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At the heart of the Denman brand, from its conception in 1938 to current day, one mission has remained the same: help people achieve their hair goals. This is the vision that sparked the invention of the brand hero, The Original Styler. Northern Irish inventor-entrepreneur Jack Denman Dean encountered the new material ‘nylon’ on a trip to America in 1938 and put it to use by creating a hairbrush for his curly haired sister to use. The mission keeps the brand alive and young today.
Embraced by renowned British hairstylist Vidal Sassoon as his signature brush in the 1960’s, The Original Styler became a staple in the kits of many hair stylists. Sassoon pioneered the move away from the hood dryer and coined the wrap-dry using the Denman hairbrush. From sculpting the iconic Mary Quant bob, to expertly defining curls, the brush is the tool used to realize a multitude of hair styles.
The Original Styler features a sleek black handle and most recognizably, a red pad. Denman has always preserved that DNA of the brush, while simultaneously adapting to trends and the needs of users. Quality and forethought are integral parts of the brush making process. The brand is a proud manufacturer and innovator of tools of the trade, providing products to people in over 80 countries worldwide.
Kevin McNamee, CEO of Denman and the wider Denroy group, explains the evolution and endurance of the brand. “The success of Denman over the past decades comes down to how great the design of the classic Original Stylers were in that they have remained virtually unchanged for the last 90 years. I say it’s like the recipe for Coca-Cola – for goodness sake don’t change it! In saying that, the world moves on, hairstyles change, as do fashions. This is where Denman has remained relevant, by adding new brushes and combs to the range as the industry demands them, and more recently adding the vibrant and exciting prints and patterned brushes,” says McNamee.
Expertly crafted in Northern Ireland, Denman brushes are created with precision through advanced machinery and the hands of skilled artisans before gliding through your tresses. Denman boasts a state-of-the-art factory in the U.K. where the brushes are designed, tested, researched, developed, and assembled. A testament of the quality, loyal customers often remark, “I’ve had my Denman for over 20 years!”
Denman also has a sustainability plan that continues to grow and change. All single use plastics have been removed from any packaging, many of the products are recyclable, and Denman has worked with Plastic Bank to stop over 10 million plastic bottles from entering our oceans.
Denman is a family owned and run company, and those thoughtful family values carry through the business: from the factory to the corporate offices, to partnerships and even trickling down to consumer channels like social media. The current Chairman Dr. John Rainey MBE has been helping write the Denman story since his family acquired the company in 1972. Rainey explains “Our business is still conducted on a very personal basis both in the U.K. and abroad. In 1989 we established Denman Inc. as our sales and marketing office in Boston… The brand is almost 90 years young and we have been its custodian for more than 50 years of its most important developments. I have been gifted with so many wonderful memories and I’ve got to know so many great people, and it’s all about the people.”
Viral Sensation
In 2020, the global pandemic massively shifted the industry, with some ramifications remaining half a decade later. The hair industry is a physically intimate one, with stylists having personal contact with their clients in the chair. The salon shutdown prompted a shift to self-services and stylists providing kits for their clients. The Denman Brush website had just undergone an overhaul, launching in February 2020 with an exciting range of both core products and new prints and colours for sale, and with mass store closure, it resulted in a huge increase in website sales for the brand.
The boom of social, more specifically TikTok, during the pandemic sparked a surge in the beauty industry. With extra time on their hands, consumers were perfecting the craft of an at-home blowout, flawless curl definition, or smooth and sleek looks. Anyone on Beauty-Tok at the time would’ve seen the acclaimed black-and-red brush being twisted through sections of curls as they scrolled. To date, #denmanbrush has amassed over 150 million uses in the span of five years, contributing to the major success of the brand.
Riding the wave of increased brand awareness and the boom of the beauty industry, full faith and autonomy was given to the marketing team to pivot the brand positioning. What was once a very professional-heavy business model had become a balancing act: how to grow the relationship with everyday consumers while fostering the relationship with the loyal stylists who were the foundation of the brand. The team focused on omnichannel marketing campaigns to support the consumer and professional industries in tandem, providing varying designs and assets for each respective audience. In discovering the differences in needs and wants of each sector, Denman was even able to find overlap and cater to the growing world of “prosumer” markets.
Endorsing Artistry
Denman is a globally recognized brand – championed by professionals across every sector of hair artistry. Hair styling on many TV and film sets is executed with Denman brushes, including the likes of Wicked, Peaky Blinders, Bridgerton, The Crown and more. The diverse ranging of products means Denman offers a tool for every step of the hair journey: from washing, to detangling, to styling, and finishing. Denman brushes are suitable for every hair type, including wigs and extensions, and come in varying sizes making them perfect for full styling kits. Characters from the glamorous to the downright terrifying are brought to life by craftspeople, wielding their favourite Denman Brush to achieve movie magic.
Celebrity stylists hail Denman as a favorite as well. Adir Abergel used the brands D81M Style and Shine Brush for achieving Nicole Kidman’s red carpet look for the 2024 Golden Globes, following her critically acclaimed film Babygirl. While Denman is known best for the Original Styler, the brand creates tools for all different hair styles. This brush is great for finishing a look – such as slicking the hair back into a chic updo or brushing out created curls to smooth and shine the hair into waves.
Skilled stylists use Denman Brush to create their winning looks and collections for competitions like OneShot, North American Hairstyling Awards and British Hairdressing Awards. Denman is also the brush behind the scenes at fashion shows around the world, including London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. The brand has built its presence at NYFW, both as a tool in the stylist’s kits and a product within swag bags gifted to show attendees. Consumers can imagine achieving the styles they see on runways – from the avant-garde to the effortlessly chic – by getting their hands on the tool used to create those looks. A hair stylist’s work cannot be easily replicated, requiring years of learning and honing their skills professionally. But by owning the best of the best, consumers are certainly a step closer to achieving the dream.
Supporting the professional industry comes in many shapes and sizes. Denman have been long time attendees of the Salon International trade show in London, hosting their own stage show, Stage Star for 10 years before retiring the competition in 2023. Stage Star gave artists a chance to compete live on stage to achieve hair excellence, often platforming new stylists with little or no stage experience. In 2022 the competition saw its first American participant, Eric Wright. Denman further expanded the competition globally in 2023, featuring finalists from the U.K. (Emma Dixon), U.S.A. (Jalia Pettis), Asia (Nobu Hirahara) and Europe (Christine Alves).
While Stage Star ended in 2023, the brand has transitioned to an online competition borrowing the same concept, which focuses on stylists at the start of their career. College Star started in the U.K. in 2024, expanding to the U.S. in 2025. Students enter online with their best blowout look for a chance to win prizes. Your career begins when you first pick up that beloved hairbrush, and Denman has always wanted to be a memorable member of a stylist’s kit. Denman is committed to encouraging and motivating the next generation of hair professionals and the blowout competition gives students an opportunity to strengthen a pivotal salon skill. The competition requires just four images of one amazing blowout and opens again in February 2026.
To reinforce the commitment to those starting out on their hair styling career, an exclusive college styling kit has been developed for educators and students. Denman worked closely with college educators to identify the 10 key tools to take students through their studies and beyond. The kit comes in a case and is sold at a special price to ensure they are set up for success with the best tools of the trade.
Continuing the Legacy
Whether you know the brush from your first styling kit, your Granny’s vanity, or TikTok, the Denman Brush has built a powerful name and an image over the years. Nearly 90 years later, over 100 million Denman brushes have sold around the world. Any good stylist knows that hair is more than just hair: it’s about confidence, self-perception, and the image we show to the world. It’s both who we are, and who we want to be. For Denman, a hairbrush is more than just a hairbrush.
