Would You Hang a Hairbrush Off Your Bag?

Just another thing to market and consume.

Would you hang a hairbrush off your bag?

Greta Lion is suggesting you should with ‘Drip for your bag and hair’. The monochromatic look of the model is very ‘now’ in its sportwear approach (different to athleisure) punctuated with pops of neon in both the sneakers and the brush hanging off the retro-style Puma bag. I’d never heard of this brand before until it came up on an Instagram ad, and as you can see from the ad itself, its very eye catching.

Capitalising on the current trend of adorning yourself and/or your bag like a Christmas tree, each brush comes with a loop on the end. Their socials also have it hanging on a belt loop (I can’t articulate what’s going on with Coca Cola at the moment but it feels like how cigarettes were advertised) or grouped together with other brushes on designer bags.

There have always been bougie hairbrushes. Maison Pearson are probably the longest standing, but they seem quite boring and conservative in comparison to what is happening now. For example, if you get your La Bonne Brosse from certain places (or you’re an influencer) you can get it personalised. The price point for this one seems to be because the bristles are ‘implanted by hand in an irregular pattern on particularly supple rubber, the boar bristles of your hairbrush ensure optimum bounce during styling.’

As you can see the copy for these brushes is very entertaining also, La Bonne Brosse suggests you only use the brush on dry hair to ‘retain all its virtues’. Whilst Greta Lion provide instructions on how to brush your hair in general. This seems like the embodiment of taking something simple, making it hard and then simplifying it again to capture an audience. The writing conjures images of women being dressed and taken care of, so perhaps with that price, someone will become your personal hair brusher.

Combing the hair by Degas

Representations of anything to do with hygiene, or as it’s been rebranded, self-care are interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, they make the private very public. Even if you don’t undertake the act in public, the branding and toting around of these items signals what you do undertake. Ditto posting pictures of yourself in the mirror at the hairdresser, or sticking branded stickers on your drink bottle, or putting your lip balm on a case on the back of your phone. These all contribute to not only our cultural capital but our projected sense of self. Also, the process of being ‘clean’ via personal hygiene can also be very messy, but nobody wants to talk about that. Brushes get dirty and are filled with hair and oils and skin and dry shampoo and dust regardless of how ‘clean’ your hair is or how expensive the hairbrush, so the suggestion that the hairbrush is also a public facing accessory seems only acceptable when the brush is new, which would then lead to constantly replacing or maintaining something which is meant to maintain you.

Such items also fall into the ‘if I buy a good quality (expensive) one once, I won’t have to keep buying it’. Sure, there is some merit in this, but by nature the beauty industry and our participation in it cyclical. Right now, boar bristle hair brushes are being touted as the ones to have but a while ago every influencer was talking about their Tangle Teezers or Wet Brush products known for their lack of bristles!

Making a hairbrush a form of social status, as Greta Lion, are attempting is an interesting move. They have also try to apply morals to their product through their work with the Deaf community and creating other branded (but not for sale) products such as a paddle board ‘as a symbol. A reminder of how important it is to move, to celebrate what our bodies can do, and to cherish every step.’ Acknowledging this is not to make light of the work they do or their reason for doing so but more to identify the amount of ‘stuff’ which is surrounding something that’s meant to be quite simple, a hairbrush. It needn’t be a symbol for social change, an indication of influence, or an accessory which lets everyone know that you groom yourself. Yet because everything must be marketed and we don’t need this kind of hairbrush (or at all, your choice) the narrative around it must be strong and different to what we’ve seen before, like a hairbrush coordinating with a bottle of Coke in your jean pocket.