How to Style Curls that Fall Flat, Don’t Last, or Are Overly Soft
If your curls fall limp, frizz, struggle to hold a curl, or feel too soft and flat, then you need a to make these teaks
Does this $5 Denman dupe from Walmart give the same results for styling curly hair? Today I’m doing 2 routines using the exact same products, but one with the Denman D4 9-Row brush and one with the KISS Detangling 9-Row Brush.
I’m also testing out the Hask gel that I used in last week’s video, but this time with a curl cream underneath. So this will be using all drugstore products.
The biggest difference between the Denman and the KISS brush is the price. The Deman brush’s retail price is around $25 and is sold on the manufacturer’s website, Amazon, ULTA, Target, and other retailers.
The KISS brush is around $5, which is significantly less than the Deman. It can be found online and in-store at Walmart, online at Amazon, and Kroger.
Both brushes have a black and red design. The Denman brush comes in multiple colors and the KISS brush comes in black & red and purple.
For this video, I compared the 9-row versions of the brushes. The Denman comes in many variations of rows, so you can choose the amount of tension you want. The more rows = the more tension. It appears the KISS brush comes in a 9-row version and a 7-row version from what I can tell online.
With both brushes, you can remove rows of bristles. It was easy to slide the base off the KISS brush, whereas I was not able to get the base off the Denman brush. It will require more force.
Both brushes have similar lengths of bristles made of flexible plastic, and the base is a rubber material that applies tension to create defined curls. The width and length of the brush are about the same.
The biggest differences I notice include the cushion base and the handle. The KISS brush has a higher arch in the design of the rubber base. I don’t see this changing much in the results that you get, but it could apply a bit more tension when curling with it.
The KISS brush has a non-slip handle that has rubber groves and a flatter shape. The Denman brush’s handle is a smooth plastic and a rounder shape. This will impact your results if you like to use the handle to style too. More on that below.
In my opinion, both brushes should only be used for styling curls and not detangling. The Denman brush mentions it’s for styling curls on their website, but the KISS brush claims it’s for detangling which I think is very inaccurate. Since they both apply tension for styling, this will cause breakage, snags, and excessive shedding when detangling.
When styling, I did not notice a huge difference in the way they worked. There may have been slightly more tension with the KISS brush. This could be harmful if you have fragile hair, but can also create more ribbon curls depending on your technique. I feel as though the Denman creates sufficient tension to create ribbon curls as well.
The biggest difference in styling is when it comes to brush coiling, which involves wrapping the hair around the base of the handle or using the handle itself to coil. This is not possible with the KISS brush due to the rubber texture and grooves on the handle for grip. Using this handle will cause snags and tangling. With the Denman brush, the handle is smooth and rounded, making it great for brush coiling techniques.
Can you spot any differences? I can’t! My curls shape and size looks the same. The only slight difference was on my face-framing curls where I tried to coil the hair around the KISS handle and it just separated the clump because of the grooves. I had to finger coil it to re-group the clump.
I feel like the KISS brush snagged a bit more because it had slightly more tension from the handle. I had more shedding with the KISS brush. This could be a fluke or could be from the additional tension.
I think either brush is a great option if you’re looking for a good styling brush for curly hair. I think I prefer the Denman only because I like using the handle for various techniques. If you don’t need the handle for styling and just want a budget styling brush, the KISS would work great.
Which one do you prefer?
If you saw my previous drugstore curly hair routine, then you know I was testing out the Hask Curl Shaping Jelly and I got great results but didn’t like how dry my hair felt. In this routine, I decided to use it with the Hask Curl Defining Cream underneath which definitely improved the feeling. My hair was much more moisturized and had better slip. I still think the gel is lacking slip, so a cream or leave-in underneath is crucial. The hold was reduced some because of the cream, but I added an extra glaze of gel on top of dry hair after diffusing to tame it.
My day 2 results looked about the same as the last routine but felt more moisturized. Watch the video to see those day 2 results. However I did have a slight “producty” feeling or grit, which must be from the cream because I don’t recall that from the routine using just the gel.
What do you think?
Watch my previous video to see the gel-only, drugstore routine.
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