A brush collects whatever your hair carries: product, dust and the day’s shed strands. Left unwashed, it gives them all back the next time you use it. Ten minutes a month keeps that from happening. The method below is written for handmade wooden brushes, though any decent brush will be better for it.
Weekly: strip the hair
Slip the end of a fine tail comb beneath the accumulated hair at the base of the brush and lift; it comes away in one piece. Attended to weekly, the monthly wash remains a five-minute affair, and the base never develops the trapped oil and dust that lends an old brush its musty air.
The task is quicker still with a purpose-made cleaner. Kent’s LPC3 brush and comb cleaner has short, stiff quills that reach down to the base and rake out the packed hair, dust and all, in a couple of passes. It costs about as much as a coffee and a pastry, works on any brush or comb, and reduces the weekly ritual to ten seconds.
Monthly: the wash
Draw a basin of warm water, never hot, with a little mild shampoo. Swish the bristles through the surface for half a minute or so, keeping the wooden handle and the cushion above the waterline; hot water softens the rubber cushion, and a soaked handle may lift its finish or crack as it dries.
Rinse in the same manner in clean water, shake firmly, and press the bristles dry. Lay the brush face down on a towel out of direct sun and allow it a full day. A wet brush should never be stood upon its handle, for the water runs directly into the cushion and settles there.
What to avoid
The dishwasher is out of the question, as is soaking, and a hairdryer should never be turned on a wooden handle. Harsh detergent has no place near natural bristle, which is a natural fibre itself and turns brittle when stripped. Should the bristles carry a trace of product between washes, a little diluted shampoo on the tips is all that is needed; it is the bristle being washed, never the brush.
