How to sanitize a shaving brush ?

A friend of mine wants to try to shave with a shaving brush and I'm ready to lend him one of my own. The question is how to sanitize the brush before I give it to him and after he use it ? I know that in barber shops they have this tray with UV lamp, should I try and use one of those(I have a friendly barber not far from my home) ? If yes, for how long ? Will it damage the hair ?

 

I don't know anything about those. But I recently sanitized some, in a sink full of water, with a tablespoon of shampoo & a tablespoon of alcohol. I didn't time it precisely, just soaked them for a couple of minutes. Then I rinsed them and lt them air dry. They are none the worse for wear.

 

I just use anti-bacterial hand soap.

 

That would work too.

 

I'd use Dawn dish washing soap. Of if you're really concerned some Borax. Both should do it. Or go down to the Walmart and buy him his own for 9$.
CVS also has them.

 

yeah as steve said Anti-bac hand or dish wash

 

A borax soak will sterilize the brush and remove any soap or hard water buildup. Two-for-one cleaning. As far as I know, UV light is one of the least effective means to sterilize since it can only kill what can be illuminated by the UV (ie: does not penetrate into the shadows or deep into the brush, etc.) and timing is important there too. The uv sterilizers they sell for tooth brushes, for ex., are entirely useless from what I've read.

I'd avoid a straight alcohol or peroxide soak as that would probably damage the hairs.

 

+1 for the anti-bacterial soap

 

I will suggest what a very knowledgeable person, who has a multitude of brushes, suggested to me and it works wonders.

M.A.C. Cleaner. It disinfects and it cleans brushes gently, safely, and effectively.




http://www.maccosmetics.com/product/135/307/Brush-Cleanser/index.tmpl

 

I used barbercide on my one vintage horse full potentcy 15 min soak with no issues.
That said some say it damage the hair on badger

 

Thank you everybody for the answers. I'm gonna try a natural disinfection agent : tea tree oil. It has antiviral, antibacterial,anti-fungal, and antiseptic qualities. I will combined it with baking soda and dissolve in water in a mug. Then I'll soak the brush for 30 min. It should be enough.

 

I bought this today. Any suggestions how to best use it ?

 

No directions on the bottle?

$14 + shipping? Personally I think you could have saved yourself a lot of cash by using anti-bacterial soap.
Hope it works for you.

But that's me.

 

Take and pour a small amount on a moistened brush and gently rub it in to the brush until it is totally lathered. Allow it to soak for about 5 minutes and thoroughly wash it out and let dry as normal. Because you are using a small amount it should last a while.

MAC cleaner is designed for high end cosmetic brushes which use sable and mink (which is more expensive than badger). It takes the hardened makeup out of expensive cosmetic brushes without damaging the hairs. A gentlemen with a very, very large investment in high end badger brushes found this product by watching his wife use it on her very expensive brushes and tried it and found it worked better than other cleaning agents. He suggested it to me and I found it really does a good job of eliminating build up and deposits better than any soap or shampoo I have used in the past. That is now the only product I use.

The price from the manufacturer's site is $14 including $5 shipping and I would have no problem in buying it again when my second bottle runs out.

 

+1 on the Borax solution. My brush came with cleaning and sanitizing instructions and it said to use Borax. I use Borax for general house cleaning, I get mine at Menards.

 

Thanks a lot, I'll try it today. I bought it for 15$ at the MAC store at the mall, no shipping fee.

 

Late with the solution but I find that the easiest way to deal with situations such as yours is: Tweezerman! For a couple of buck$s. I keep a few new reasonably priced brushes boxed to give away.
Tweezermans are great.

 

Glad the Tweezerman works for you. The only thing I've found mine useful for is cleaning my shoes. For $10 more you can have yourself a Frank's which is IMHO a much higher quality. But to each his own.

 

I'll have to be on the lookout for this stuff. I'm guessing this would be the best possible way considering it's purpose. The problem with using shampoo's is that they do by their very nature leave soap deposits on hair which is not going to be great in the long run for the brush. This would be certainly be superior.

 

Most sanitizing solutions will damage the bristles..