Cleaning cassette player head contained by my vehicle?

Has anyone tried to do this with q-tips instead of those pave the way cleaner tapes? I tried a cassette but it broke, I think b/c the cassette player tried to rewind it. All the instructions I find online for cleaning next to a q-tip say to "press play" after clean it, but definitely I can't get my car's cassette player to play in need a tape within it. Any suggestions?