Smooth and silky

Briar had to stifle a sigh as she turned her attention to Ember's tail and saw the state that it was in. She had tried her best with all of her children as they grew up to instill a good hygiene routine and a sense of pride in their appearance with mixed results. She wouldn't be too hard on Ember though. After all, that's why she had arranged this lesson in the first place. Ever the clever and observant student, Ember questioned whether or not there was a particular kind of brush that she should be using or if any of them would work. Briar gave her a grin and replied, "Very good question! While you can get to the same end result with any of these, there are some that are better for some things than others." She lifted a paw to tap one brush in particular that had bristles that were more sparse than some of the other options and the bristles themselves were a bit more flexible than some of the stiffer, more densely packed brushes. "This one is actually one of the best for getting out tangles. You want to be gentle with tangles and knots or you'll run the risk of breaking the hairs in the process. This one makes it a lot easier to do that and won't hurt as much as you pull it through the fur."

Ember then went to work under her watchful gaze, brushing through the tangles–and leaves–till her tail was brushed out once more. It took a bit of patience and some strategic drops of oil to get there, but hopefully this would encourage Ember to maintain her coat rather than having to do all of this work to get it back to this state. When Ember was content with her work, Briar returned her grin and nudged forward another type of brush, this one with stiffer bristles made out of boar's hair that were densely packed together within the wooden handle. She also picked up another of the oils and placed it beside the brush, telling her daughter, "Good job! Now, put a bit of this oil on the brush and start brushing it through your fur starting toward the end and working your way further up. It's a lighter weight oil than the one we used to detangle with, but you still want the highest concentration of it toward the ends where it can get frizzy and gets the most beating being drug across the floor and such. This kind of brush is very smoothing and good at distributing oil evenly though the hair." She knew it was a lot of steps for a young woman to remember and keep up with, but she knew that this bit of self care had become a bit of a ritual for herself that she quite enjoyed so hopefully Ember would feel the same once she got used to it.

WC: 1344 / 1500

"Briar Carpathius"