Myth Buster: Brushing Hair 100 Strokes a Day

While brushing your hair 100 times a day may be satisfying, it’s certainly not good for the physical state of your locks. Excessive brushing can cause a wide variety of hair problems ranging from breakage, split ends and pre-mature ageing, to a sore and inflamed scalp. Imagine what would happen if you brushed your favorite sweater 100 times a day? It would look pretty awful – and the same goes for your hair! Unlike skin, hair seen above the scalp, that has grown out of the follicle, is technically dead tissue and will not regenerate and ‘heal’ itself once broken and split.

Where did the ‘brushing 100 times a day’ myth come from then? Well, one theory dates back to the 1800’s when hair washing was infrequent and usually carried out with soap and water (or even dry flour!) Akin to beating the dust out of old carpets, women with long hair would use brushing as a way to dissipate weeks’ worth of dirt, sweat and sebum (and perhaps to ease the itch from flaky scalps).  All well and good in an era before shampoo was invented, but not so pertinent now.

“The hair should be brushed for at least twenty minutes in the morning, for ten minutes when it is dressed in the middle of the day, and for a like period at night” 

The ladies’ and gentlemen’s etiquette: a complete manual of the manners and dress of American society,1877

Other Scintillating Hair Tips from the 1800s

“One thing is certain – that hair which has the ends cut at every new moon will grow more abundantly”. 

“White hair (and, indeed, some other hair) can be admirably cleaned with flour; it, as well as the skin of the head, should be rubbed with the flour, and then carefully brushed. I think this is perhaps the best way of all. It is a pity that it is difficult to use it with dark hair, for obvious reasons.”

“English people use the following solution :-A teacupful of salt in a quart of rain-water. This can be used after it has stood for twelve hours. To one cup of the preparation add a cup of warm rain-water. Wash the hair well with this, rinsing and rubbing it, as well as the scalp, with a towel till they are quite dry.”

From: Victorian London – Publications – Etiquette and Advice Manuals – The Lady’s Dressing Room, by Baroness Staffe, trans. Lady Colin Campbell, 1893