how do you clean your hairbrushes and combs?

[Blackdog Lin]

Granny taught me (jeesh, has it really been?!) 40 years ago that one cleaned brushes and combs by soaking them in ammonia/hot water, then rinsing well and air drying. It was always an easy and effective method for me.

I guess a person should replace their ammonia more often than every 10 years or so, as I just did my soaking and had a complete failure. I'm wondering if the ammonia is just too old, and has lost it's potency (the smell was not nearly as sinus-cleansing as I remember it should be too). Obviously, I don't use the ammonia for anything else around the house.

So rather than buying another jug of ammonia that will eventually do the same thing, what other cleaners or methods are recommended for cleaning combs and brushes?

Thanks!

[Miss Cellane]

I use a comb to pull all the hair out of the brush. Then I use a dab of shampoo on an old, clean toothbrush to clean both the comb and the brush. I figure if the shampoo can get the gunk out of my hair, it should be able to get the same gunk out of the brush and comb.

I've never soaked a brush. I always thought that soaking it would loosen the bristles or something.

[bunnys]

I don't really clean my hairbrush unless I've been using the leaf blower and dirt got in my hair and I brushed it. When it gets too hairy, I also use the comb method.

If I do feel some kind of need to clean it I just put a little liquid soap in the bathroom sink with water and swish it around in that and then let it air dry.

[Alan]

When I was a boy, my barber kept his combs and scissors in this:

http://www.kazemhair.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/baseimage/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/a/barbicide-jar-large.jpg

[Tussiemussies]

My hairdresser still keeps her combs and maybe her brushes in barbacide. If they don't they are not sanitary.

I used to clean mine with ammonia, I was taught the same thing and it did wirk well,
now I just use soap and water after I have combed out all of the hair. :)

[Fawn]

Well, now that my hair is short...I have only finger combed it since January...and I usually wash my hands several times a day.

I think that you only need the barbicide if you comb through hundreds of folks hair. It's kind of overkill for a family hairbursh.

I have used just shampoo or dish soap and warm water. That gets the oil and dirt off. Air dry.

But the summer of head lice (kids kept getting reinfected at their dad's house--SIGH) that summer was different. Each kid got their hair combed twice a day with the little nit combs (took forever with their thick hair) the hair and nits were put in plastic bags, sealed and trash taken out immediately. Everything in the house was washed in HOT water for the entire summer (I usually only wash in cold) and I even bought a lice killing spray for the upholstry in the car....but those were desperate times.....

For your purposes, warm soapy water and air dry brushes and combs.

[redfox]

I'm puzzled by this too, as I use wooden hairbrushes with wooden bristles. Cannot soak them! So I pull the hair out, and periodically use an old toothbrush to dry brush them. If they get yucky, I'll use a bit of hot water & shampoo.

[iris lily]

This thread reminds me that I need to put mines in the dishwasher.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I only use *super* widetooth (pic like) combs on wet hair and just pull out any hair that gets on them (which of course pulls right off of that type of comb).

[razz]

I only use a rat tail(?) comb and will wash it with shampoo, soap or using my nail brush scrub with some baking soda and rinse well.

[Simpler at Fifty]

I clean the hair out of my brush daily. DH does not. I vacuum the hair from his brush and then soak it in warm soapy water, rinse and let air dry.

[pinkytoe]

My mom taught me to do the ammonia soak thing too. Maybe they don't make it as strong as they used to.

[Simplemind]

I use the dishwasher method.

[Blackdog Lin]

I thank everybody for the responses. It sounds like plain ol' soap, or shampoo, is as effective a soaking method as using ammonia. And for the combs, at least, I definitely will put them in the dishwasher next time they need cleaning. A brilliant idea - I feel stupid for not ever having thought of it myself.

[Mrs-M]

In our house, Miss Cellane's, comb-out method is what us girls do, and if "I" think of it, a (periodic) quick hot-water/Pine-Sol wash/rinse.

[MaryHu]

I learned when I was a teenager to fill a tall glass with hot water and sprinkle in some baking soda and soak my combs/brushes in that until water was cool. It gets the scalp oil off with no scrubbing necessary. It was decades later that I heard about using baking soda instead of shampoo to wash hair. Now I use that and can't believe it never occurred to me to try it before. I mean scalp oil is scalp oil wherever it resides: on my brush or on my scalp!

[Taffy]

My hair is down to my butt and I use a tangle teaser. I usually clean the brush befor I wash my hair, so every other day. Since my hair is long I usually just pull out the hair, or use a tweezer if my fingers can't reach it. When the hair is out I use just a bit of soap and a little scrub brush and clean it is.

[Mrs-M]

Totally awesome avatar, Taffy!

P.S. A warm welcome to our home. Hope you stick-around and get to know us. :)