british — and never beaten

MASON PEARSON HAIRBRUSH, launched 1885, from £40

I don’T know if you’ve ever sat in a hairdresser’s salon and witnessed your stylist unable to locate his or her Mason Pearson hairbrush.

I have on several occasions and it’s not pretty, because over 200 years after its invention, a Mason Pearson brush remains the gold standard throughout the hairdressing world, with each owner as attached to theirs as a chef to her favourite paring knife.

I encountered my first Mason Pearson at around six years old, when my aunt came to stay from London with a girlfriend, who unpacked a large Mason Pearson and placed it ceremoniously on the tiny dressing table next to her bed.

Before then, I’d thought that hairbrushes were two-quid jobs from the corner shop and associated them with tortuous and tear-filled detangling sessions.

The Mason Pearson was different. Like the Mary Poppins of hairbrushes, it was firm, sturdy and no-nonsense, but kind, modest and uncommonly elegant.

It’s endlessly satisfying to me that in an age of ceramic-barrelled, laser-cut, heated and rotating contraptions, this high-quality British-made icon prevails.

Anyone who’s ever owned a Mason Pearson will know why. The weighty plastic handle feels solid in the hand, the bristles glide through locks like a spoon through cream and it backcombs brilliantly.

of course, any Mason Pearson owner would be lying if they claimed not to have been drawn, at least in part, to its heirloom-worthy looks. The signature gold-blocked dark ruby handle and orange rubber cushion make it utilitarian but elegant — and recognisable the world over.