Inside: Dealing with a dirty flat iron? See how to clean a flat iron at home. It's easy to do in minutes and you will have a clean flat iron in no time at all. Check out how to clean your flat iron easily.
As a stay at home mom, I'm not real big on doing my hair every day. Usually I just blow dry it and run the flat iron through my hair a couple of time.
Unfortunately, I have slightly wavy hair and it gets rid of any weird bumps or kinks. I love how easy it is to use flat irons, it only takes me about 1-2 minutes to use. The downside is they can get grimy really quickly.
If you use any kind of mousse, hair spray or product in your hair you will notice it on your flat iron. The products turn into a gunk or grime on your flat iron.
Then over time all that grime just bakes into the flat iron leaving a hard gunk on the plates.
With all the gunk on your flat iron it won't heat up properly. Some areas could become hotter than others. This can cause you to overheat your flat iron and damage your hair.
Since you don't want to get a bunch of water all over your flat iron you can't use soap and water to clean it.
It is pretty easy to clean your flat iron with just a few items you probably already have at home. Plus, it only takes a few minutes.
If you want your flat iron clean and looking new again just check out these easy tips on how to clean a flat iron.
How To Clean A Flat Iron
You can see how dirty my flat iron was below. The plates have hairspray buildup and other gunk on them.
To start, you will need some rubbing alcohol and some cotton balls or pads. Plus, of course, your dirty flat iron.
I recommend heating it up slightly before you start to clean it. In my opinion heating up the flat iron plates helps make all the grime on there kind of gummy and come off easier.
I like to plug it in for about 5-10 seconds so it just starts to heat up without getting really hot. You will be handling it to clean it so you don't want it so hot you burn yourself.
Then, take a cotton ball or pad and put some of the rubbing alcohol on it, just enough to dampen the cotton pad. You don't want the pad to be dripping with rubbing alcohol.
Carefully, so you don't burn yourself, rub the cotton ball on plates of the flat iron. Make sure you don't get the rubbing alcohol in any of the cracks of the flat iron. Keep it to just the plates.
The rubbing alcohol will start to dissovle the hair spray buildup and gunk will start to come off on the pad.
You may need use multiple pads if your flat iron is really dirty. Just get a fresh cotton pad and add some more rubbing alcohol to the pad.
Once you feel like you have all the gunk off your flat iron then you can wet a cotton ball with water and wipe down the flat iron one more time.
If you have a particularly bad area you can't get clean try a damp magic eraser.
I like to do this to remove the alcohol from the plates. Now your clean flat iron is ready to go. Check out the before and after on mine.
With just a few minutes of your time, your flat iron will look like new again. No more gunk on your flat iron being used on clean hair.
I recommend doing this about once a month to keep your flat iron clean from baked on hair products. Your flat iron will stay clean and your hair will look great!
With this simple tip on how to clean a flat iron you can keep your flat iron looking like new!
Want some other cleaning tips? Check out how to clean a hairbrush like a pro.
How To Clean Flat Irons
rubbing alcohol
cotton pads or balls
flat iron
To start you will need some rubbing alcohol and some cotton balls or pads. I recommend heating it up slightly before you start to clean it.
I like to plug it in for about 5-10 seconds so it just starts to heat up without getting really hot. Then, take a cotton ball or pad and put some of the rubbing alcohol on it.
Carefully, so you don't burn yourself, rub the cotton ball on plates of the flat iron. You may need use multiple pads if your flat iron is really dirty. Once you feel like you have all the gunk off your flat iron then you can wet a cotton ball with water and wipe down the flat iron one more time.