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 I need to clean a flat iron. Why is this flat iron 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 every day…(sometimes twice a day)…they just look ridiculous.
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. After all, the straightener is made out of CERAMIC. It 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 in 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!
How do you clean your flat iron?
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!! :)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.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
Please log in or create a free account to comment.very interesting and useful
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks for sharing
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This is my husband department.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.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 was stop in at a beauty shop and asked what they did to clean their curling irons. I hit pay dirt here! SOS Brillo pad, dampened. One pad lasts for a very long time. I just lightly dampen a portion of the pad and it removes the most burnt on crud on my iron with very little effort. Been doing this for quite some time now and no scratches on my iron either. p.s. Now that I said all this, I’m going to try Jillee’s recipe as she has given us so many fantastic DIYs. Thanks Jillee!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.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 least a year I can just blow dry my hair and scrunch.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.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.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.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.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I was thinking the same thought. I imagine it would.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have always just used alcohol and it works beautifully, too.
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Thanks for this! I let my flat iron get really super bad (I think it’s a snowball effect… once it starts building up, then it happens quickly), and I saw a lot of progress with the baking soda/ hydrogen peroxide mix. I then used an almost toast magic eraser (seriously, I just discovered those things and I’m SOLD) to get the rest of the gunk off. Whew, what a relief! And I hope I never wait so long to clean it again! My flat iron and hair thank you. =)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This happens to me ALL the time. The best and easiest thing to use to clean off the build up is alcohol wipes! Theyre cheap, dont drip into the electrical and you dont have to scrub for hours :) just wipe each plate and its back to new!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve been using vinager. It works even better!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Another way is to heat up the straightener, then wipe off the goo with baby wipes or rubbing alcohol wipes. No mess and takes less then 5 minutes!
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