How to Clean a Slicker Brush Full of Hair (8 Methods, Ranked)

You're standing over the trash can with a fur packed slicker in one hand, picking at the pins with your thumbnail and getting about four hairs per pull. Fastest fix: slide the teeth of a metal comb into the lanes between the pin rows, push down until they touch the pad, then lever the comb up and out. The fur lifts off as one grey sheet. Ten seconds, using something already in your drawer.

That is the whole answer on most days. Cleaning a slicker brush full of hair is a question of geometry rather than effort. Below are eight methods ranked by how well they work and how much they will test your patience, plus the ones that bend pins.

Why hair gets stuck in a slicker brush in the first place

Look at one pin from the side. It is fine wire with a bend near the tip, angled so the pin leans one way across the pad. That bend is the entire point of a slicker: it lets the pins catch loose fur instead of gliding over the coat. It is also why the fur will not come back out the way it went in. Every pin is a hook, there are several hundred, and pulling straight up loads them all at once. That is the pinch, pull, flick, repeat cycle that puts brushes in the junk drawer.

Three things make it worse. Coat blow season is the big one: if the brush packs solid after three strokes in spring or autumn, the coat is releasing its whole undercoat over a few weeks, and the coat blow guide covers that window. Second is the wrong tool, because a slicker asked to do a rake's job packs with undercoat it was never built to move; the tool comparison sorts that out. Third is moisture. Brushing a damp coat glues the fine hairs down into the pad where nothing reaches them.

Those are the common ones. If your pad is packing solid at the pin roots after three strokes on a coat you brushed yesterday, that is a separate diagnosis, and why fur gets stuck in your brush works through it cause by cause, including the bent pins and the brushing angle behind most of it.

One boundary first. If what comes off is dense felted clumps rather than loose fluff, the coat is matting, and a slicker only helps with tangles you can still work apart from the outside. Mats sitting tight against the skin are a job for a professional groomer, and skin underneath that looks red, broken, or sore is a call to your vet. Do not try to cut a mat out at home. The skin tents up into the base of a mat and it is very easy to cut into it without seeing it happen.

The fastest way to get dog hair out of a brush

Method 1: the metal comb through the lanes. Try this first every time. For most brushes it is the only one you need.

1. Take a metal dog or cat comb, wide toothed end. A fine toothed comb gets closer to the pad.
2. Turn the slicker so the pins lean away from you and steady the head against your knee.
3. Find the lanes. The pins sit in rows with visible gaps between them. Slide the comb teeth down one gap, parallel to the row, until they touch the pad.
4. Lever, do not yank. Tip the comb handle back toward the direction the pins lean and lift at the same time.
5. The mat should come off in one piece. If it splits, work the next lane over and lift the rest.

The comb wins because it spreads the lifting force across a whole row and moves with the bend. Your fingers grab one clump and fight every hook individually.

How to clean a slicker brush full of hair with no extra tools

Method 2: the directional tug. The most useful thing most people never learn. Do not pull the fur straight up. Pinch the pad at one edge and pull it in the direction the pins already lean, sliding it along the shafts toward the tips. Pulling against the bend hooks the fur harder with every millimetre. Pulling with the bend lets it slide. Same fur, same brush, completely different amount of swearing.

Method 3: tap and migrate. Before pulling anything, tap the brush head against the bin rim six or eight times, or run your thumb across the pins and let them snap back. The vibration walks the mat up the shafts toward the tips, where the pins sit further apart and the grip is weakest. Then do the directional tug. It rarely clears a brush alone, but as a two second warm up it makes everything else easier, and it is the best option for removing hair from a dog brush one handed.

Household objects that work for hair stuck in a slicker brush

Method 4: a knitting needle, letter opener, or chopstick down the lanes. Same physics as the comb, one lane at a time. Slide the shaft down a gap between two rows to the pad, run it the length of the row, then lift. A thin blunt shaft fits tighter pin beds than comb teeth do. Slower, but it does no damage.

Method 5: a crochet hook. The best improvised tool: everything the knitting needle does, plus the hook catches the fur on the way up instead of letting it slide back down.

Method 6: a seam ripper, for a neglected brush only. When fur has felted into a solid pad flush with the base and nothing will lift, run the curved throat of a seam ripper along the pad surface underneath the mat to split it in half, then lift each half with the comb. Curved throat, never the point, light pressure. Press hard and you score the pad, and a nicked pad is how pins work loose.

Method 7: an old toothbrush at the base. Once the bulk is off there is still a fuzz of short broken hairs and dust down at the pad where nothing else reaches. A dry toothbrush scrubbed along the rows lifts it out in twenty seconds. Skipping this is why a brush that looks clean still feels gummy.

Two to skip. Brushing one slicker with a second slicker moves fur, but now you have two brushes to clean. And a lint roller does nothing here, because the tape only touches the pin tips while the fur lives at the base.

How to clean a dog brush properly: the soapy soak

Pulling fur out is maintenance. Every month or so, or any time the pad feels greasy, the brush needs an actual wash. Oils and dander build up at the base and combing will not shift them.

1. Clear all the fur out first. Washing a loaded brush turns the mat into a wet mat.
2. Fill a bowl with warm water, not hot, plus one drop of dish soap or a little pet shampoo. Heat can warp a plastic pad and loosen the pin seating.
3. Submerge the head only, handle out. If the brush has batteries or electronics, do not submerge it; wipe the head with a damp soapy cloth.
4. Leave it five to ten minutes, then scrub between the rows with the toothbrush.
5. Rinse until there is no slipperiness left on the pad.

Now the part that matters more than the wash. Shake the water out hard, blot the pin bed with a towel, then lay the brush pin side down on a dry towel so gravity pulls the trapped water back out of the pin holes instead of leaving it to sit in them. Give it twelve to twenty four hours before it goes near a drawer. A slicker put away damp is how the pin bases go rusty and how the pad starts to smell, and both are permanent in a way a fur clog never is.

What not to do

• Do not pull fur straight up against the pin bend. It splays the pins outward, and a splayed pin sits at the wrong angle against skin.
• Do not grip pins with pliers to straighten them. Fine wire bends once and stays bent, then snaps at the pad.
• Do not run scissors flat across the pad. The blade nicks the rubber, the pins loosen, and a five minute job becomes a new brush.
• Do not use the dishwasher or pour boiling water over it. Heat plus a plastic or rubber pad ends in a warped base.
• Do not burn the fur off. People suggest it. It melts the pad and the pin coating.
• Do not soak the pad in rubbing alcohol as a habit. An occasional wipe is fine; repeated soaking dries silicone until it cracks.

How often to clean a slicker brush, and where to store it

• Every session: clear the pad before you put the brush down. Ten seconds with a comb. Leave it and the fur compresses overnight into twice the job, and tomorrow the pins skate over a felt mattress of yesterday's fur.
• Weekly: the toothbrush pass at the base.
• Monthly, or after any post bath brushing: the full soapy soak and a long dry.

How often you brush drives all of this. A double coated dog in October is a different schedule from a shorthaired cat in February, and the brushing frequency by breed guide lays out what each coat needs.

Store it dry, pins facing down or sideways, never buried in a drawer where they get pushed out of alignment. A hook inside a cupboard door works.

If you are tired of doing all of the above

Every method on this page is a workaround for one design problem: the bent pin that catches fur has no way to release it. Self cleaning slickers solve that mechanically. The pins retract down through a slotted plate, the plate holds the fur back, and the whole pad lifts off the top in one piece. No comb, no lanes, no directional tug. That is a category rather than one product, and the mechanism is worth understanding whichever one you buy. It is also worth knowing what it does not buy you, which is what self cleaning slicker vs regular slicker sets out before you spend anything.

Sleekpaw sells one. The Sleekpaw Self-Cleaning Mist Pet Comb is $34.95, has ball tip pins, and releases the collected fur in one press: the pins retract and the fur lifts off in a single sheet, which you then drop in the bin. The body is glossy white, it measures 20.05cm x 11.5cm x 7cm, and it charges over USB-C. There is a built in fine cool mist you can spritz as you work, there to help the pins glide through the coat and cut static, nothing more than that. It comes with a 60 day money back guarantee.

Two limits worth stating plainly. The mechanism handles the fur, not the oils and dander at the base, so the toothbrush pass and the occasional soapy wash still apply. And it is a slicker: it is the wrong tool for a packed double coat in full blow, and that job belongs to an undercoat rake with longer pins.

Either way the goal is the same. Catch the fur on your pet, over a bin, instead of finding it later on the sofa.

Quick answers

How do you get hair out of a slicker brush?

Slide the teeth of a metal comb down the lanes between the pin rows until they touch the pad, then lever up and out in the direction the pins lean. The fur lifts off as one sheet. If they are packed too tight for comb teeth, use a crochet hook down each lane.

Can you wash a slicker brush?

Yes. Clear the fur first, then soak the head only in warm water with a drop of dish soap for five to ten minutes, scrub between the rows with an old toothbrush, and rinse. Skip the soak if it has batteries or electronics; wipe it with a damp cloth.

How do you dry a dog brush after washing it?

Lay it pin side down on a dry towel so water drains out of the pin holes rather than pooling in them, and give it twelve to twenty four hours before it goes back in a drawer. A brush stored damp is how the pin bases go rusty and how the pad starts to smell.

What can I use to clean a slicker brush if I do not have a comb?

A crochet hook works best, then a knitting needle, letter opener, or chopstick, all used the same way: down a lane between two pin rows, along the length, then lift. With nothing at all, tap the brush head against the bin rim to walk the fur toward the pin tips, then tug the pad off in the direction the pins lean.

Why does my slicker brush clog up so fast?

Usually one of three. Your pet is in a shedding season and dropping undercoat in volume. The coat needs an undercoat rake and the slicker is packing with fur it was never built to move. Or the coat was damp when you brushed.

Is it bad to leave hair in a dog brush?

It makes the brush progressively useless. The pins only reach as deep as the fur pad allows, so a loaded slicker skates across the coat and picks up almost nothing. The pad also felts overnight, turning a ten second cleanup into a five minute one.