Are you looking to start dyeing your hair at home? Or maybe you just want to improve your technique? Hair dye brushes can help you color your hair effectively, regardless of whether you are tinting, highlighting, or creating color gradients. Get that perfect salon look at home with the right tools at home.
Choosing the best hair dye brush can be confusing considering the number on the market. Thankfully, we've done the research for you and picked the Colortrak by Multicolor Glitter Brush Trio as our favorite hair dye brushes. They're sturdy, easy to clean, and effective at covering hair with dye. We’ve also put together a 9 best list for you to consider and created a handy buying guide reviewed by a licensed cosmetologist to help you make your choice, so read on!
Quick List - Top Hair Dye Brushes
Denise is a licensed cosmetologist who advises people on certain products they should get. She formally worked at Ulta and is now headed into a salon.
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Before buying a hair dye brush, take into consideration the purpose of the brush and if you need any extras. To help you with this, we’ve put together this handy buying guide!
The bristles of the brush are one of the most important considerations when choosing a hair dye brush. The bristles need to pick up the hair dye without absorbing too much of it.
If you’re going to be coloring your entire head of hair, then longer bristles are the best option. Long bristles can get into all of the tricky spots and give a softer overall look.
If your main concern when dying your hair at home is to touch-up your roots, then short bristles will do the job. You can be more precise with shorter bristles and this is exactly what you need when doing touch-ups.
It can be very difficult to get hair dye to effectively cover thick hair. You need stiffness in the bristles to be able to work the dye through the hair and down to the lower layers. However, if the bristles are too stiff, they won’t spread the color over each individual strand. You may need to get your hands dirty to ensure full coverage!
Stiff bristles are also not as good for creating smooth color gradations. When buying brushes online, it can be difficult to correctly judge how stiff the bristles are, so we recommend looking through reviews to see what people who have used the brushes have to say.
Highlights, blending, and feathering are most effectively done with soft bristles. You can target each individual strand to ensure complete coverage and they will give you more control over how and where the color is applied. However, soft bristles can be defeated by thick hair and will struggle to penetrate through the layers of thick hair.
The handles of hair dye brushes come in three different materials: plastic, metal, and wood. Plastic is the most common for at-home hair dye brushes and is what we would recommend. These brushes are sturdy and easy to clean as hair dye isn’t absorbed very easily by plastic.
You can find plastic brushes that have a sharp tip, sometimes made of metal, so you can separate sections of hair. Plastic brushes can break but are cheap enough to be easily replaced.
Metal brushes will usually have a sharp tip for sectioning hair. They can be a little uncomfortable to grip so look for metal brushes that have a wider handle of at least half an inch or that are coated in a rubber grip. Otherwise, metal brushes might be too thin to comfortably hold onto.
Wooden brushes will last a long time, but they don’t offer the flexibility that plastic and metal brushes have. They can be stained by dye unless they’re well-varnished and cleaned effectively. They’re also not very good at sectioning hair and are best for bold and solid colors.
If you are dyeing a full head of hair or looking to touch up your roots, then a flat brush with even bristles will suit this purpose best. This brush is also the best choice if you don’t want to buy several brushes and are just looking for an all-purpose brush.
For highlights and more precise coloring, tapered and angle brushes will give you more control and precision. These brushes are also good for coloring thin chunks of hair. As a general rule, the wider the brush is, the less precise it will be when coloring.
Although they don’t allow for the level of control and precision that highlights and blended hair colors might need, wider brushes will cover more hair more quickly. In short, if you’re looking for one all-purpose brush instead of several different sized ones, then a flat brush that is around one-inch wide is the best option.
As we’ve discovered so far, different types of hair and different types of dyeing are best served by different sizes of brushes and bristle types. You can look for all-purpose brushes that will do every job adequately, or you can look for a set of brushes to cover all uses.
If you’re looking to color your hair at home long-term and will be doing different types of dyeing such as full-head, roots, and highlights, it might be worth the investment to get a variety of brushes. This way you will always have the right brush at hand!
Hair dyeing can be a very messy process. It will stain your clothes, surroundings, and any skin it comes into contact with. Most home dye kits will come with gloves, but these are usually low quality and only cover your hands.
If you want extra protection from dye stains, why not get a brush set that comes with extras such as long gloves to cover your forearms or a cape to protect your clothes? You can even get ear covers to protect your ears from being dyed, too!
You’ll probably need to mix your hair dye before you use it, and although home dyes usually do come with a tray or bowl to do this, they won’t be as large and durable as ones that you can buy with your brushes. Most of these bowls will have a scale inside so you can measure out more or less dye than your home dye packet suggests.
Another item to consider is hair clips. If you have thick hair and are looking to do full coverage, then hair clips will help you section your hair and get to the layers underneath. It’s best to have clips specifically for dyeing as it doesn’t matter if they get stained by the dye.
Products | Image | Click to purchase | Key features | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Colortrak Colours | ![]() | Sturdy and Suitable for Multiple Uses | |
2 | Roohua 16 Pieces Hair Dye Coloring Kit | ![]() | A Reusable Kit That Can be Quickly Cleaned | |
3 | Framar Coloring Brush Set | ![]() | A Set of Brushes With an Extra Wide Brush | |
4 | Moonmini Hair Dye Color Brush and Bowl Set | ![]() | Good Mix of Sturdy Brushes | |
5 | Framar Classic Pink Hair Color Brush | ![]() | Distributes Color Evenly and is Sturdy | |
6 | Colortrak Wide Color Brush | ![]() | Colorful Brushes With Easy-to-Grip Handles | |
7 | Poen 20 Pieces Hair Dye Kit | ![]() | A Complete Kit for Dyeing Hair at Home | |
8 | Framar Power Painter | ![]() | Ideal for Balayage and Blending | |
9 | Tbestmax 12 Pack Hair Dye Brushes | ![]() | Brushes You Can Reuse or Throw Away After Use |
The first thing you'll notice when you look at this trio of brushes is their colors. The handles are clear with glitter and each brush has bristles in a matching color. The brushes have soft bristles and are best for tinting hair.
Reviewers say that the brushes are lightweight but sturdy. They report that the bristles are soft and easy to clean, making them suitable for use again and again. There are also comments that the bristles hold dye well and are effective at covering hair.
Included in this kit are two pairs of gloves, hair clips, ear covers, a bowl, a dye agitator, a shawl, shower caps, and a bag to keep everything together. There are two brushes: one is a flat, wide brush that is two inches across, and the other includes a comb brush.
Reviewers say that this kit is suitable for home dyeing, but is not of high enough quality for salon use. However, most reviewers say this kit is useful and contains everything you need. The hair clips and shawl are especially praised and reviewers say it is easy to clean and reuse the kit.
This is a set of three differently-sized brushes. The largest of these is great for root touch-ups and balayage. The smallest of the three also has a metal pintail to make sectioning hair easier. The edges of the bristles are tapered to give you more accuracy when you apply the dye.
Many comment on the high quality of the brushes and how effective they are when coloring. They like the different sizes, and they say they're easy to clean and spread the color well. Some also like the stiffness of the bristles for accuracy.
This set includes three brushes of different sizes and a mixing bowl. The brushes have flexible but stiff bristles and come in widths of 2.4 and 1.5 inches. The third brush is a combined brush and comb. The mixing bowl has three different scales for measuring.
Some reviewers say that the contents of this kit were cheaply made and smaller than expected. Reviewers liked the mix of brushes in the set and say that they were effective at covering hair with dye. They also say that the brushes clean easily, and can be reused or simply tossed if you hate cleaning up after dyeing.
If you don't need all three in the Framar set above, just get this one. The edges of the bristles on this brush are tapered to ensure precision coloring. The bristles are stiff but soft and make the brush ideal for balayage coloring and highlights. The handle is a fetching bright pink and has a thumb dent to aid your grip as you color.
Most reviewers praise this brush, and the brand has lots of loyal customers. They say that the bristles were soft and worked well to distribute color evenly. They also report that the brush parts hair well, is sturdy, and is easy to clean.
With this set, you get three brushes that are the same size but are different colors. Each brush has a non-slip gel handle and a thumb dip on the brush head to make them easier to grip. The bristles are stiff, straight, and contoured and the bottom of the handles is thin to allow for sectioning of the hair.
There are a few comments about the bristles on these brushes being a little stiff and that they struggle with thick hair. However, many reviewers like these brushes and say the handles are easy to grip. The brushes come with individual covers for bristles and this is also praised by reviewers.
If you're looking for a complete hair dyeing kit, then this might be a good choice! It has six brushes, including four hair coloring brushes and two hair dye combs, and two large-size bowls. It also includes gloves, hair clips, ear caps, and two plastic hair wraps.
There are reports from reviewers that this kit feels cheap and different reviewers say that they received different kit components broken. However, the gloves and hair clips in the kit get positive remarks as they can be washed and reused. Many reviewers were able to dye their hair at home with the brushes in this kit.
This pair of wide brushes might look like paintbrushes, but they are completely designed for hair. They have ergonomic handles for ease of holding and long bristles so you can quickly cover large sections of hair. The brushes aren't for precise coloring and are designed for coloring and blending.
A couple of reviewers say that these brushes were uncomfortable to use due to their size and were tricky to clean. They hold dye well and are perfect for quickly coating hair, according to reviewers. They also found that these brushes are excellent for blending colors and balayage highlights.
This is a pack of 12 identical brushes. They have nylon bristles that are around one inch long and can be used both in the salon and at home. The bristles are firm for precision dying. If you don't want to spend time washing your brushes out, you can just toss these in the trash after you're done.
Some reviewers think that the brushes are a little thin and flimsy and can bend. However, they say that the brushes don't scratch your scalp and spread dye well. Reviewers also used the brushes to perm and relax hair and said they were effective.
Maintaining that perfect color at home requires more than just the tools to dye your hair; you need the actual dye! Here are some natural colors we recommend (if you're looking for something bolder, we've got articles on that, too!)
This expert reviewed the contents of the buying guide for accuracy and provided factual corrections when necessary. They did not participate in the product selection process, nor are they affiliated with any of our choices unless explicitly stated so.
No. 1: Colortrak|Colours
No. 2: Roohua|16 Pieces Hair Dye Coloring Kit
No. 3: Framar|Coloring Brush Set
No. 4: Moonmini|Hair Dye Color Brush and Bowl Set
No. 5: Framar|Classic Pink Hair Color Brush
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