How to Clean Your Hairbrush

When you use your hairbrush for a long time, it can get pretty dirty because it soaks up oil, dust, dead skin cells, and all sorts of residue both from your hair and from the environment. All that dirt might transfer back to your hair every time you use your brush.

So, if you want your hair to look good without it getting oily too quickly, you should clean your hairbrush on a regular basis, and 5-Minute Crafts would like to tell you how to do this properly.

❗ If you often use styling creams, gels, and hairsprays, clean your brush once a week.

❗ If you don’t use many hair products, clean your brush every 2-3 weeks.

What you’ll need:

• a rat tail comb (or a pencil, pen, ice pick)
• scissors
• a toothbrush
• a bowl of warm water
• gentle shampoo (or regular or antibacterial soap)
• a cloth (or a towel)
• baking soda (optional)

Step 1. Remove the hair.

✅ Take a rat tail comb and, using the end of it, gently loosen the hair at the base of the brush from the bottom up to the top.

Tip: If you don’t have a rat tail comb, you can also use a pencil, pen, or ice pick.

✅ Try to get under all the hair and raise it up to the ends of the bristles.

✅ Then use the end of the rat tail comb to pop out the hairballs and dust from the base of the brush.

✅ Once you’ve loosened the hair, take scissors and cut the hair in the center along the length of the brush.

Tip: If you have a round brush, cut the hair on one half of the brush, then rotate it to the opposite side and repeat the cutting.

✅ After that, grab the clumps of hair and throw them away.

Step 2. Wash the brush.

✅ Take a bowl filled with warm water, add a few drops of gentle shampoo or regular, or antibacterial, soap to it, and swish it together to create suds.

Tip: For extra cleaning, you can add 1-2 teaspoons of baking soda to the solution as well.

✅ Wash your brush according to its type:

• For a plastic brush, put the entire brush in the soapy solution and let it soak in it for 3-5 minutes.
• For a brush with a soft padding at the base or a wooden brush, just dip the bristles into the water, but keep the padding dry.

✅ Then dip the brush (or the bristles) into the water again and shake it well several times to remove the dirt and oil.

Step 3. Scrub it with a toothbrush.

✅ Take a toothbrush, dip it into the soapy water, and start scrubbing the base of your hairbrush with it.

✅ Clean between each bristle and the bristles themselves in an upward motion. But don’t scrub too hard, to avoid breaking the bristles.

✅ Scrub the outer edge of the brush as well.

Step 4. Finish the cleaning.

✅ Rinse the brush under a stream of cool water and then leave it to dry on top of a clean cloth or towel with the bristles facing down.

✅ You can also just sprinkle a little water on the base of the brush and wipe it dry with a cloth.