“We've owned this & other Bass brushes in the past, & have always been impressed by Bass quality & durability. Bass designs are excellent, & their pricing has always been very reasonable compared to other makers. Others claim to provide better "craftsmanship" in fabrication, but we really don't see the need for better quality than that of the brushes we've bought in the past from Bass, and hope they have not downgraded their quality in the years since we've purchased new ones.
The brush we received recently on reorder seems to have undergone some changes in manufacture - instead of the rubber bristle-cushion cover used in the past, it now has a plastic one, and the plastic handle does not seem to be quite as sturdy as formerly. These are the only reasons we did not give it a 5 - we're concerned the lighter plastic handle & the plastic cushion-cover will not last as long as the excellent materials used previously.
That said, we’d like to extoll the virtues of this brush design & HIGHLY recommend it. This particular brush design is good for all types of hair (don't believe ads that say otherwise), but ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for long hair.
Like ALL "all-natural bristles", boar bristles pick up natural scalp oils & help distribute them to hair ends. This is good for all hair, but especially important with long hair. Natural BOAR bristles, however, unlike other "100% natural bristles” advertised by so many makers, are the ideal stiffness to actually detangle longer hair. And boar bristles also seem to us to hold out better over time than other kinds of natural bristles. Brush manufacturers know this, so we recommend you buy only brushes that have BOAR bristles, unless you have such fine, short hair & such a sensitive scalp that you truly NEED a softer bristle.
The longer nylon "pins" at the center of each boar-bristle tuft in this brush add support to each tuft, & help the boar bristles stay straight & seated at full depth in the hair as you brush. Many makers offer a similar brush design, but use BALL-tipped nylon "pins", which are totally unsuitable for long hair.
Ball-tipped pins yank out long hair in clumps as soon as they hit in a tangle. The smooth-tipped "pins" used in this Bass brush design help to loosen tangles, but the cushion allows them to tilt away from tight tangles, and then the smooth tip, unlike ball-tips, can slip past the tangle before yanking out every hair involved in it. This gives you the chance to come back and loosen those tight tangles gently by hand if you don't want adjacent healthy hair jerked out by the roots.
Clearly a plastic cushion-cover is better than the cloth covers used by some other makers - cloth is more likely to be a breeding ground for bacteria, & may not dry quickly when wettened, thus promoting mold growth. Certainly cloth can't be expected to last as long as rubber - but many types of plastic don't last as long as rubber either. If this new plastic cushion-cover IS durable, it COULD actually be an improvement, PROVIDED that the bristle clumps are molded & sealed into it so that they cannot migrate down into the cushion with use, as they used to do with the rubber cushion-cover. It WAS possible to individually pull the bristle clumps back out to full length for better "brush action", but it would be nice not to have to do that!”
