(image: The Bayside Brush Co.)
While we’re on the subject of affordable luxuries, consider the pocket comb. I’ve never been one for using a brush, my hair just doesn’t respond well to them. (Although I would love a pair of military brushes, but I will have to wait for the day when I go more grey and grow my neatly clipped moustache.)
A good comb, on the other hand, is just the ticket. But why use any old black plastic, sharp toothed pocket comb? It may be unbreakable, that’s true. And unless you lose it, you will spend an eternity reading the thing. “Ace” you will read, time and time again. “Ace.”
No, the Ace comb is not for me. My combs were bought in El Corte Inglés. One is made of horn, the other is faux tortoiseshell. Both are beautiful and both have teeth that are rounded and non-damaging to wet hair. They may cost exponentially more than the drugstore variety, but even if you think only in purely aesthetic terms, they are worth every dollar.
If you can’t make it to Spain, and with the exchange rate for the Euro being what it is, there are online sources that offer French handmade combs, English cellulose tortoiseshell look combs by Kent and handmade Swiss numbers by Speert, suppliers of pocket combs to the Little Coriscan.
While you’re at it, pick up a Mason Pearson brush or rake for your significant other. After all, shouldn’t everyone start the day just a little more elegantly?
I have a little Kent hairbrush called a Headhog! It’s got a funny little picture of a hedgehog on it.
I love El Corté Inglés so much … I spent WAY too much money there a few years ago, in Madrid, buying my daughter shoes. Wonderful department store, great labels you can’t seem to find in the States like the children’s clothes by Agatha Ruíz de la Prada.
Fairfax, I love a company that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Aesthete, for me it was the silk shawls that I wear as scarves in winter. One in a grey and cream herringbone, the other in maroon and cream. But that was before we had children… I can only imagine the damage I could do now.
I second the Mason Pearson brush! It does such wonders for my hair that I am seriously considering investing in one for my desk at work.
I would agree that Kent’s plastic faux-tortoise-shell combs are well made, but I think that the hard-rubber combs made by Champion in Germany deserve a positive mention. Like Kent’s combs, they have saw-cut rather than molded teeth, while less handsome, are, I think, functionally superior to both Kent and to the horn combs I’ve owned. I’d agree that all the other rubber and plastic I’ve used, such as Ace, are junk. I wholly support the pitch for M-P brushes, and would add Kent’s “100% hand-made” line (as opposed to their standard brushes, which are a big improvement over Kent’s standard boar bristle brushes, and well worth the price.
Thanks for weighing in Rob. Champion sounds like a winner if the teeth are nicely rounded. I still opt for aesthetically pleasing over functional far too often, though.
I am guilty on that account as well – a Kent comb sits next to a Champion in the tumbler that holds my combs and brushes. Great post – thanks.