The best beard brush will transform your scruff. That's not hyperbole—bearded fellas disagree on plenty of grooming tools, but on this, the experts are unanimous (as are GQ's especially picky hirsute staffers). The humble boar's hair brush makes a huge difference in how itchy, scratchy, and straight-up dandruff-y your facial hair looks. The right beard brush will prevent flyaways, tangles, split-ends, and dry, brittle hair. It also makes it a helluva lot easier to grow a beard from scratch. (These also make great grooming gifts for men, especially the more premium selections.)
All that's to say: If you have a beard, you need a beard brush. Serums, conditioners, and balms might be pitched as must-haves on your FYP, but the truth is, your beard can live without them. The best beard brushes, on the other hand, are genuinely essential.
The Best Beard Brushes, at a GlanceThe Best Beard Brush Overall: Kent MC4 Natural Boar Bristle Facial Brush, $45The Travel Beard Brush: Zeus Boar Bristle Beard Brush, $18The Budget Pick: Diane Premium 100% Boar Bristle Brush, $8The Best Brush with a Handle: Kent BRD2 Boar Bristle Beard Brush, $38The Versatile Pick: Beardbrand Beard Brush, $32The Vegan Pick: Horace Vegan Beard Brush, $17Looking for Something Specific?AccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronDo I Need to Use a Beard Brush?How to Use a Beard BrushHow We Chose These ProductsAbout the AuthorsThese hair brushes distribute natural oils, give your beard a fuller look for styling, and make it easier to uniformly apply nourishing products like beard oil. And—just as importantly—their thick bristles exfoliate the skin beneath your whiskers, promoting blood flow to hair follicles, preventing beard dandruff, and whisking away gunk. They can also help you avoid tangles, although guys with thicker, longer beards will do better with a wide-tooth beard comb or pick.
The best beard brushes all have a similar design: Boar bristles embedded in a wood handle. (These days there are vegan alternatives, too.) But you'll find a lot of variety when it comes to size, handle type, and bristle firmness, so we tested a whole bunch of 'em and called up a few experts to help you track down the very best beard brush for your specific scruff.
The Best Beard Brush Overall: Kent MC4 Natural Boar Bristle Facial Brush
Kent
MC4 Finest Men's Hair Brush And Facial Brush$44Amazon
Bristle Type: Boar's hairStrength: FirmSize: 4.2" x 2.5"
Kent has quite the pedigree: The British heritage brand has been making fine hair brushes by hand since 1777, and some of the company’s products display the Royal Warrant of the Queen (“By appointment to her majesty the Queen”). You can even buy a £158 brush from the company that’s handmade in the UK by 12 different craftspeople over 540 hours, though there’s no real good reason to. The Kent MC4 brush is our premium pick, suitable for hair, beards, and mustaches.
This brush is made with a cherrywood handle and fits securely in the palm of your hand. The firm bristles may be too rough for very short beards or sensitive skin, but for most bearded guys, this is as good as it gets.
The Best Travel Beard Brush: Zeus Boar Bristle Beard Brush
Zeus
Boar Bristle Beard Brush$18Amazon
Bristle Type: Boar's hairStrength: Soft or firmSize: 3.5" x 1.2"
Traditional boar bristles are prized for their ability to distribute moisture. This one is 100% boar, 0% BS. Zeus’s popular brush has appeared in previous GQ guides, and it’s been personally tested and approved by one of our authors. We appreciate that it’s available with both soft and firm bristles, though Matty Conrad, GQ's go-to beard expert, recommends the latter for most guys. It’s a pocket-sized brush that doesn’t take up too much room in your dopp kit, and in our testing, it’s just the right size for brushing beard oil into your whiskers. Made in Germany from pear wood, it’s rough on scruff and easy on your hand.
The Best Budget Beard Brush: Diane Premium 100% Boar Bristle Brush
Diane
Premium 100% Boar Bristle Brush$8Amazon
Bristle Type: Boar's hairBristle Type: MediumSize: 5”
The Diane military brush (a term for any rounded, handheld brush with thick bristles) can help define natural waves in textured hair, and it’s also a handy facial hair brush for all men. The large wood handle contains nine rows of medium-firm bristles. This brush has all the detangling and dandruff-busting powers of our other selects (although it likely won't last as long), and at a lower price tag.
The Best Brush with a Handle: Kent BRD2 Boar Bristle Beard Brush
Kent
BRD2 Boar Bristle Beard Brush$38Amazon
Bristle Type: Boar's hairBristle Type: CombinationSize: 6.3” x 0.8”
Conrad told us that he personally looks for brushes with blended bristles that provide a mix of soft and firm textures. And Kent's high-end BRD2 beard brush fits the bill. Kent uses a unique combination of bristles, which are cut at a 45-degree angle to penetrate deeper into the beard. The long, soft bristles reach skin and new hair, while the short, firm bristles help control scruff. The BRD2 brush also features a unique angled handle for an ergonomic grooming experience.
This particular brush was made for right-handed gents, though lefties can buy a version just for them at the Kent website.
The Best Versatile Beard Brush: Beardbrand Beard Brush
Beardbrand
Beard Brush$32Beardbrand
Bristle Type: Boar's hairStrength: FirmSize: 4.72"
Beardbrand is a relative newcomer to the grooming world, with a suite of products for washing and styling those whiskers. We love that this brush comes in three different styles—round, oval, and with a handle—all made in France with natural stiff boar's hair bristles. If we had to pick one, we’d recommend the oval brush, which has a fine wood handle with grooves on the side for a smooth grip.
The Best Soft Bristle Beard Brush: Wahl Travel Beard Brush
Wahl
Travel Beard Brush$10Amazon
Bristle Type: SoftSize: 3.27” x 1.47”
Beard brushes can feel rough the skin—and they’re supposed to. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be very good exfoliators, and those overlooked follicles wouldn’t get the TLC they need. But if you want softer bristles for sensitive skin, then reach for Wahl’s travel brush. This pocket-sized tool uses beech wood and soft boar bristles to evenly distribute product and smooth out your facial hair.
The Best Large Beard Brush: Live Bearded Boar’s Hair Beard Brush
Live Bearded
Boar Bristle Beard Brush$20Amazon
Bristle Type: MediumSize: 5.04” x 2.64”
Live Bearded is a small grooming outfit known for its washes and butters, but it also makes a stellar brush beloved by one of our testers. The larger handle and width gives you fuller coverage while brushing. The bristles aren’t too firm if you’re worried about irritation, but still tough enough to control itching, flaking, and tangles. For avoiding dandruff and whipping messy beards into shape, it’s a long-lasting brush that won’t let you down.
The Best Heavy-Duty Beard Brush: Zeus Oval Military Beard Brush
Zeus
Oval Military Beard Brush$40Amazon
Bristle Type: Boar's hairStrength: FirmSize: 4.4” x 2.5”
For long beards and thick or wiry hair, we recommend reaching for this Zeus brush. The firm bristles are designed for the toughest scruff, and you can use it to work beard oil into your hair, to fight dandruff, and to smooth out rough facial hair. Zeus is a small grooming brand based in California, but its brushes are made in Germany using pear wood and boar's hair.
The Best Vegan Beard Brush: Horace Vegan Beard Brush
Horace
Vegan Beard Brush$17Horace
Bristle Type: Vegetable fiber bristlesSize: 3.54” x 1.97”
A different Horace exfoliating product recently nabbed a spot in the 2023 GQ Grooming Awards. In addition to that excellent face mask, the brand also has a beard brush that doesn’t use boar’s hair (or any other animal products). So for bearded vegans, this is our top choice. Made in Germany, the brush uses bristles made from vegetable fiber and agave leaf as well as a colorful beech wood handle to leave you with well-groomed whiskers.
Do I Need to Use a Beard Brush?Even if you already own a beard comb, you still need a brush. Brushes are for beard care, and combs are for beard styling—with a lot of gray area. (It might be best to pick up one of each.) To find the right brush for every guy, we talked to Matty Conrad, a go-to GQ beard expert who also designs his own beard care products at Victory Barber. Conrad agreed with our assessment that brushes are a true necessity. In a phone interview, he also told us that guys should look for brushes with stiff, natural bristles.
What are the benefits of beard brushes? According to Conrad, they're “exceptional for creating blood flow, for creating tension on short curly hair, for making sure we can control flyaways, for spreading the hair out as naturally as possible. They also help you ”spread beard oil through the beard in a nice natural way because natural bristles will adhere to the oil and drag it through the beard." And as exfoliators, these tools can even help unclog pores to prevent ingrown hairs. So if you're suffering from beard itch, it's time to introduce your scruff to a brush, stat.
How to Use a Beard BrushTypically, you’ll brush your beard out after a shower to distribute any natural and applied oils. You’ll brush out a clean, dried beard from the bottom (at the neck), moving upwards and outwards—basically, make it big and bushy by sending it away from its natural growth. This process also distributes sebum and oils to keep the hair detangled. You can then brush it back down into place (with its growth pattern). The brush creates tension on the hair without pulling or snagging, smoothing out stubborn beards. If you're dealing with dandruff, don't be afraid to really dig in there and massage the skin.
Conrad also told us that brushes are essential for growing a new beard. “Usually, one of the first things I recommend [for new beards] is, ‘Okay, get a beard brush.’ Start growing your beard and give it a solid, say, six weeks of brushing it every night, really start to get that blood flow going, and spread those oils around. And it is actually a good thing to do to help stimulate growth. The actual brushing action is very, very good for your beard when you're first growing it.”
How We Chose These ProductsSome of these products (though not all) were personally tested for this guide. Others were chosen based on our extensive experience with beard grooming, our knowledge of the top brands in the space, and expert advice. We looked for products that used high-quality wood handles and 100% boar bristles (with one exception for our vegan friends). We also wanted to include a variety of brush types in terms of sizes, firmness levels, budget, and handle type.
About the AuthorsTimothy Beck Werth has had a beard for the past 10+ years, and he's extremely passionate about all things beard care. As an experienced grooming product reviewer, he's tested beard brushes (as well as oils, balms, washes, trimmers, and combs) and uses them regularly as part of his own grooming routine.
Adam Hurly has covered men's grooming for GQ since 2016. In his time writing for the GQ Recommends team, he's written about everything from developing a basic skin care routine to his own experience with hair transplant surgery. He is a Sioux Falls, SD native and a current expat in Berlin.
