Mason Pearson Brush Guide

Welcome to Tressence, the world's only Mason Pearson specialty shop. Because Mason Pearson is all we sell, everything you will find on our website is devoted to helping you choose the Mason Pearson brush that will do the most for your hair.

Which Mason Pearson is right for you?
With 20 different models, choosing a Mason Pearson brush can seem a bit daunting. Mason Pearson had offered a brush selection tool, but it was retired when they revised their website in 2018. We recommend an approach that will narrow your choices to a very few by using two criteria: hair density and length. Then we offer our best guidance for selecting from that small collection.

Why we focus on hair density
A key design feature of the Mason Pearson brush is that the bristles are cut in two lengths. Unless the longer “spired” bristles are able to cut through the hair right down to the scalp they will not be able sweep up and distribute the natural oils that add body and shine. Thus, it is important to select a brush that you are confident will reach the scalp, and this is largely determined by the density of your hair.

Boars produce bristles ranging from soft to very stiff, but not stiff enough for the spired bristles to penetrate dense hair. With the introduction of nylon in the 1940’s, Mason Pearson began to incorporate filaments that could be made with any desired stiffness. By incorporating nylon into their designs, Mason Pearson expanded the suitability of their brushes, of particular benefit for those with dense or coarse hair.

Size matters too
Once you settle on the bristle configuration that is right for you, all that remains is to settle on a suitable size. The general recommendation is the longer the hair, the larger the brush, but there are additional factors that can be considered. As the number of bristle rings increases, each hair is polished by more bristles in each stroke, thus fewer strokes are required. On the other hand, a larger brush will require more effort to work through the hair. Lastly, most find that the larger handle on the brushes larger than pocket-size are more comfortable to hold.

Our recommendations for

Still up in the air?
The mixed bristle brushes are suitable for the widest range of hair types, and are far and away our best sellers. They provide much of the benefit of a 100% boar bristle brush at a significantly lower cost. Unless your hair is very dense or delicate, you can’t go wrong with one of them.

We invite you to peruse the website and hope that the comments generously provided by our customers on the product pages prove useful to you. And if you need further assistance, we are available by email or phone to provide you whatever assistance we can.