Hair brushes are an essential tool in maintaining a healthy and attractive hairdo.
They can detangle your hair after a night of restless sleep or make it nice and tidy again after bad weather has made it messy and wreaked havoc on your styling.
However, hairbrushes can also accumulate hair, dirt, and oil, which can make them less effective and even harmful to your hair.
This means that regular cleaning of your hairbrushes is crucial to maintaining their effectiveness and promoting healthy hair.
Unfortunately, many people overlook the importance of cleaning their hair brushes or simply do not know how to properly clean them.
In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide on how to clean hair brushes. With our guide, you will be able to keep your hair brushes clean and your hair healthy, shiny, and beautiful.
Removing Hair From A Hair Brush
The first step to cleaning your hair brush is to remove any hair or lint that has accumulated in the bristles.
We all shed hair from time to time and your hair brush is where most of these hairs will gather.
If you don’t clean your brush regularly, these hairs can become tangled and matted, making it very difficult to remove them.
It will also make it difficult to remove the other dirt that your brush accumulates, such as oil and dirt.
Let’s look at how to remove loose hairs from your brush.
Option One – Use Fingers Or Comb
If you don’t have much hair in your hair brush, you might be able to simply pull the hair out with your fingers. An even quicker and more effective way is to use a comb and pull this through the bristles.
This method works especially well with flat brushes. It doesn’t work as well with some round brushes, however, so you may need to use our second option.
Option Two – Use Scissors
For round brushes or any kind of brush where the hairs are tightly wound and can’t be removed by pulling, you will need to get the scissors out.
Try to loosen the hair as much as you can as this will make it easier to get the blades of the scissors into the brush to cut.
Cut through the strands of hair that are wrapped around the brush and you should be able to pull the hairs free.
Option Three – Use Cleaning Brushes
It’s possible to purchase brushes that are made with the express purpose of removing hair from a hair brush.
These are available at many major retailers such as Walmart. They will make removing hair strands from your flat or round brushes very easy!
Removing Oil And Dirt From A Hair Brush
Hair brushes can also be magnets for other types of dirt such as oil, skin cells, and residue from hair styling products.
These should be removed from your hair brush as well and this should be done after you’ve removed the hair strands.
See below for our step-by-step guide on how to do this. This method is suitable for brushes made from synthetic materials and boar bristles.
Step One – Shampoo
You don’t need any special specific shampoo for this! The same shampoo that you use to clean your hair will be suitable for cleaning your hair brush.
The shampoo works in the same way on your brush as it does on your hair to remove the oil and dirt.
All you need is to fill a bowl with some warm water. Dip your hair brush into the water to get the bristles wet and then put a few drops of shampoo on the brush head (see also “How To Make Rosemary Water For Hair“).
Use your fingers or a toothbrush to lather the shampoo and clean the bristles.
Step Two – Handle
Don’t forget to clean the handle!
As you’re cleaning the brush head, you should also take the opportunity to clean the handle of your brush as this can also accumulate grease and oil from your hands as well as residue from any hair styling products that you use.
If you have a hair brush that has grooves in the handle, you can use a cotton swab to get into the grooves and clear them out.
Be careful if your brush is made out of wood, however. You don’t want to keep this type of brush submerged in water for too long as it can damage the material.
If your brush is made out of plastic this isn’t a concern at all. Plastic handles can be cleaned in your bowl of water as well if you wish.
Step Three – Rinse
Whenever you wash your hair with shampoo you always have to wash the shampoo out and cleaning the bristles of your hair brush is no different.
This is an important step as you don’t want to brush your hair with a brush covered in shampoo and rinsing the brush will ensure any loosened dirt or oil gets washed away.
There are two ways you can do this.
You can swap the dirty water in your bowl for some new water or you can rinse your brush underneath a running faucet until you’re confident all of the shampoo has been washed away.
Step Four – Dry
The most effective way to dry your hair brush after it has been washed is simply to let it air dry.
Place the brush on a clean towel and ensure that it is facing down so that the bristles are against the towel. You should leave your brush overnight to ensure it dries fully.
If your brush is a flat brush with vents, it will dry quite quickly. Solid or round brushes will take longer to dry.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we look at how you can clean a hair brush. We explained a couple of methods for removing hair from a brush and a step-by-step guide to removing dirt and oil.
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