Your mechanical keyboard can accumulate dirt, dust, and the worst of them all—stray hairs. Aside from the fact that these are gross, they can also affect the function of your keyboard keys.
Lucky for you, getting hair out of your mechanical keyboard can be a DIY job. Plus, you can use equipment you probably already have in your home like a hair dryer, paintbrush, and vacuum cleaner.
This article will show you how to get hair out of a mechanical keyboard. Let’s dive in!
Step 1: Vacuum Your Keyboard
One of the easiest ways you can clean your keyboard is by sucking the hair out with a vacuum. Just use the right vacuum attachment, like a small brush, and set it up to the lowest settings.
Then, hold the nozzle close to the crevices between the keys.
Ensure that the keycaps aren’t loose though. Otherwise, the keycaps might get sucked into the vacuum bag and you’ll have to spend a significant amount of time fishing them out!
Step 2: Use Compressed Air
A can of compressed air is effective for cleaning the hairs off your keyboard. It comes with a long straw so that it can reach the small cracks of your keyboard that a vacuum can’t.
Hold the nozzle near the keyboard and spray it in short blasts. Don’t spray compressed air directly on the electronic pieces underneath the keycaps as it can damage the keyboard.
Step 3: Blow Dry Your Keyboard
Another way you can get rid of those stray hairs is by using a hair dryer. Just hold it upright and let it blow hot air over your keyboard.
After a few minutes, the hair would’ve been blown away. But, if you can still see a few of them, you can wipe them off with a microfiber towel.
Step 4: Remove Keycaps and Brush Your Keyboard
A more invasive cleaning technique is removing the keycaps of your keyboard with a keycap puller and brushing the unwanted hairs off with a paintbrush.
Keycap pullers come in two major varieties: wire pullers and ring pullers. A ring puller looks like a plastic ring with two legs that you clip around the key to lift off,
On the other hand, a wire puller has flexible wires that you can use to slip beneath the keycap for easy removal.
Just make sure to take pictures of your keyboard first before removing the keycaps. This way, you’ll have a layout guide once you reassemble the keyboard.
After removing the keycaps, use a clean paintbrush to sweep off the hairs. Avoid direct contact with the electronic pieces as paintbrushes can establish a static charge.
Final Thoughts
There you have it: your conclusive guide on how to get hair out of a mechanical keyboard. You can either use a less invasive technique like spraying compressed air and vacuuming or a deep cleaning method like keycap removal.
Whichever option you use, make sure that you’re being careful with your keyboard’s electronics to avoid damage.