Using super glue can land you in a tricky situation! If you’ve gotten super glue on yourself you need to know how to remove it safely. Read our guide to learn how to remove super glue from your skin, hair, and nails.
Working with super glue can be challenging.
If you’ve ever used super glue, chances are you got a little smudge on your skin, hair, or finger nails. Super glue can be a challenging substance to remove, but simple if you know the right techniques. Read on to learn how to get super glue off of your hands.
Super glue is a strong adhesive that is useful for a variety of jobs. Its viscous texture makes it fairly simple to spread to your hands. Here are some tips on how to remove it.
- Soap and warm water. Soak the skin in warm soapy water to loosen the glue, then simply attempt to peel the glue off.
- Lemon Juice. Lemon juice can be used as a substitute to soap if you have sensitive skin. Mix 1-part lemon juice to 1-part water.
- Margarine or olive oil. Another natural alternative is margarine or olive oil. The grease reacts with the glue to loosen the hold.
- Laundry detergent. Any brand of laundry detergent can be used to loosen the bond. Simply mix ¼ cup detergent in a coffee cup of warm water. Rub on your skin for roughly 20 seconds, or until glue comes off. The best thing is not to get it on your skin in the first place. Therefore we recommend our patented control applicators.
Washing your hands with warm soapy water helps remove unwanted super glue.
If you’re gluing smaller and more precise pieces together, it’s easy to get super glue on or under your fingernails. Here are some quick and easy ideas for how to remove super glue from your nails.
- Acetone. Acetone is the best way to remove glue from nails. A simple bottle of household nail polish remover should do the trick.
- If you have sensitive skin, cover the surrounding skin with petroleum jelly, this will act as a repellant to the acetone.
- To loosen the glue, soak the nail in acetone beforehand. Or saturate a cotton ball, and then rub your nail until the super glue disappears. Use a scraper or cuticle pusher to scrape off the more stubborn spots. A Q-tip might be handy for those hard to reach areas under the nail.
Hair is a little trickier, but you won’t have to cut it out. Here’s how to remove glue from hair.
- Shampoo and Conditioner. Simply wash and condition your hair, then run a fine-toothed comb through the glue until it breaks apart. Take care not to brush too hard and break your hair.
Acetone is highly effective in removing glue from hair.
Check out our quick tutorial on how to remove Loctite super glue from objects.