Do you clean your hairbrush enough?

I mean, really, do you know how often you should clean your hairbrush? I used to wonder the same thing. At the salon, I would clean my brushes regularly because they are being used on multiple clients. However, at home, my brush is only being used on my daughter and me.  

Well, let’s get down to the dirty. No, I mean your brush can really be dirty.  

Why should you clean your hairbrush?

Oh my goodness, besides just having loose hair in your brushes, you have so much more. I want you to think about what you do on a daily basis.  

Where do you go? What are you doing?

Your hair can be carrying that around with you. If you work out, you have sweat in your hair. If you go outside, you may get dirt in your hair.

Each time you brush your hair, and the bristles touch your scalp, you remove dead skin cells. They then end up in your brush.

Do you put products in your hair? When you brush your hair, product build-up ends in your brush as well.

Now that you realize what could be in your hair and how it ends up in your brush, I want you to think about what happens when you brush your hair with that brush. You put back on your strands the dirt, sweat, product build-up, and dead skin cells. This can affect your hairstyle and even ruin your brush.

How often should you clean your hairbrush?

It all depends on how often you use your hairbrush. For me, on my curly days, I don’t use a brush on my hair. When I do a blowout on my hair, I will be using a wet brush and a round brush.

I do recommend that you clean your hairbrushes at least two times a month. If you are using your brush on a daily basis and you use hair products, I recommend you clean your brush once a week.

After you clean and lay it out to dry, then keep it in a closed space, like a drawer. That way, you don’t get unnecessary dust and/or dust mites in your brush.

To make this an easier habit to stick to, do it the same day each week.  

How do you clean your hairbrush at home?

The first thing you want to do when it comes to cleaning your hairbrush is to remove all of the loose hair. You also want to remove any fuzz at the base of the bristles too. This can be done with a clean toothbrush or a special hairbrush cleaning tool.

Next, you want to fill your sink with warm water, enough to cover your brush completely. I will give you a couple of options for what you can use as your cleaning agent.

Option 1:

Sink full of warm water

1/2 cup white vinegar

7-10 drops of tea tree oil

The vinegar is great at removing any gunk in the hair that is stuck in there. Vinegar removes sticky substance. It is also a great disinfectant. Tea tree oil is an antiseptic, which is beneficial for killing any bacteria.

You can read up on how beneficial tea tree oil can be for you here.

Option 2:

Sink full of warm water

1/4 cup of gentle shampoo

Option 3:

Sink full of warm water

1/4 cup Dr. Bonners 18-1 Castille soap

With any of the above options, let your brushes soak for 10 minutes. After the time is up, rinse in clean water and layout to dry. Once completely dry, put away in a closed drawer.

Here are my favorite hair brushes:

My favorite round brushes are Olivia Garden Nano Thermic Ion Ceramic.

I have tried out a few different types, and they pull my hair. I like this brand because the handle doesn’t have a rubber gripper that my hair will get wrapped around and pull out. I also find that the bristles aren’t too long or too hard.

I love my wet brush. We have five of them at my house. Odd how we can sometimes not find any. Anyone else ever have that happen? My absolute favorite wet brush is the pro ones. I like the sturdier handle.

If you have not ever used a wet brush, you don’t know what you’re missing. It is the only brush I recommend to my clients to use on their wet hair. I don’t recommend any other brush to be used on wet hair; otherwise, you can experience breakage.

The wet brush is also great on tangles. It’s a much less painful way to get them out, bonus for kids.

Bonus, Don’t forget to clean your makeup brushes too!

Makeup brushes need to be washed more often. I recommend that you wash them once a week.  

When you don’t wash your makeup brushes, you can be putting bacteria that has formed from face oils, dirt, and dead skin cells back on your face. Dirty makeup brushes can lead to acne.

I use my hand to wash my makeup brushes. I use warm water and Dr. Bonner’s 18-1 Castile Soap. You want to use gentle circles on your palm to clean your brushes and rinse until the water runs clear. Lay them out to dry and put away in a closed drawer.

So girl, now it’s time to go clean your brushes!!!

While your brushes are soaking, check out some of these posts and give yourself some self-love and create some DIYs.

Oh, and one more thing, don’t forget to download your Harmful Ingredients to AVOID list here.

Once it’s in your inbox, make sure none of these toxic ingredients are in any of your beauty products. Your beauty doesn’t need to come at a cost to your health. New to clean beauty, learn more here.