Beard Trimmers are a convenient appliance that should be part of every man’s grooming kit. However, considering how often we use them, they tend to get dirty, and they can come into contact with countless bacteria living in your home. So, if you’d like to know how to disinfect a trimmer, we’ve got the answer.
Disinfecting beard trimmers is a fairly simple process that requires a small amount of preparation to ensure that your trimmers are free of any debris that may get in the way of the disinfectant solution you’re using, making the entire process ineffective.
Especially now that we’re all so cautious over our hygiene, disinfecting your beard trimmers, whether for personal use or in a professional setting, is critical to ensure that you stay healthy and your skin doesn’t develop the rashes that you thought you moved onto when you made the switch from razorblades to beard trimmers.
5 Easy Steps To Disinfecting Your Beard Trimmers
If you want the best performance from your beard trimmers, maintenance will always play a big role. And, more so, if you want your freshly shaved skin to be healthy, you need your beard trimmers to be clean. The good news is that it’s not very difficult to keep your trimmers clean once you make a habit of it. Here are five easy steps to disinfecting your beard trimmers:
1. Unplug Your Beard Trimmers
The first thing you have to do is take safety precautions. Your trimmers may be wireless, so this step may not be necessary, but you should always unplug your trimmers from their power source if an outlet powers them. You will be handling liquids while you’re disinfecting your trimmers, so you’re going to want to avoid dealing with live wires and potentially causing permanent to your trimmers or harming yourself.
Another good idea is to use disinfectant spray/soap to clean your hands before you get started with everything to ensure that you’re not just spreading more bacteria through the cleaning process.
2. Brush Off Loose Hair
If you’re going to get the most out of disinfecting your trimmers, you’re going to need to get rid of the “big hairs” so that cleaning up those tiny, invisible bacteria is easier. Do not let any loose hairs from your last shave get in or around your trimmers’ blades or the head. You can use a dry towel, a microfiber cloth, a dry cotton swab, or even an old toothbrush. Just make sure that there’s nothing in the way when it comes time to disinfect.
3. Use Your Clipper Cleaning Brush
Included in the packaging of your beard clippers will be a special brush that was designed specifically to clean your beard trimmers. If you’re going to get rid of the finest hairs that are still stuck in your blades after you’ve cleaned up all the loose hairs, this brush will get rid of them. So, apply the brush to the blades and slide it back and forth until all of the hair has fallen out.
4. Create Disinfectant Solution
If you have bought alcohol wipes, a suitable disinfectant solution, such as Clippercide, or a glass sanitizing jar in which you can submerge your trimmers’ parts, you can skip this step.
If you haven’t been able to get your hands on the appropriate disinfectant, you can make a mixture of half water, half vinegar. Use a cotton swab, Q-tip, or a small, soft brush to apply the solution.
5. Clean Blade & Head
Use your alcohol wipes, swabs, brushes, and Q-tips, to apply the disinfectant solution across your beard trimmers’ blades. Ensure that you apply the solution to the small gaps between your blades, head, and the rest of the trimmers. It is very easy to miss some parts. Also, clean the handle on your trimmers because there are more than likely many common bacteria from your hands there. Once you’ve disinfected everything, follow the label on the product you’ve used and allow 10 minutes of waiting time if you’ve made your solution.
If you have a pair of trimmers with a detachable head, you can remove it by either unclipping it or removing the screws as per your trimmers’ instruction manual. This allows you to reach parts of your trimmers that would otherwise be impossible to get to. You’ll likely have to get rid of a lot more loose hair. Once disassembled, you can repeat the disinfecting process that you carried out on the blades to these often neglected areas. Detachable heads also bring the advantage because you can soak them in a submersible ant-bacterial solution, which gives you the most thorough clean by far, with far less effort.
Once you’ve completed the cleaning process, it’s recommended that you apply oil or lubricant to your trimmers’ blades to keep them in good shape and reduce the friction created by your next shave.
How Often Should You Disinfect Beard Trimmers?
Now that you know how to disinfect a trimmer, the next question is, how often do you need to do it?
If you want to be thorough and steer clear of germs entirely, you should be disinfecting your trimmers after every use. And if you’re not getting rid of all the loose hairs that are taken out during the disinfecting process, it could cause damage to your hardware, which is far from ideal. And regular disinfecting/maintenance does improve the longevity of your trimmers.
Beard Trimmer Maintenance Tips
If you’d just like some general maintenance tips that go beyond disinfecting, there are a few things you can do that would improve your shaving experience, increase your trimmers lifespan, and avoid breakage.
Firstly, sharpen your blades. Sharp blades mean precise cutting. You not only are helping your device to operate more efficiently but decreasing your chances of getting cut. And if bacteria are floating around on your trimmers, you wouldn’t want them to be getting into your blood, would you?
Secondly, replace your parts frequently. Along with oiling or lubricating your blades, this is something that people neglect far too often. Shaving with an inferior device is never good and makes the device perform worse over time in terms of the internal mechanics you can’t fix.
Thirdly, ensure that your blades are properly aligned (especially if you have trimmers with a detachable head). Take a look at the trimmers from a sideways angle and just check that the lengths of the two oscillating blades ensure that they’re aligned and none of the teeth are crooked. Adjust the head (typically by loosening screws), loosen the blades, and set them back in place.
Finally, in terms of your disinfecting process, don’t clean your trimmers with water because it could cause them to rust.
So, as you can see, the process of disinfecting your beard trimmers is quite simple, and you can go through the entire process in a matter of a few minutes. Most people aren’t particularly vigilant about regularly cleaning and disinfecting their trimmers, but it is a good idea to make a habit of it. Your skin will thank you, and your trimmers will perform better.
Sources
- How To Disinfect Hair Clippers | Professional Barber Clippers
- How To Disinfect Hair Trimmer | How To Disinfect
- How to Clean and Maintain Your Electric Beard Trimmer | Men’s Health
- How to disinfect electric beard trimmer, comb, nail clipper and scissors to disinfect the bacteria from folliculitis? i cant afford expensive chemical | Healthtap
- Want to Disinfect Your Tools Properly? Follow These 9 Steps… | ProfessionalBarberClippers
