Cleaning Conventional Marcel Irons

 I had some leftover relaxer from a relaxer service so I decided to put it to good use.  I heated up one of my marcel irons that seemed to be "chipping away."  Pictured above is the marcel iron after the first pass of relaxer on the iron while it was hot.

 There was definitely residue on the iron.  Some could be from it being tempered.

 I used a craft stick to scrape the iron plates while the relaxer was sizzling on the hot marcel iron.

The melted relaxer dripped off the iron into the shampoo bowl.  I was using a Paul Mitchell relaxer to clean the hot iron.

The marcel iron was much smoother after the second cleaning.  I did rinse the iron quite a bit, and I had to heat the iron to get excess water out of it.  It seems to have some tiny holes near the handles that I think water got into.  

The approach I used worked well enough.  I can also ship the iron back to Golden Supreme for them to clean it as well for under $20 + shipping.

To each his own - I may try this procedure again down the road if the plates begin feeling rough again.  I did not re-temper the iron.  I may do so.  It works fine as is, but it may work even better if I re-temper the iron.  I have a separate article on this blog about tempering.