As one popular wisdom says:Prepare your sleigh in the summer. It would seem that winter is still far away, but so that it is not a revelation (as for utility workers), it is worthwhile to arrange an inspection of winter fur items in advance. Cleaning fur at home, despite the apparent complexity, with certain knowledge will become an easy and accessible procedure. Fur products belong to the category of high-cost clothing, are distinguished by a presentable appearance, they indicate the status and position of a person. Therefore, it is important to know the basic rules of wearing, storing and, if you undertake to clean fur at home, then the necessary techniques for this process. Cleaning fur at home is a certain risk for the product, which you will have to take on yourself. Often, advisory advice on fur care can be obtained at a dry cleaning company or in furrier workshops. Fur can please women for a long time if you follow all the features of its cleaning. It will never lose its relevance, will not remain somewhere on the outskirts of fashion.
Signs of the need to clean the fur
The most common and valuable raw materialThe skins of sea animals and fur animals are considered: arctic fox, fox, marten, rabbit, mink, seal or muskrat, oddly enough, even cat fur can be used. The hair, softness and shine of the fur, color and pattern, thickness of the leather fabric and the degree of curling of the hair determine the overall value of the fur. Ladies can dress in a variety of styles of fur products: fur coats and mantles, capes, these can be muffs, fur-trimmed headwear or vests, gloves and all kinds of capes. The service life of fur outfits is quite long: rabbit fur wears out the fastest and will last up to 4 years, arctic fox can please the female eye for up to 7 years, such a valuable mink is worn for up to 12 years, but the most durable "long-liver" was beaver and otter fur - it can be worn for up to 20 years. Over time, you may notice the leather becoming rougher, and the appearance of ruptures or cracks in areas of greatest friction. This often causes intense baldness in such areas. These are signs of leather wear, so fur cleaning products should also affect the leather base. If we talk about hair, all kinds of dust contamination with a coating, loss of color uniformity, and the presence of debris between the hairs may be indications for cleaning. Over time, all this leads to the loss of the natural shine of the fur, and the fur loses its silky effect. In the second season after wearing a fur outfit, you may notice felt formations in the form of tangled lumps, knots, and clearly split ends of the animal's hair. If you have discovered some signs of loss of the original properties and appearance of the product, then cleaning the fur at home is the best way out of this situation.
Basic means for care of fur products
Cleaning of fur products can be eithermechanical and chemical. The first involves combing out felt formations, all sorts of lumps and knots using a metal brush. For safety of this process, a cotton swab is usually put on it. Mechanical cleaning is quite superficial, aimed at removing dirt and smoothing the hair, combing is often used to clean artificial fur. Dry cleaning - deep - is more effective. Various chemicals are used here, but it can carry an element of risk both for the product itself and for the person who cares for it. Cleaning natural fur at home requires compliance with certain safety rules. Such care involves the use of gasoline, some gentle cleaning agents. In no case should you use those cleaning agents that are designed to remove rust. Abrasive agents are also often used, for example, starch, semolina or ground chalk, wheat bran is also used. This method of care is ideal for cleaning light fur, as it removes dust and removes small debris from the hair. To remove yellowness, use hydrogen peroxide or weak vinegar - cleaning white fur at home must include this procedure, it is also mandatory if your outfit is made of arctic fox fur or if you are cleaning light fur of any other animal. If you want to extend the life of your fur product as much as possible, you will have to work not only on the hair, but also on the leather base. To do this, you need to introduce a fat composition to enhance the shine and increase the elasticity of the skin. This can be vegetable oil (olive or sunflower), the use of melted pork fat, fish oil is very suitable. Naturally, cleaning artificial fur does not involve such a procedure, since it will make the thing completely unusable. In order to achieve good results in cleaning the product, gasoline is often used, and this is quite unsafe, so certain rules must be followed:
- Use gasoline only inwell ventilated room. It is necessary to give maximum access for fresh air. To do this, open the windows, balcony, be sure to open the window. In no case can you make procedures before bedtime, in the evening. It is not safe for health, up to intoxication.
- Eliminate any possibility of being nearopen fire, do not do chemical cleaning in the kitchen, near the cooker, do not allow smoking near to the head in close proximity to the hat, take the children away from gasoline.
- After completing the procedure, make sure to ventilate the room, best leave it until the smell disappears completely.
Cleaning at home large furs
Large fur products include fur coats, mantles,various coats. It is extremely difficult to clean natural fur of such sizes at home. If the product is dirty all over, or for some reason has not been subjected to any cleaning procedures for 4-5 seasons, it is better to refuse the procedure. Such complex work should be entrusted only to highly qualified professionals in dry cleaners. Popular material for creating large fur products is the fur of arctic fox, mink and rabbit. It is about the care of these products that we will talk: Cleaning arctic fox fur at home is the greatest difficulty, since the outfit itself is large. This in itself makes it difficult to work on it, and since it is long-haired and quite light in color, its cleaning is a double problem. For care, you need to take a solution of ammonia, about 1 teaspoon, 3 teaspoons of table salt and 0.5 liters of water. Moisten a cotton swab with the resulting liquid and begin to remove stains by combing. The final stage of cleaning arctic fox fur at home is drying the raw fur product. Cleaning mink fur at home should bring shine to the fur, this is the primary task when working with a mink coat. Shine is lost due to the washing out of the fatty composition - you can introduce a new one using this method: dissolve 100 grams of pork, or fish oil, and 10 g of soap in 1 liter of boiling water. While stirring the ingredients, add up to 12 drops of ammonia, then cool the solution to 35 degrees and apply the emulsion to the fur with a brush. Such procedures are simply irreplaceable for cleaning mink fur at home, because shine is an integral attribute of expensive mink hair. Cleaning rabbit fur at home should be especially delicate. Rabbit hair has the shortest wear life and is limited to just a few seasons. The initial cleaning of rabbit fur at home is done by combing with a comb. Next, take a tampon, generously moistened with acetic acid (5%) or hydrogen peroxide up to 5%, and process the hair in the direction of fur growth. After the procedure, remove the remaining hydrogen from the hair with a damp cotton pad, preventing the leather base from getting wet. Now your rabbit fur coat will live a second life.
Care of small products
- Caps
Headwear is most often made of fur.raccoon, rabbit or fox. Let's look at the example of raccoon fur - it is the most expensive and capricious in care. Cleaning raccoon fur initially involves washing the lining, but there is a difficulty, which is that it is recommended to carefully rip it off with a blade, make a mark on the fabric, how exactly it was sewn to the skin. After these painstaking preparations, turn the hat inside out and inspect the structure of the skin: are there any damages, tears, of course, old hats, as a rule, abound in small holes that need and can be easily sewn up, then a large medical plaster is applied to the patch. Next, make a solution with which we will clean the raccoon fur: mix pure gasoline with starch (about a quarter of a glass), after which a certain mushy consistency is formed - it is necessary to smear the hat with it, carefully rubbing it into the fur. Let the hat lie until the gasoline evaporates and the starch is knocked out of the hair of the hat with light pats. Then return the lining to its original position and thoroughly air the headdress. Thanks to such cleaning of fur at home, the hat will last more than three seasons.
- Pelerins
The ideal option for cleaning capes would becleaning fur with starch - it quickly and effectively removes foreign objects from the hair of fur outfits, and also perfectly absorbs dirt. You can complete the procedure of such restoration by vacuuming the product. Cleaning fur with starch can also combine the use of semolina, finely grated chalk. If you are not satisfied with the result, repeat the procedure.
- Couplings
An ideal option for caring for such a smallproducts will be cleaning the fur with steam. This method disinfects the outfit, kills all microorganisms, as well as small mites that sometimes accumulate in the hair of animals during storage. Be sure to air and dry the outfit treated with steam. Attention: when cleaning fur with steam, it is prohibited to use an iron! From excessively high temperatures, it simply deforms, melts the skin structure of the fur. The skin treated with it becomes dense, bumpy, completely inflexible and unsuitable for wearing.
Give a second life to the fur
Of course, every woman wants to shine andattract attention, especially when she wears expensive furs, be it small items or massive heavy fur coats. Unfortunately, improper use, careless wear and failure to comply with the rules for storing fur products directly affect the attractiveness of the outfit's appearance in a not very good way. Of course, it is better to trust such presentable things to the hands of a master and clean them in specially designated places: it is safer, more reliable and more effective, but you should not disdain the independent removal of dirt and stains from your favorite fur product. Our recommendations for the care and cleaning of fur will qualitatively affect its appearance. Give a second life to your favorite outfit: let the shine sparkle with colors again, the original gloss appear, the skin will again become soft and pleasant to the body. Do not forget about the safety rules when working with chemicals. Using our options for fur cleaning products, you will definitely feel like a queen in the new winter season! We advise you to read:
