How To Deep Clean Your Hair Brush For A Healthier Scalp

When it comes to grooming your hair, the mighty hair brush is the loofah for your scalp. It detangles and smooths the hair, while also removing crud, dead skin cells, and oil (via Healthline). But these residues don't just disappear. Instead, the bristles of the brush trap these residues, along with environmental particles like dust and soot. If you don't want this debris to get back into your hair, it may be time to deep clean your brush.

Whether your brush is big or small, the cleaning process is the same. Move from the top to the bottom and pull out all the loose hairs with your fingers or a comb, Alex Brown, a celebrity hairstylist in Chicago, tells Real Simple. Don't worry if you see a big accumulation of hair, as the average person sheds 50 to 100 hairs per day (via American Academy of Dermatology).

Next, you'll want to clean the brush with a gentle soap. Try the "dip and shake" method where you dunk the brush several times in warm soapy water (per Healthline). Or you can add a couple drops of soap directly to the bristles, according to Real Simple. Rinse it thoroughly, then let it dry.

Deep cleaning your hair brush with dandruff follows the same cleaning protocol, shares Real Simple. But, the biggest difference is the cleaning frequency. For those who don't have dandruff, Healthline recommends cleaning your brush once every one to three weeks, depending on how much product you use. Hence, the more product you use, the more often you should clean your brush. On the other hand, those with dandruff should expect to clean their brush weekly. This is because there may be more build up stuck on the bristles from the dandruff flakes, and you'll want to make sure this residue is gone, Alex Brown shares with Real Simple.

Since you're already cleaning your brush, you may want to clean your comb too. Let it soak in a soapy warm water and add one tablespoon of white vinegar (per Real Simple). However, according to Healthline if your comb has lice you'll want to use a napkin to remove all the lice and nits, then seal the napkin in a ziplock baggie before disposing of it. Then place the comb in boiling water for ten minutes, let it dry, and clean it with rubbing alcohol.