If you’ve ever noticed a grey, fluffy substance in your hairbrush, this is a sign that lint has accumulated around the bristles.
Lint is a material that is a mix of dust, environmental waste, natural scalp oils, and dead skin cells.
If lint is in your hairbrush, you’ll be coating your hair with it every time you use your brush, which can have disastrous effects on your strands.
The good news is that you can remove lint from your hairbrush in a few steps, which we’ll cover in this article. We’ll also get into why lint can build up in your brush, and why it is so bad for your hair.
Why Does Lint Form In The Hair?
Before we can get into how to remove lint from your hairbrush, it’s a good idea to understand why it forms in the first place.
Lint contains several substances, including:
- Small skin cell flakes from the scalp
- Broken hair strands tangled around hairbrush bristles
- Dry shampoo residue
- Hair Care products
- Environmental debris and pollution stuck to the scalp and hair
- Sebum from the scalp
- Fuzzy material from hats, scarves, and hoods
All of these materials can linger in your hair and around your hairbrush, forming lint as a result.
Why Is It Important To Remove Lint?
Here are some reasons why it’s so important to remove lint from your hair and hairbrush.
Avoid Bacteria Buildup
The sign of lint buildup also indicates that unhygienic substances have begun to accumulate. This is why it’s important to clean any hairbrush that touches your skin.
The buildup of lint can create a thriving place for bacteria and yeast inside your brush. If your brush is full of bacteria, these germs can start to damage the hair on your head.
Maintain Hair Health
Removing lint from your brush will also maintain your hair’s health. As mentioned above, germs and bacteria in the lint can impair the hair.
Cleaning your hairbrush will help keep your hair clean, meaning that it will stay in better condition for longer.
How To Remove Lint From Hairbrush
Now you understand why it’s so important to remove lint, we can get into some proven methods of eliminating lint from your hairbrush.
You Will Need
- A wide tooth comb
- Towel
- Hair dryer
- Four cups of warm water
- Old toothbrush
- Baby shampoo, two tablespoons
- A quarter cup of white vinegar
- A nail brush
- One Bowl
After you’ve gathered all of the required equipment, you can follow the steps below to remove lint from your brush.
1. Clean Your Brush
Begin by using your wide tooth comb to remove loose lint and hair strands from your brush. Work in between the bristles and where they end.
Use the comb to pull the debris from the brush, pulling upwards to do so. This motion will aid in eliminating as much hair and visible lint as possible.
Keeping a pair of scissors on hand may be advisable to remove hair strands that are tangled or stuck.
2. Wash The Brush
Next, you will need to wash your brush in one of two ways.
The first involves washing the brush under warm water from your faucet. The second is to fill a bowl with warm water and clean the brush inside it.
If your brush is made from plastic and doesn’t have any textile materials, you can soak it in water for between 5 and 10 minutes.
However, make sure that you don’t soak any hair brushes with wooden components, as wood doesn’t work well when washed with water. Soaking wooden brushes will damage the padding, bristles, and handle of the brush.
3. Start Lathering Up
Once you have cleaned the hairbrush with clean water, apply a little baby shampoo on a clean toothbrush, then use it to scrub the bristles clean.
If you are using a bowl, you can add shampoo and white vinegar to it, using your hands to clean the lint from the brush.
Once you have lathered the brush, soak the hairbrush again for no more than 20 minutes. If you were unable to remove all of the lint and hair in the first step, try removing them now.
Soaking the brush will soften the lint, so it should be easier to remove.
You can then scrub the brush clean again with a clean nail brush.
4. Drying
Remove the brush from the water, then lie it flat on a clean, dry towel. Leave the brush to air dry.
Use the wide-tooth comb to remove any last pieces of lint by moving the comb through every row on the brush. Bear in mind that removing all of the lint might take a lot of time, so plan accordingly.
If you need the brush soon, use a hairdryer to dry the brush. Avoid using high temperatures or positioning the hairdryer too close to the brush, as this may melt the glue holding the bristles on the brush.
How Often Should I Clean My Hairbrush?
We’ve outlined above why it’s so important to remove lint from your brush.
If your brush’s bristles are lost under tangled hair strands, it won’t be able to glide through your hair as easily, making everyday grooming harder.
You should clean lint and hair from your brush whenever you notice it, but you don’t need to do so every day. At a minimum, aim to clean your brush around once every month.
If you notice a lot of hair or lint accumulating in your brush, you should clean it more often, possibly every week if necessary.
The Bottom Line
Removing hair and lint from your hairbrush regularly can keep it in good condition. However, like anything else, your brush may need replacing in the future.
Some brushes may last over a decade, but you’ll know if you need a new one by examining your brush closely.
If the bristles are worn out, or cleaning the brush takes more time than usual, these are signs that you’ll need a replacement.
You might not want to part with the money, but getting a new brush can make a huge difference to your hair. Try to go for high-quality brushes.
These may cost much upfront, but they will last longer and may be easier to clean too.
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