Fur coats made of natural, expensive furs require special care. Careful, but thorough. Leaving is not difficult, but requires compliance with some inviolable rules. Here, any “wrong movement”, incorrectly chosen cleaning method – and you can say goodbye to your favorite fur coat. Therefore, before cleaning a mink coat at home, weigh all the pros and cons of this risk. But there are a number of ways to clean mink fur yourself.
Basic rules of care
You need to clean the fur as it gets dirty. A product made of natural fur should be chemically cleaned only in case of heavy contamination. On average, natural fur coats withstand 4-6 chemical cleanings (in general).
Fur coats cannot be stored in plastic (polyethylene) covers. Natural fur necessarily needs access to oxygen. Natural hair fades from such storage, its strength and elasticity are greatly reduced.
Before putting the fur coat in storage, you need to protect it from moths. For this, you can use special tools that are sold in any hardware store. You can use the “folk” proven method – to stuff the sleeves with newspapers. So the sleeves will keep their shape, and moths will not attack the “sanctuary”. The smell of printing ink repels her.
You should not store other products made of natural wool or fur next to the fur coat.
Natural fur absorbs extraneous odors very well. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to hang next to the fur coat (or sew inside the sleeve, for example) a sachet bag with a pleasant aroma or your favorite perfume.
It is strictly forbidden to spray perfume directly on the fur coat (even on the lining)! Stains from perfumes cannot even be chemically cleaned.
Do not carry bags on your shoulder or in the crook of your elbow. Any, even the lightest and most stylish. From constant friction, the fur will dry out and bald spots may appear at the place of wear.
Strong contamination is better to entrust to dry cleaners. Professionals know all the features of natural fur, they have special tools for its cleaning. It is easy to spoil an expensive fur coat by inept actions, but it is unlikely to be possible to restore it.
You should not subject a fur coat to such an experiment as “water cleaning”. Cases are known that after carrying out such manipulations, the fur coat “sat down” by one or two sizes.
It is best to take the mink beauty to the dry cleaners in the spring. In this case, two goals are achieved at once: preventive treatment against pests and cleaning from winter dirt. The larvae of various pests are most active in the spring period, so it is the right time to carry out a set of preventive measures.
In no case do not clean the fur with flour or starch.
Flour, starch are organic substances in which various pests are easily bred. Particles of flour or starch left between the villi can swell, creating a good breeding ground for insects, which will not be so easy to get rid of later. This method, how to clean a fur coat from a mink, is common, the effect is there, but it lasts for a short time, bringing with it more serious problems.
Combing mink fur is necessary only with a special brush for mink.
Home cleaning methods
The following recipe will help to add shine to dull fur and clean it from dust: put a handful of peeled walnuts in a gauze bag (2-3 layers) and hit it with a hammer. Then this bag (still tied in a tight knot) should be easily walked along the hairs. This method will not only clean the fur from dust, but also soften it and give it its former shine.
Fur can be cleaned with talc. Unlike flour and starch, talc is an inorganic substance, it does not create a breeding ground for pests. After lightly sprinkling the coat with talc, you need to carefully rub the fur with your hands. The main thing is not to overdo it! Then you need to shake the coat well several times, and comb it with a special brush. Even the smallest particles of talc should not remain in the fur coat.
You can clean the fur from dust simply by combing it with a special brush for fur products.
If the contamination is large and cannot be removed by ordinary cleaning, it is better to use dry cleaning services. But sometimes professional cleaning may not be available, in which case you can try to wash the fur coat yourself, how to do it is described in this article .
Removal of stains
Let’s consider how to clean a white mink from yellowness. Yellow spots can be removed with 5% hydrogen peroxide. To do this, you need to wet a cotton swab in the liquid and lightly wipe the contaminated area in the direction of hair growth. At the same time, you cannot wet the fur, only the fur itself!
Fat stains (for example, from foundation or lipstick) can be tried to be removed with medical alcohol. To do this, you need to wet a cotton pad in alcohol and walk over the stain in the direction of hair growth.
How to clean the lining of a mink coat
Ideally, in order to clean the lining of a mink coat, it must be wringed out and washed according to the washing recommendations of the material from which it is sewn. Otherwise, the lining may “sit down” and simply not fit the size of the fur coat itself.
You can try to clean it without separating it from the product. To do this, you need to walk over the greasy places with a cloth soaked in a soapy solution. The main thing is not to wet the mezdra.
If you have doubts about your strength, it is better to entrust the coat to a dry cleaner.