Thread: clippercide/barbercide Vs. rubbing alcohol?

Having worked in the medical field for 20 years, 7 of which was in Microbiology, I'm going to get in my 2 cents.

The only way to sterilize something is with an autoclave as was mentioned earlier. This would turn scales into a pile of worthless melted goo. You need high temperature and pressure to kill any spores that might be present.

A 10% solution of bleach and water is all that is required to kill 99% of all bacteria and viruses out there. The only thing it can't get is the spores that require the heat and pressure that was mentioned above. 10% bleach is approved by all agencys that monitor our medical labs and we are required to clean our work benches after every shift with it. Using a stronger solution isn't any more effective because the spores can survive even straight bleach.

Bleach is not a good solution to use on metal though and over a period of time you will start to see pitting on the surface. We have stainless steel counters in our lab and at first glance they look pretty good but on closer inspection, you can see the damage that the bleach has slowly done.

Boiling water is very effective in killing organisms as is lysol, listerine, and any good anti-bacterial hand soap. Boiling a kettle of water and pouring it over the razor blade does a great job and I have done it many times. I just keep it off the scales because I'm not sure how the heat would affect them.

I have no idea what is in the barbercide but I doubt that it will kill any harmful spores. They resist everything short of autoclaving. Having said that, spores are generally airborne and the chances of having any on a blade is pretty slim. If you were to receive a razor that had lots of spores on it, you would have already been exposed to them by just opening up the box and moving the razor through the air.

The HIV virus is a very fragile virus and cannot be exposed to air for more then a couple of minutes before it dies. You would have to take a razor from an infected person and use it within minutes to have even a small chance of contracting it.
The Hepatitis virus is a little heartier and could hang around on a used blade for awhile. Hepatitis is alot easier to contract then HIV. Hepatitis was the main concern with Barbers and is why they had to go with disposable blades. It is the main hazard in my field also, I have been stuck with 4 dirty needles over the past 20 years and fortunately I haven't contracted anything.

Bottom line, your skin is a pretty good barrier against organisms. If you clean your blade with a good disinfectant or use boiling water, your chances of getting anything is slim. I would bet a good soak in a glass of original listerine would kill the same amount of bacteria that the Barbacides do

Relax guys, and enjoy the shaves.

Chuck

The great thing about clippercide is that it's not aggressive on metal as bleach is. Barbershops use it for metal items and barbicide for plastic combs.

Thanks for setting the record straight, Chuck. It's always great to hear from someone who has the answers, rather than guessing like we're doing.

From http://www.king-research.com/msdsrequests.asp , I get MSDSes that list in Clippercide o-phenyl phenol and isopropyl alcohol; in Barbicide isopropyl alcohol, dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride, and sodium nitrite; and in Barbicide Plus isopropyl alcohol, ortho-benzyl-parachlorophenol, ortho-phenylphenol, and para-tertiary-amylphenol.

Based on the ingredients, Barbicide Plus sounds like it's the strongest of the three, which would explain its significantly higher price point.

What kind of spores are we talking about? I feel like I've read about them, but my mind is drawing a blank.

The skin is an amazing barrier--but I'm a beginner straight razor user, and the 3" long knife in my hand can beat my skin's barrier method if push comes to shove. That's why I'm trying to be cautious.

Cheers!
Hollis

Chuck,
Thanks for your input. I know Barbicide comes with "hospital" instructions as to what constitutes proper use for killing certian things.....ie., concentration, length of time in contact, etc... as well as a list of just what it kills. The Barbicide plus is rated pretty well and I know it mentions tuberculosis on it's kill list. I am sure Marvicide is identical (other than being green, instead of blue).
I have a medium size barbers jar of Barbicide in my bathroom. Looks pretty, rarely used. I don't worry too much about germs. Besides that whcih does not kill me only prolongs the inevitable <g>.

Tony

Originally Posted by Chuck Turner

I would bet a good soak in a glass of original Listerine would kill the same amount of bacteria that the Barbacides do

Perhaps... the phenol in Listerine is pretty potent stuff*, plus all the alcohol. But I'll still go with Clippercide for the added benefit of its lubricating and anti-rust agents.
_____________

* some 20+ years ago I did an automation job for a company that provided leased storage (ie, a tank farm) for various chemicals and petroleum products. One of their tanks held the phenol compound used in the making of Listerine. Every day tanker trucks (similar to the ones you see on the highway hauling gasoline to gas stations) would arrive and load a certain amount of phenol and a certain amount of alcohol and drive away to deliver the mixture to the Listerine people. The Phenol was loaded in a restricted area by people in full life-support gear (ie, they looked like astronauts on the moon). I was told "if you spill phenol on 3% of your body it will kill you". I had a whole new respect for Listerine after that.

Chuck,
Thanks for the post it was very informative. I have a solution of 1:1 hydrogen peroxide and 91% isopropl alcohol that I use sometimes to disenfect the blades. I also have Clippercide that I use mostly. My question is, will the hydrogen peroxide react on the blades as does the bleach?

FWIW, this is what Health Canada (or rather the North Bay Perry Sound District) have to say about Barbicide.

http://www.nbdhu.on.ca/en/Personal%2.../barbicide.htm

According to their information, it is only safe to use it on a razor if that razor cannot cut the skin.

Personally, I'm not too worried about these things. Remember that these guidelines are for professionals who use the same instruments on many different people. Your personal razor is not like that at all. There's no point in becoming paranoid.
Even with ebay razors, I think if you clean the scales and around the pivot with water & soap, rub it with alcohol and then boil the blade in some water, everything should be fine. In fact, most ebay blades need to be cleaned up, so a bath in boiling water + baking soda is recommended anyway.

BTW, I wonder what happens to those Mach 3 blades in the factory. If a worker sneezes over them, do they throw away that batch? I don't think so. Yet, I've never heard of anybody disinfecting their Mach 3 upon purchase. Sometimes, it's better not to think about these things, at least it keeps you sane.

Redwoood

Well would you look at that. And I always though that Barbicide would be better to use than my rubbing alcohol.

X

"Examples of an intermediate level disinfectant would be a solution of 70% to 90% ethyl or isopropyl alcohol, or a solution is 1 part of bleach and 99 parts water (1% dilution)."

So, this is an update to the home made disinfectant solutions. It looks like 10% bleach solution is too strong...

Nenad

Again, I'll share some of my brewing knowledge where it applies here.

For brewing you obviously have to be pretty anal about keeping things clean and sanitary. You can't truly sterilize easily without an autoclave, as previously mentioned, and the only things I worry about getting truly sterile in an autoclave (I use a regular pressure cooker) are my yeast propagation tools and equipment (pipettes, nalgene bottles, test tubes, dishes, innoculation loops, etc). For all other uses you will really only sanitize.

For sanitation there are tons of choices. The choice I use in my home brewery is called "starsan", a food grade phosphoric acid based chemical solution available from just about any homebrew shop as well as mail order. As with any other sanitizer solution, mixing it in the proper ratio is critical. Starsan gives something like a log 5 kill rate on contact, although regulations require them to list a 30 second minimum contact time. I keep a spray bottle full of starsan mixed with RO or distilled water and I use it to spray down all my various utensils as I'm brewing (as well as soaking the bigger items). I've taken to using it to spray down my razors, too. This stuff is fairly cheap, I always have it on hand and if I mix it using RO or distilled water it will stay good for effectively forever.

I use a lot of stainless steel in brewing and starsan is completely safe to use for it. I've left it sitting for a week in a stainless keg and not had any issues. It will discolor vinyl plastic tubing though if you forget and leave it sit for a week or two (as I learned the hard way heh). I have no problems spraying down my entire razor scales and all and then wiping it clean.

If you rinse your razor after sanitizing it you are most likely putting FAR more germs back on it. The aerator screen in your faucet harbors a tremendous amount of bacteria and in point of fact your normal drinking water (that you rinse your face with and shower with) has far more bacteria in it than you'd ever realize. In fact, in a lot of cases where I've helped brewers troubleshoot infectoin problems (bacterial or wild yeast contaminations in their beer) I've been able to trace it directly back to them using tap water to rinse something post boil or topping up their post boil wort with unboiled tap water.

For my airlocks to keep them sanitized I use cheap vodka. You actually need a bit of water mixed with the alcohol to make it a more effective sanitizer so you wouldn't want 100% isopropyl (or ethyl either) alcohol. Even alcohol sanitizes on contact, it doesn't truly sterilize without long term soaking.

For 99.9% of normal needs, you really shouldn't obsess about sterilizing/sanitizing a razor unless it's (a) new to you (from the mfgr, another person or eBay), (b) been potentially contaminated environmentally (dropped in the toilet, for example) or you're loaning it out to your friends. Doesn't hurt to give it a spritz of a sanitizer whenever you want, of course, but it's not worth obsessing about especially if you're rinsing that blade with tap water.

-- Gary F.