Ah, spring. Birds chirping, buds blooming, beautiful life in the air. And also… a whole lot to take care of after hibernating for the past few months. Given quarantine, spring cleaning is 100% a must this year. And whether you love this time of year or dread it, your curl products and accessories could probably also use a clean up. So let’s get into spring cleaning for your products, curly hair extensions, and hair brushes and accessories.
How do you know when your curl products have expired?
You probably have a graveyard of curly hair products in your cabinet. It’s essential to talk about the shelf life of these products. Your shampoos, conditioners, gels, mousses, and creams need to be watched so that you’re not potentially doing any damage to your hair.
Here’s an amazing trick that you’ll thank us forever for if you didn’t know: Most commercially available beauty products have a secret little indicator of their shelf life that looks like this.
This handy little graphic will let you know if you should be tossing and restocking these products after 6 months, 12 months, 18 months or two years. A good rule of thumb is to write when you bought each product in sharpie on the bottom so that you can keep up with whether or not it’s time to restock.
If you’re going with a smaller business or a more organic line, it’s always a good idea to refrigerate these products, and reach out to the owner or check their website for how long they stay viable. Generally more organic products have a shorter shelf life, usually less than 6 months.
How to clean curly hair brushes and curly hair accessories
Bathrooms are extremely humid places, and are therefore susceptible to the growth of both bacteria and mold, especially in those little spaces in your curly hair brushes. If you’ve done all the hard work of cleaning your hair in your curl routine, you really want to make sure you don’t undo it all with all that potential icky stuff in a dirty hairbrush. Plus this will help your brushes last much longer!
If you’re using a Denman brush, they’ve actually created their own cleaning tool that you can grab expressly for this purpose. But if you don’t have the Denman specific tool or are using a paddle or radial brush, you can use a tail comb or a tint brush from your own makeup bag and they’ll work just fine. Really anything long and pointed will do the trick.
How to clean your brushes:
Remove the hair. Run the pointy part of your tool gently between the pins, and pull the hair up and out of the brush. Don’t use your finger for this, because you can catch your nails between the pins, and you won’t get as thorough of a clean. Be careful not to press too hard with your tool because you don’t want to damage the brush’s pad. Once you have all the hair at the top of the brush’s pins, use the palm of your hand to grab it and toss it out.
Once the hair is removed, use warm water and mild detergent to get the brush itself squeaky clean. You can use a toothbrush, soft scrubbing brush or old tint brush to really get between the pins. Make sure you clean both the front, back and handle of the brush. If you’re using a paddle brush, you’ll want to cover the hole that connects the handle to the paddle while you clean, so that it doesn’t fill with water and potentially get moldy. Once you’re done, rinse the brush under warm water.
How to clean curly hair extensions
Your extensions, just like your products and curly hair tools, also need a little extra love (but make sure not to wash too much, because this can shorten their lifespan!).
You can watch this great video on our site for thorough directions for washing. When it’s time to store your extensions, pick a cool, dry place. You want to ensure the extensions are not exposed to direct sunlight as UV rays can break down hair, and cause the color to fade. Pick a silk or satin lined bag like our Bebonia Storage Bag to help prevent frizz and not crush the curls.
We feel lighter already just writing this! Hope that this helped you get in the spring cleaning mood. Are you excited for spring this year? Let us know in the comments!
