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How to clean a fursuit


By WeaverOwl


Important:


• Do NOT expose fur, fursuits and fursuit parts to direct heat.
• Do NOT brush wellsoft (plush fabric) with a slicker brush.
NEVER put the fursuit HEAD into the washing machine.
USE fabric disinfectant sprays (WITHOUT chlorine!!) on the in and outside of the head after every use.
Read the bottle. (I use Sanytol, but anything locally bought should be good.)
• And the last important bit for now is: Clean yourself. Hygiene is important if you want a suit to stay clean for longer. :]

To brush wellsoft (plush fabric) use a soft-bristled brush.
To brush fur use a slicker brush, held in an uppside down position to prevent it from ripping out too much fur.
It's gonna take some out, but do not worry about it.

Directory:


Deep cleaning:

Preparing the head to wash:

  1. If you can, stuff the fursuit eyes (Follow me type) with paper towels, and tape them down to prevent water touching them. With plastic eyes, -if you see out of the transparent part of it-, make sure to not get too much water into them, because when water dries on the surface it can leave dropplet marks on the inside. The mesh and paint on the eyes should stay fine when washed, as long as you don't scrub them. Don't forget the backside of the eyes, inside the head.

  2. Remove any accesories from the suit. Eyelids, toungues, anything that can come off, like pins and whatever else. You can wash them seperately, but it's not a wise idea to put magnetic parts into the washing machine..

  3. Prepare a lukewarm bath for the fursuit head, and soak it in. You can use fabric softeners, and cleaning detergents and srub it as much as you feel like! Get the dirt and sweat out.

  4. After the wash with the washing soaps and all, rinse it, and squish the soap out! Make sure to not leave any soap spots on the suit, and when you squish the muzzle it's just clean water coming out. (For 3D printed heads, maybe don't squish, but you get the point.)

  5. Now you should have a clean smelling fursuit head! But it's wet. Pat it dry with a clean towel, and brush it out! Don't use the hairdryer on it, or if you do, leave a good half a meter between your hand and the suit, and move around the hairdryer. Direct heat can ruin fur, so make sure the fabric doesn't overheat. I like to put a small fan into my suit heads to make sure they dry on the inside. Leave the suit to air dry, making sure the inside can dry too. Every few hours you should check on it, and brush it again. Make sure the foam dries too!

  6. Now you should have a nice and clean fursuit head. I think that's about it.

Fursuit parts and body washing:

  1. Once again remove anything magnetic, dissemble the suit (AKA if yout feet are zipped on, remove those), take the belt out of the tail... Take the stuffing out of the paw, the body suit, and tail if you have padding and can.

  2. Time to turn everything inside out.

  3. You can use washing machine on these, on a lukewarm/ almost cold setting, on a delicate cycle. If you don't know how to operate a washing machine, I'd recommend you watch an online tutorial for sursuit cleaning, or ask someone who knows.

  4. After washing hang up your suit and parts, if you feel like some parts were left wet, try to squish the water out. Brush fur with an uppside down held slicker brush. Make sure to brush thoroughly, on every side.


Regular cleaning:

I really don't wanna bore you with more text, so:

  1. Remove any accessories.

  2. Brush.

  3. Get a towel and a bucket of lukewarm water.

  4. Pat down the suit head with the towel, make sure it's wet.

  5. New water with cleaning detergent in it.

  6. Pat the suit with the towel to soap it up.

  7. Pat the cleaning detergent out with a clean towel (still wet).

  8. Dry with dry towel.

  9. Brush.

  10. Put a fan into it and let it air dry.

Spot cleaning: With water, maybe with minimal soap, fabric softener, ect. If you somehow get alcoholic marker on your suit you can gently rub the spots with nail polish remover.

I've seen some makers use [Bissell Little Green machine] for cleaning their fursuits,
which can be a pretty cool way to escape some of the hard work that goes into cleaning a fursuit.
I currently don't own one, but I'll safely recommend it as I've only seen positive reviews on it so far.

Also:

I highly recommend checking out these two lovely makers videos, to get a general idea on how to clean a fursuit.
Give them a like and subscribe if you haven't yet, they deserve it.


In case the videos won't load or open for whatever reason, here are the links to the videos:
[Neffertity's Fursuit cleaning video] [Skyehigh Studios fursuit head cleaning video]

Additional video:


[How to Clean your Fursuit Head in 5 Minutes!]
I recommend checking out this channel for more cool and short videos like this, give them some love.

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