Hillside Angus Ranch, owned and operated by the Washam family, has always been involved with showing cattle on local, state, and national levels. Working up to developing the Wide Range Brush, we were frustrated with other combs and brushes loosing teeth, bristles, or just breaking. We used them for working hair everyday, not saying they aren’t good products, it’s just that they didn’t stand up to daily use! We wanted a comb/brush that was durable and would last!
We decided we would try to find a hair brush that would work, just as good, if not better than the ones developed specifically for cattle. The kicker was, they were too small, so we had to figure out how to put two together and attach them to some of our old comb handles. (And we had a lot of them from all the broken combs.) We tried a few different ones before we found the round brush that worked the best. We made as many up as we had old comb handles for and friends that brought us their broken combs, so we could have more handles, but eventually we ran out. That posed a new problem, we couldn’t get the comb handles with the “V”. No one would sell them to us, so we kind of hit a dead-end. Knowing this was a good idea we were determined to get these in mass production. We ended up buying wood handles and made a press to fabricate the “v”. It was a process and luckily a couple of members of our family were good at these things. The brushes had orange tips and since handles were raw we painted them orange to match. Not to mention we are OSU Cowboy fans! So we got over the handle hurdle but it was very time-consuming and we were selling them faster than we could get them made. Then we purchased a bunch of the mini fluffer combs from Weaver Leather Livestock, took the fluffer comb off and attached our brush to those handles. We called them the Wide Range Brush/Comb Combo for a while and then just started calling them the Wide Range Brush. We also made a few smaller ones using one brush that worked well for goats and they were easier to handle for young showman. After talking with Weaver they supplied us with handles until they could start manufacturing them.
We feel we engineered a brush that glides through hair with ease and with it;s strong long lasting bristles, it with stands continued use and is made to last. The ball tipped teeth massage the hide to stimulate hair growth as it lifts and separates the hair. The Wide Range Brush is the original round brush and is the most durable daily hair care brush of its kind. As a true show family innovation, it’s the showman’s daily go to brush of choice. We are excited to have the opportunity to partner with Weaver. Thanks to Kirk Stierwalt and Brad Hurst for believing in our brush and introducing us to the Weaver team.
As innovators of the Wide Range Brush we were excited to develop a partnership with Weaver. As partners we made a few changes to our original brush so that it would fall in line with Weaver’s line, which include the length for the brushes and the color of the bristle tips. (We switched from the orange to purple bristles. K-State fans should like that). Weaver was great to work with while they were perfecting their version of the brush we were sent a couple of different prototypes for approval. They made sure we approved 100% before manufacturing began.
-The Washam Family
Innovators of the Wide Range Brush