Where Craft Meets Care: Altesse Studio’s Heritage Hairbrushes

Written by LAURA REGENSDORF

Images courtesy of Altesse Studio

So much of modern progress is about reinvention—new technology married with streamlined efficiency. Sometimes, though, that relentless chase for the next iteration brings us full-circle back to the beginning, to what simply cannot be improved upon. This is why the hairbrush of the moment is as old-world as they come: a showpiece of 19th-century French craftsmanship, as handsome in hand as it is beneficial for the scalp.

We could only be speaking about Altesse Studio, a line of exceptional brushes produced by a 150-year-old atelier in Mouy, France. “It’s a workshop and a museum at the same time,” says Julia Tissot-Gaillard, the CEO of Maison Fournival Altesse, referring to equipment for drilling bristle holes—still in use—that dates back to the time of Napoléon III. At the peak of French brushmaking in the late 19th century, the region was a flurry of activity, with scores of firms that specialized in everything from brooms to toothbrushes. By 2005, Fournival was among the last, on the brink of liquidation, when her stepfather Jacques Gaillard—himself the grandson of a blind brushmaker, who went on to become an industry figurehead—acquired the company in order to preserve the region’s last glimmer of hairbrush savoir-faire. Shortly after Tissot-Gaillard took the helm in 2016, the French state officially bestowed its Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label, recognizing Altesse’s role in keeping this heritage craft alive.

The brushes by Altesse Studio have an elemental appeal, as if reorienting the sometimes hollow concept of luxury back toward intentional design and material selection. “Wood is a natural static insulator,” Tissot-Gaillard says, pointing to the olive handles throughout the line. The swirling grain gives each brush its own distinctive fingerprint; on-site carpenters are responsible for the shapely curves and the protective linseed-oil finish.

Bristles are the next consideration. The Beauté detangling hairbrushes—one for finer hair, the other for curly—feature bio-sourced nylon fibers set into a natural latex base. “it’s important to have a certain balance between stiffness and elasticity to accompany the contours of your scalp,” says Tissot-Gaillard of the cushion’s calibrated flexion. And while végane wasn’t a word in 1875 when Léon Étienne Fournival established his atelier, this brush suits today’s need for a plant-based design.

Can a hairbrush truly convey a sense of living history? That’s where the Préstige model comes in: as much an artifact as an heirloom. “We are one of the last companies in the world that is able to do hairbrushes entirely by hand,” says Tissot-Gaillard—and because manufacturing in France is an expensive proposition, Altesse has no choice but to make the very best. Each brush is numbered and eligible for lifetime repairs: “They can live several lives.”

The central material here is boar bristles—a keyword familiar to the beauty cognoscenti. The sturdy, barbed fibers are known for energizing the scalp and distributing the natural oils through the hair shaft. “But not all boar-bristle brushes are equal,” Tissot-Gaillard says. The Préstige brush uses only the first cut of the bristles, which are stiff in texture and steep in price (she estimates they cost 30 times more than other cuts). Specially trained artisans hand-thread the bristles directly into the pierced olive wood; each small tuft is carefully composed of different lengths to ensure they penetrate through the hair. “Having a well-made tool is a good thing—knowing how to use it is even better,” she says of the classic 100-stroke technique. In the 19th century, when hair-washing was a monthly activity, brushing was a means of good health and good hygiene. It’s still good practice. “Stimulating blood circulation will bring nutrients to your hair follicles to help with growth,” she adds.

Still, an interest in preservation doesn’t get in the way of an innovative spirit. Altesse’s body brushes, which launched last year for normal and sensitive skin, are an example of Tissot-Gaillard meeting the moment as tools for at-home lymphatic drainage began to proliferate. Seeing the often subpar versions on the market, she set out to develop an elevated one. The lymphatic drainage expert Rebecca Trévalinet, who learned the practice from her mother, weighed in on the design. Here, the second, gentler cut of boar bristles finds its place, the better to coax along the superficial and interstitial lymph fluid. A specially tooled olive-wood base fits into all manner of hands.

“We’ve learned something new again, even at 150 years old,” says Tissot-Gaillard of the launch into body care. She has seen the workshop swell from a team of 30 to nearly 80; double-digit growth has sparked a new set of challenges—like how to expand the workspace when techniques are necessarily taught in-house. A 75-year-old brushmaker, who got his start at age 14, recently passed down his drilling techniques to two younger employees. Even in retirement, she says, “his know-how continues.”