How to Clean and Maintain Your Hair Care Tools to Keep Your Hair Healthy and Easy to Style

Consumers spend large sums of money on hair care tools. Few people realize that the simple act of cleaning and maintaining your hair care tools can help keep your hair looking healthy and make your hair easier to style.

Making sure that your scissors are sharp and your hair dryer, hairbrushes, and curling or flat irons are free of build-up caused by your hair's natural oils and commercial styling products is one of the most important things you can do to keep your hair looking its best.

Dull scissors and hair styling tools with accumulated build-up can snag and pull at your hair strands causing damage that can lead to split ends. Build-up from commercial styling products can also easily transfer from your hair care products to your hair; this will leave your hair looking dull and lifeless and rob hair of volume and styleability.

Follow these easy tips to make short work of maintaining your hair care tools.

Scissors - Many people like to trim their own hair in between trips to the salon. Sharp scissors are the best option for making quick and clean cuts to your hair. However, even if you dedicate a pair of scissors to be use only for trimming hair the blades can become dull quickly. To easily restore your scissors to their original state first thoroughly clean the blades of the scissors with a wet washcloth (preferably with hot water) to remove any build-up from hair's natural oils or any residue from commercial hair products.

After you have cleaned, the scissors easily sharpen them by folding a piece of aluminum foil over several times. Once you have a thick square of aluminum foil sharpen the blades by cutting through the foil square numerous times. This method works and will quickly sharpen your scissors and get them in prime shape to properly cut your hair.

Hair brushes- hairbrushes are a prime candidate to accumulate build-up that can cause the brush to damage transfer build-up to hair.

Clean your hairbrush by using a fork or comb to pull hair strands off the brush. You will also need to clean the brush to completely remove the build up of oils and styling products. Clean your brush after removing hair strands by filling a bowl with hot soapy water and enough drops of anti-bacterial dish soap to make the water bubbly.

Completely submerge the hairbrush in the hot soapy water; allow it to soak for five minutes. This will loosen the build up and make it easier for you to remove it. Use a washcloth to scrub the hairbrush paying attention to the areas on the base of the brush between the bristles. Continue scrubbing until all of the build-up is gone. Then rinse the hairbrush thoroughly removing all of the soap and then allow the hairbrush to air dry.

Curling and Flat Irons: These hair care products are prime offenders when it comes to accumulating build-up of styling products and hair oils. Luckily, cleaning these products is easy. First, make sure the hair care tools are not plugged in! Next, saturate a cotton ball or the corner of a washcloth with rubbing alcohol and thoroughly wipe the metal or ceramic surfaces of the iron. This will remove some build-up and loosen up the rest.

Next mix some baking soda with a small amount of water, just enough to make a paste. Baking soda is a natural abrasive so it will help remove build-up. You can use a washcloth to apply the baking soda paste or for irons with a lot of hard to remove build-up, you can use steel wool.

Scrub the iron with the baking soda paste until all build up is removed. Then rinse the iron off, be careful not to submerge this hair cool tool in water. Repeatedly wipe the iron off with a wet washcloth until you have removed the baking soda. Once you have removed the paste make sure to allow the curling or flat iron to completely dry before using it again.

To keep your hair dryer free of dust and dirt that can weigh your hair down easily clean the hair care tool by using a brush that has soft bristles, a nail brush works wonderfully for this purpose, to remove dust and hair from the hair dryers filter. The filter is located at the air intake area of the hair dryer and is usually accessible from the outside. Keeping this filter clean will also help increase the life of your hair dryer.

Next, run your hair dryer for a minute so it will heat up a little, this will help loosen up any build up that has accumulated. After warming the hair dryer, unplug it. Then wipe all areas of the hair dryer with a warm, wet washcloth, including as far inside the dryer as you can reach. Once all the build-up has been removed, allow the hair dryer time to dry before using it again.

Maintaining your hair care tools will help keep your hair looking healthy and shiny; it can also make your hair easier to style since you will not be transferring build-up to your hair. Keeping your hair care tools in good working order will also increase their life saving you money long term.