Our Hair Tools Are Vibrating Again

19.08.2026, 22:29 allure.com

Plenty of beauty trends come and go only to return a decade later, like the French manicure, for example, or body shimmer or even claw clips. But another fad from the early aughts appears to be making a comeback—and the Allure office can’t stop buzzing about it.

Behold: Vibrating tools—but not ones you keep stashed away in your bedside table, unless… (more on that later). They’re for your hair, allegedly. Recently, two launches have come across our desks, prompting slight confusion and intrigue. They both promise that the use of supersonic quivers aid in detangling and encouraging hair and scalp health, as opposed to what an oblong, vibrating handle might suggest. Apparently, the next frontier of hair health is… vibrating toys.

The first is Pattern Beauty’s vibrating flatiron, which launched on August 14 and is made specifically for curls, coils, and tight textures. According to press materials shared with Allure, the flatiron delivers 12,000 vibrations per minute. If that seems like a lot of strokes to your head, it is—the original Magic Wand’s pulses top out at 6,000 times per minute. The quick movements are said to reduce tension and hair snagging, providing a smoother (more lubricated?) glide through each pass by easing out tangles and knots. Apparently, the vibrations also deliver “silky results,” which is exactly the kind of promise I want from my buzzing possessions.

The next motorized hair tool that’s new-ish to the market is the OO!brush created by Dave Richmond—he also gave us the InStyler, an early 2000s gadget with a stationary round brush that utilized a rotating barrel iron to smooth out hair. In my mind, vibration is usually reserved for pleasurable stimulation which, now that I think about it, could probably be true for something like a hair brush. But instead of erotic pleasure, the hair brush claims to utilize each throb in the name of head hygiene. It delivers over 6,000+ “micro-strokes” per second to create “a deeper, more effective scalp massage experience.” Is it getting hot in here, or did I just leave my vibrating flatiron plugged in?

The vibrations, OO!Brush claims, help create 65% less damage to hair follicles and provide a smoother detangling experience, similar to Pattern’s flatiron. The elongated handle is easy to grip with one or two hands, and the brush also comes with a built-in scalp massager that’s housed in the bulbous backside of the paddle, which you can flip around and place on the areas of your scalp—or body! We don’t judge!—that need a little love. Pro tip: Use the brush on your partner or another touch-starved friend. The height of pleasure doesn’t have to be achieved alone.

Richmond tells Allure that while a traditional brush works on friction, his invention has bristles that “move with purpose.” “You drag stiff bristles through hair, they catch the cuticle, they snag a knot, and you pull harder until something gives,” he says. “Once we decided the goal was less friction, the engineering got specific… Our motion is intentional. It moves the hair itself, so the hair begins to untangle on its own, and it reduces the contact between bristle and strand that creates the damage.”

The OO!brush in action.

A few weeks ago, the Allure staff received a few samples of the OO!brushes at the office and as we unboxed our new toys—er, brushes—the vibes, both physical and spiritual, were high. While we were enthralled with the novelty of the product and brainstorming how we’d get away with incorporating this into our daily lives (surely not in the middle of the workday…), we also wondered why this particular trend was entering back into the zeitgeist. Now, I’m not against incorporating sweet vibrations into our beauty routines—reaching a feel-good climax is good for our health, at the end of the day!

But these vibes aren’t exactly new: Brands have been experimenting with oscillating tools for quite some time now. In skincare, for example, there are plenty of vibrating facial cleansing devices, and even palpitating gua shas and facial rollers can be purchased at your local beauty supply store. Medicube recently introduced the Booster Pro X2, which includes a new pulsing feature that allows skincare ingredients to penetrate deeper. At some point, Conair and José Eber had vibrating flatirons in their repertoire, although they’ve been discontinued for years now. Even Bio Ionic and Drybar still sell vibrating irons.

But I have to ask, why? Vibration seems counterintuitive to detangling, but according to Toral Vaidya, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in New York City, it actually works. “The theory here is that through the vibration, the tools are creating less friction and thus less trauma to the strands,” she explains. “I see these both as an innovation to potentially reduce physical trauma to the hair strand.” But don’t rely on oscillation to change your hair health: “There are no robust studies to my knowledge studying the impact of vibrational hair tools on hair health,” she adds.

As far as scalp health goes, the vibrations from the OO!brush in particular may arouse hair growth, according to Shab Caspara, a board-certified trichologist based in New York City. “What we've seen in research is that mechanical stimulation can affect signaling in dermal cells, so that controls the hair growth cycle,” she says. “It can potentially extend the hair growth cycle when that kind of stimulation reaches all the way down to the dermal papilla, which is like the very beginning of the hair follicle.”

But is vibrating technology the answer to scalp health? Maybe not. “Scalp vibration is nice for someone with a healthy scalp who likes scalp massage and stimulation, perhaps for more of a sensory, relaxing feeling,” Caspara says. “I think that could feel really nice, but I would avoid it on an irritated or inflamed scalp, or a scalp with any pain or open sores. You don't want to further irritate the scalp.”

Okay, fair—while the silicone brush isn’t the answer to improving our head game, there’s a bright future ahead. (The Magic Wand started out as a muscle massager, and look where it’s at now!) So, will either of these hair tools save your hair or change your life? Probably not. But hey, they sure sound fun to use.

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