It could be the most usable clothing accessory you never realized you needed: A hairbrush with movable parts that allows you to easily clean out the gunk that builds up with regular use.

Co-created by Scott Shin, an associate professor of design at Ohio State University, he hopes that his unique product, named the MAZE hairbrush, can encourage people to hold onto them for longer periods of time.

“We don’t want people to have to throw away a perfectly good hairbrush just because it needs to be cleaned,” Shim said in a statement.

The lightly-haired Shim was initially inspired by seeing his wife cleaning her hairbrush.

“I couldn’t understand why she had to do that. Obviously, this is not a problem for me,” he said. “Then I did some market research, and found out how often hairbrushes get thrown out — not because they’re worn out, but because they’re disgusting and people didn’t maintain them well." According to Shim's research, many people only keep their brushes for six months to a year before throwing them out.

Teaming up with co-creator Morris Koo, a MFA alumni at OSU, the two tried to design a brush that could simplify the process of cleaning up.

“Our goal was for the user to easily remove hair from the bristles. We latched on to this idea that brushes usually have a solid surface that gets in the way of cleaning,” Shim said. “We decided that the best solution would be to create a brush with an open surface, where the user could actually open it and just grab the hair.”

Created via a 3-D printer, with bristles added by hand afterwards, the two are hoping that they can make improvements in the composition of their patented product before beginning mass production, since the current type of plastic used now can be brittle and prone to snapping when the bristles are added.

Their prototype has already earned some high distinctions, however. It won first place in the Beauty, Personal Care and Cosmetic Products Design Category of the A' Design Awards in Italy, and won a Green Product Award from the German “full-service” agency, white lobster, both in 2014.