Thank you Michael.
You can see how it works on this (ever so slightly cheesy) Braun video below.
