We’re pretty sure that by now you know that before using any heating appliances, you’ve gotta spritz heat protectant spray on your tresses. A gold star to you if you do that! But we’re almost certain that you miss out on one tedious but extremely important job — cleaning your flat iron.
Let me paint a picture for you- you’ve applied serum after washing your hair, you’ve protected your locks with heat protectant and then you’ve gone ahead and straightened your hair. All that product gets transferred to the heating plates and over the months and years, all that product builds up and accumulates. Then time and time again, you use those same dirty plates on your hair. Sounds gross, right?
Why Do You Need To Clean Your Flat Iron?
As we mentioned there’s product buildup on the iron after using it on your hair for so long. This can cause your clean locks to feel dirty and greasy and can also hamper your hair straightener from doing its job well. When this happens, you may tend to do over the same strands of hair multiple times causing over-exposure resulting in damage. So, if you’ve invested in a heating tool, looking after it becomes crucial.
Here’s A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Clean It:
While this seems like an arduous process, cleaning your flat iron is relatively easy.
First, Heat It Up
Put the lowest temperature on the straightener and heat it up. This will help in making the product buildup looser which will make it easier to get rid of.
Then Unplug The Iron
We don’t want to cause any safety hazards, do we? So, after you think it’s heated up significantly, just unplug it from the source.
Give It A Clean
You can clean the plates with a soft towel dipped in water or cotton pads. Just be very careful while doing this as the plates are warm.
Scrub It With Alcohol Swabs
For a deeper clean, scrub it gently with alcohol wipes or swabs as this will get rid of all the dirt and grime. However, be careful to not do it too harshly as to damage the plates.
How Often Should You Clean Your Flat Iron?
You should be doing this process about once a month if you use your hair straightener once in a while. However, if you and your styling tool are BFFs and you use it every day then, you should after every few uses. This is especially the case if you load your hair with products before straightening it.
Isn’t this a revelation? Well, what are you waiting for? Go clean the dirty flat iron that you’ve been using for years!
Featured Image: Pexels
