GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. - Sensing trouble ahead for the season's marquee curling events, Curling Canada is limiting the use of hair brooms at the Canadian women's and men's curling championships.

The governing body of the sport in Canada announced Thursday that only skips and vice-skips in the house can use hair brooms and only to sweep stones that have moved beyond the tee-line. The tee-line bisects the rings in the house horizontally.

Skips will also be allowed to use hair brooms to sweep tick shots attempted on guards in front of the house.

But after the rock is delivered and as it glides the length of the ice, it can only be swept with fabric broom heads.

A resurgence in the use of hair brooms, which were introduced to the sport in the 1980s, is a by-product of a ban on fabric broomheads with "artificially-textured" cloth and hard inserts.

Sweeping with the banned brooms manipulates the trajectory of a rock in unprecedented ways because of the scratches those broomheads inflict on the ice.

The World Curling Federation declared a moratorium on "directional fabric" brooms in November with Curling Canada following suit.

Nearly 50 of the world's top teams refused to sweep with directional-fabric brooms even before they were outlawed to protect the "integrity of the game." What is a game of shooting accuracy and strategy was morphing into a sweeping contest.

But a second issue that cropped up is whether a brand new hair brush — with its synthetic bristles or mix of natural and synthetic — scores the ice with the same intensity as a banned broom head and thus manipulated the rock in the same manner.

Some curlers said hair brooms caused tense moments at provincial championships, even though they are allowed under the rules.

Limiting hair brushes applies only to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Tim Hortons Brier, which are Curling Canada properties. It's up to the WCF to decide what to do about hair brooms at this year's men's and women's world championships.

The Scotties opened Thursday in Grande Prairie, Alta., with its pre-qualifying tournament as four teams vie to gain entry into Saturday's main draw. The Brier is March 5-13 in Ottawa.

"Everybody had the same goal of protecting the spirit and integrity of the game, and making sure the playing field is level for all of our teams," Curling Canada's high-performance director Gerry Peckham said in a statement.

"We also wanted to make sure the events were played at the highest levels of sportsmanship and respect, and having the players’ support on this moving forward ensures that they can focus entirely on showcasing their skills on the ice in Grande Prairie and Ottawa.”

Former Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue, who will skip Newfoundland and Labrador for a 13th time at the Brier, had called for an outright ban on hair brooms.

His team performed their own tests they say prove a hair broom fresh out of the box scores the ice with the same intensity as a banned broom.

Gushue says limiting the hair broom's use is an acceptable compromise until sport's governing bodies, equipment manufacturers and athletes can decide how to manage a change in sweeping technology that turned the sport on its head this season.

"The only people allowed to use them will be the skips behind the tee-line, which is completely acceptable," Gushue said. "They're not going to be able to carve or manipulate the rock down the ice like a front-end could. It's a good step.

"At the end of this season, the players, the manufacturers and the governing bodies need to sit down and figure out detailed rules for the next couple years going forward. Changing the rules multiple times throughout a year is not the way we want to go."