The first nylon-bristle toothbrush goes on sale
On this day · 24 February 1938
On February 24, 1938, a toothbrush traded boar hair for DuPont nylon, quietly launching the synthetic-fiber age.
On February 24, 1938, the first toothbrush with synthetic nylon bristles went into commercial production — Dr. West’s Miracle-Tuft, made by Chicago’s Weco Products Company. Until then, brushes were tufted with animal bristle, usually boar hair imported from cold regions of Siberia, Poland, and China, where harsh winters grew firmer hairs. Premium versions used badger or horsehair.
The new fiber came from DuPont, where chemist Wallace Carothers had invented nylon in 1935. The toothbrush, not the stocking, was nylon’s first big commercial outing.
The brush sold for about 50 cents and promised “no bristle shedding.”
Nylon bristles dried faster, resisted bacteria, and didn’t fall out mid-brush — real improvements over animal hair, even if early versions were harsh on gums. Johnson & Johnson followed with its own nylon brush in 1939, and within a few years the boar had been retired from the bathroom for good.
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