A Guide To Cleaning Your Flat Iron

A few useful tips are good to know when styling your hair using a flat iron. For instance, what's the right temperature to use to ensure that you don't fry your hair, and how to maintain hair health by using the necessary heat protectant.

While we're taking all these precautions to make sure that our hair looks bomb and stays as healthy-looking as possible, we might neglect cleaning our flat irons.

It's important to clean your hair tool, straighteners and curlers included as they can also develop product build-up from use.

Why It's Important To Clean Your Flat Iron

In addition to preventing your flat iron from holding onto the gunk, it can also help the result of your hair after using your hot tool. Celebrity stylist Michael Dueñas shared with "Insider" the importance of cleaning your flat irons.

They highlighted that aside from sanitary reasons, neglecting a regular flat iron clean can lead to dragging, which can damage your hair and even reduce your straightener's life.

Additionally, the full benefits of the "titanium, ceramic, or ionic plates, and make your expensive straightener perform inadequately." Dueñas said.

What You Need To Clean Your Flat Iron

• A cotton swab or soft towel
• Rubbing alcohol or warm water
• For stubborn caked-in product and dirt, a clean toothbrush

How To Clean Your Flat Iron

Switch on your iron and let it warm up slightly. Not too hot that you can't comfortably touch, but just hot enough that it can make the dirt looser. After that, make sure that you unplug your iron.

While cleaning your flat iron, it's important to be mindful of how you're cleaning to avoid burning yourself the warm plates.

When you're ready, get your unplugged iron and gently scrub the plates with you a soft towel or cotton swabs dipped in water or rubbing alcohol for a deeper clean. Avoid scrubbing too hard or with abrasive tools because this can damage the plate. However, if the dirt isn't lifting, use a clean, soft toothbrush or Q-tip to get into tough-to-reach spots and lightly scrub away the caked-in product.

If you're a frequent user, you might have to do this more often to maintain the life of your iron but don't wait till you see piled-up dirt in the crevices before giving your iron a clean.