Once again I am subjecting myself to humiliation for the sake of homemaking science by showing you another nasty appliance in my house. This time it’s my flat iron. Why is it so gross you ask? Well, let me tell you. I suffer from a serious condition called “poufy bangs” – combined with a wicked cowlick. Unless I straighten them everyday…(sometimes twice a day)…they just look ridiculous.
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Problem is…I also use a fair amount of HAIRSPRAY on them and when I use the flat iron on my hairsprayed hair…this is what ends up happening.
A serious case of “gunk build-up”. The things we do for vanity. :-)
In the past I would wait until it got REALLY, REALLY bad and then throw it away and get a new one….because I couldn’t find anything that would take it off. One day I was whining about my flat iron follies to my friend Danielle and she suggested I use the edge of a pair of scissors to scrape the gunk off. Afterall, the straightener is made out of CERAMIC. It actually worked quite well and didn’t do TOO much damage to the iron. The slight scarring it did was worth it though, because I didn’t have to buy a new one! An expensive proposition.
As you can see from the pictures…the “gunk build-up” was approaching a serious level of gross and I was about to attack it with the scissors again when I decided to give my “miracle cleaner” a try.
Turns out this was hardly even a challenge for the “miracle cleaner”. :-) I made my usual paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide and started rubbing it in with my fingers. It immediately took all but the thickest parts of gunk off with hardly any effort at all.
This is what it looked like “AFTER”.
The main difference cleaning this small appliance vs. other things I’ve cleaned with the “miracle cleaner” was making sure I didn’t get any cleaner or water inside the iron that would mess up the electrical stuff.
So I was careful to keep the cleaning mixture just on the plates themselves and then I used a wet rag to wipe it all off when I was done instead of rinsing it. It’s still working like a champ at taming my unruly poufy bangs, so I must have done OK.
My flat iron looks and feels like new!
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This is a great day! I’m definitely going to try it! Gotta keep that flat iron working at tip top shape! I wouldn’t be able to leave the house without it!! :)
I can’t believe it works so fast it is a lot faster then Rubbing Alcohol with a cotton ball. I didn’t have to use hardly in scrubbing at all. I will use this from now on! Thank you, Sandi
very interesting and useful
Thanks for sharing
This is my husband department.
Alcohol has worked for me in the past if it was just hairspray on my curling iron. But I love, love, love Kenra’s #19 styling spray when I curl my hair with my curling iron…especially after washing and drying hair. It holds the curl and does not go limp. However, this product is not as easily removed as just hairspray. In fact, it was very difficult unless I used a product called Dissolve that I found at a beauty supply store. Cheap and worked well. Then I ran into a problem of finding this cleaner. All I had to do… Read more »
I’m glad to see this works on curling irons. I haven’t used one in ages. My hair is naturally very thick and coarse and just didn’t have the patience with my stick straight hair. I can totally relate with Jillee on the bangs issue. Took forever to curl and sometimes still looked funny because of that darn cowlick. Finally grew them out and solved that problem. I’ll have to show this post to my sisters , two of them have straight with a slight wave and they still insist on straightening their hair. Since I’ve gotten perms that last at… Read more »
Jillee, I use a cotton pad soaked in rubbing isopropyl alcohol on my curling iron barrel and it cuts right through the gunk. Since it dries so quickly there’s no danger of damaging the electrical element.
This mixture (with a little extra hydrogen peroxide) works wonders to clean food burned onto pans. I just put it in the pan and let it sit over night. Next morning…swish and clean pan. Thanks Jill.
I was thinking the same thought. I imagine it would.