How to Clean a Hairbrush

By Laura Parker
March 14, 2019

Womans hand brushing blonde hair cares about a healthy and clean hair picture id852239992

Don’t Put Dirty Combs In Your Hair!

Are your hairbrushes dirty? While it is recommended to clean your hairbrushes once a week, most everyone assumes that it is enough just to pull trapper hair out of the brush every once in a while. If your brush is looking dirty or you want to know how to clean a hairbrush properly, check out some of our tips below.

 

Hairbrushes Pick Up Germs Easily!

Your hairbrush picks up just about anything it comes into contact with. That means hair, dust, dirt, oils, product, and more. What is worse is that it actually deposits these trapped things into your hair when you use a dirty hairbrush. You may be adding grease, dead skin cells, and old hair product back into your hair.

 

If you look closely, you can often see the grime building up at the bottom of your hairbrushes.

 

Cleaning Plastic and Metal Brushes

Hopefully what you’ve read so far makes you want to learn how to clean a hairbrush. The good thing is that we have the perfect step-by-step instructions for you. These instructions work for any plastic or metal paddle brushes or round brushes. If you have a wooden brush with natural bristles, see the next section for more.

 

  1. Acquire the items you need. Find a rat tail comb (or substitute with a pen), a pair of scissors, a garbage bag, a toothbrush, baking soda, and shampoo. 
  2. Loosen the hair on the bottom of the brush. Use the rat tail comb or something similar to get under all the hair at the bottom of the brush. Loosening the hair and dust makes it easier to get to the bottom later.
  3. Snip through the center of the brush. If you’ve ever tried to pull hair out of a brush, you know it is tough to do so. Instead, first use your scissors to snip through the middle of the brush. Pulling the hair out later will be a lot easier.
  4. Wash the brush. Don’t soak your hairbrushes, but mix together a concoction of 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon shampoo, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Apply it to the bristles of the brush using an old toothbrush.
  5. Give it a quick rinse. Rinse the brush and lay it down bristles down to dry. Through the process, you should have been able to dislodge all the hair and grime in the hairbrush. Now that you are done, you have successfully learned how to clean a hairbrush!

 

Cleaning Wooden Brushes

The difference when cleaning wooden brushes is that you probably don’t want to get them wet. So while you can start with steps 1, 2, and 3 outlined above, you do not want to wash the brush.


Instead, switch out the cleaning solution for a drier option. At step 4, just mix a cup of water with a few drops of tea tree oil and apply it sparingly to the bristles. For step 5, instead of rinsing the brush, find a water mister and rinse off the tea tree oil that way. Again, lay the brush bristles down to dry.

 

Don't Forget How to Clean Hairbrushes!

Now that you know how to clean a hairbrush, remember to add a reminder to your calendar to clean your hairbrushes! You probably don’t want to be running a dirty hairbrush through your hair. Imagine the joy and relief of having a clean hairbrush. Have fun cleaning your hairbrushes and thanks for reading!





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