hair

BRUSH BATH

The two most dreaded words of the season: spring cleaning. Naturally you’ll do the windows, you’ll deep clean your room, break out some lighter-weight bedding, but will you shampoo your hair brushes? I realized this post needed to happen when I was talking to my client the other day. She said she was having a very hard time getting the silky smooth blowout that she normally gets. I asked her if she had been doing anything different recently and she said she was using a volumizing mousse for a while but had stopped. I asked her if she had shampooed her brush between then and now and she just gave me this stumped look. I’m pretty sure she realized right then why it made sense. But I explained that you blowdry with product, it obviously transfers onto the brush. If you do that for a couple/few weeks you will have a build up of product that will transfer right back into wet hair when it’s dragged through. The product on the brush will also attract dust. Long-ish story short, she shampooed the brush and then we got a cute email titled “hooray” to let us know that it fully did the trick. Seems so obvious but when you can’t see the product just by looking down at the brush you really don’t think much about it. It’s not just mousses either– it’s leave-in conditioners, hairspray, thermal protectant, serums, pomades, etc. If you’re a product user, take the time every couple of weeks to shampoo your brushes like this…

1. Looking at your brush doesn’t tell you much. Looks good enough, right?
2. Look at it a little closer. On metal-core round brushes, you’ll often see product that’s been burned while sitting on the metal. Particles come off and get in your hair the next time you run it through your freshly shampooed strands.
3. Before taking them for a dip, use the wide side of a comb to get the hair out.
4. I specifically encourage you to use a clarifying shampoo. I like THIS ONE + THIS ONE. Don’t just use soap as that can leave behind even more residue.
5. Fill the sink up about halfway with medium to hot water while adding your clarifying shampoo. Let them sit for about 5 minutes– enough to soften the hardened product particles.
6. Using a basic scrubber (which I get from the 99 cent store) rub at the core of a metal round brush or at the padding of a flat brush. If you’re cleaning a natural bristle brush, massage it with your fingers under the water instead.Rinse them well with cold water. Make sure you’ve removed all the shampoo.
7. Now either lay them out to dry or blowdry them on medium heat, which is what I like to do.
8. See. No more nastiness! You’re sure to get a much better blowout when you have freshly cleaned brushes. This only takes a few minutes and makes all the difference in the world.