It’s important to make sure that you clean your skincare equipment regularly and thoroughly. If they’re not kept clean, bacteria from your skin and the surrounding environment can build up on skincare tools like gua sha equipment and cause an infection or other health problem.
You should clean gua sha tools carefully and frequently to keep yourself safe, avoiding unnecessary health risks. This is especially true if you use gua sha equipment on other people. Shared germs and bacteria can spread infection quickly and even cause minor health issues like skin irritation.
Maybe you do wipe down your gua sha paraphernalia after you use it, but what about the bacteria that’s hanging around in the environment? That can attach itself to your tools and spread to the skin of whoever is using them even after the tools have been cleaned.
Would you keep using the same bath towel again and again or share it between multiple people and not be concerned about contamination or dirtiness? With that thought in mind, let’s discuss how to clean gua sha tools.
Hand Washing Gua Sha Tools
The simplest and most practical method for how to clean a gua sha is to wash it by hand similarly to the way you would clean dishes or cosmetic tools. You can use liquid dish soap and a soft cloth (like a microfiber cloth) as your cleaning tools.
Run warm water over your hands and add a little liquid dish soap onto your hands. Rub them together to make a lather and then wash the tools by hand, gently rubbing at them. Then you can rinse the tools off in warm water and dry them using your soft cloth.
This is a great preliminary method for basic cleaning, and it will deal with most of the germs and debris on the gua sha equipment. Just be cautious about how you handle your gua sha stones and other tools with soapy hands. They can slip out of your grip and fall, getting damaged in the process. Be aware of how you are handling your tools as you clean them so that there isn’t an unfortunate accident.
Soak the Tools for a Powerful Cleaning
It’s a good idea to clean your tools with a more thorough method than simply handwashing them. Soaking them in a cleaning solution is an excellent way to loosen oils, kill germs, and make the gua sha items easier to clean.
How to clean your gua sha by soaking it? You can create a bath of warm, soapy water. Don’t use hot water and don’t use a soap that is really strong and acidic. Try to avoid soap that contains lemon, lime, or orange to prevent damage to the delicate gua sha tools.
Warm, soapy water in a bowl is really all you need for this cleaning method, and liquid hand soap with antibacterial properties is ideal. That’s not the only thing that will work, though. You could also use facial cleansers, which some people prefer for cleaning their gua sha tools, since those tools are typically used on the face.
Scrub Gua Sha Tools Effectively
You might not be able to clean all for your gua sha tools by hand or by using a soaking method. Some of them have features like ridges, prongs, or curved edges that make them a little tricker to clean.
How to clean gua sha tool with these kinds of features? You can use a soft brush with soft bristles. A toothbrush is ideal, if you don’t want to buy a dedicated cleaning tool. Just gently work the brush between the ridges or prongs to loosen the debris and oil that could be trapped in there. This is an essential method for cleansing the tools and making them sanitary.
How to Clean Gua Sha Stone
Gua sha stones can be very porous and tough to clean. Some are made from rose quartz or jade and are very smooth, so they don’t retain bacteria and dirt very well, but the rougher, porous materials can be a bit tricker to clean.
Those may require a combination of cleaning techniques, like soaking, brushing, and wiping down.
How to clean rose quartz gua sha? The smooth surface of a rose quartz gua sha stone makes for easy cleaning. You can wipe it down with warm, soapy water and be able to clean it quite well this way. Be careful about using steam cleaners or ultrasonic cleaners on rose quartz, though. You might not even think to use something like that on a gua sha stone, but it needs to be said that they can damage the rose quartz stone.
How to Clean Wooden Gua Sha Tools
Semi-porous materials like wood are difficult to clean as well, and you want to be careful about letting these soak, as you can damage the wood. The best way to clean wooden tools is to wash them down and then oil them. If you don’t lubricate the wood properly after it has been washed, repeated washing will cause the wood to eventually crack.
If treated properly, though your wooden gua sha tools can last for many years.
Clean Daily
It’s wise to clean your gua sha tools every single day, or at least as often as you use them. How to wash a gua sha tool for routine cleaning? Just use the handwashing method listed first in this article. That should be gentle enough to not wear down the tools prematurely, and it does a good job of eliminating germs and keeping the tools sanitary.
It’s best to clean the tools right after using them. The longer they sit with oils and other particles on them, the more likely they are to become damaged over time or cause skin irritation when used. Cleaning them right away makes them easier to clean, and you will have to put more effort into cleaning tools that were left dirty for a while.
Sanitize the Tools
We have talked about how to wash gua sha tools in a few different ways, but you also want to take care to kill germs effectively. Normal washing methods might not be enough to sanitize the tools properly, and you can sanitize by spraying a little alcohol solution onto the tools. Any kind of disinfectant spray that includes alcohol will work, as long as it won’t cause skin irritation.
This kills germs that could be hiding out on the tools, destroying bacteria that won’t be handled with typical washing techniques. If alcohol residue on the tools causes skin irritation, just simply rinse off the tools and then dry them right before use.
How to Store Gua Sha Tools
Keeping your gua sha tools clean involves not just washing and disinfecting them, but you also need to be storing them properly so that they are kept safe from bacteria and irritants that could be in the environment. They can be stored in an airtight resealable plastic bag. This will help to keep the bacteria off of them after they have been cleaned.
They can also be stored in a dry area that has enough ventilation. The ventilation is important since it keeps mold and mildew off of your tools.
I’m Jennifer a beauty and wellness expert. I believe in promoting a sustainable and healthy lifestyle from within. Helping people feel good is my passion; whether it’s teaching yoga or offering skincare advice.
