Long hair in carpets – it’s a bit of a problem for anyone who has to clean the carpets. Here, we need to clarify that we’re not talking about long-haired carpets, also known as carpets with a long pile such as shagpile carpets. Those have their own problems, sure enough, but here, we’re talking about the problem of long hair getting on and in any sort of carpet. Of course, the issue of long hair getting into long-haired carpets turns up as well…

Where Does That Long Hair Come From?

The most problematic type of long hair that gets on the carpets comes from animals, usually pets (although I’m sure there are some people in rural areas who end up with fresh sheep’s wool and cow hairs on their carpets). Our good friends, cats and dogs, are usually to blame. Twice a year, in spring and autumn, our furry friends shed their coats as they change from their summer to winter coats and vice versa. All that hair ends up going somewhere, and that somewhere is often in the carpet fibres. On top of that, cats and dogs often shed hair, as any pet owner can tell you (and it’s not just the carpets where you’ll find cat hair). Rabbits and small rodents such as guinea pigs also shed hair, but they’re not usually so much of a problem, as they tend to be kept in cages rather than roaming loose across the rug regularly.

The hair shed by short-haired pets can be annoying enough. However, long-haired breeds of cats or dogs produce hairs that are a lot more noticeable, especially during the moulting seasons. There is a reason why short-haired breeds of dog were favoured by the working classes (e.g., Staffordshire bull terriers and greyhounds) and longer-haired breeds of dog were either kept outside (working farm dogs such as collies) or were owned by posh people (Afghan hounds)… and let’s not forget silky-haired Persian pussycats. In the past, if you didn’t have a maid to clean up after your pet and sweep up all that hair, you got something with short hair. Obviously, professional carpet cleaning was not an available option.

However, pets aren’t the only source of long hair in carpets, as anyone who live with a long-haired lady can tell you (or a long-haired gentleman: some guys have long, luscious locks too!). Although humans don’t moult like other mammals, we shed hair all the time. What’s more, our hairs can be a lot longer than anything produced by any of our pets. This kind of makes you wonder how trendy folk in the 1970s coped, what with the craze for long hair and shagpile carpets at the same time…

Why Is Long Hair Such A Problem?

The short answer to why long hair, whether it comes from pets or from humans, is such a problem is because it looks icky on carpets. Other types of dirt that are smaller (e.g., dust and dirt particles) sink down into the carpet fibres and can’t be seen as easily (or reached by the vacuum cleaner, meaning that deep cleaning by a professional is important – but that’s another story). However, hairs don’t sink down but stay on top of the pile.

It gets worse than that, too. Once it’s on the carpet, hair is harder to remove than other types of dirt, even with a vacuum cleaner. To understand why hair isn’t as easy to get off the carpet compared with, say, grass clippings, we need to understand the properties of hair. At the microscopic level, hair isn’t perfectly smooth. It doesn’t look like a stick of spaghetti under the microscope. Instead, it is made up of lots of little overlapping plates of a protein named keratin. If the hair is in perfect condition, then these plates or scales lie flat – this uniform flatness is what makes hair shiny. However, if hair isn’t in perfect condition thanks to dryness, heat and plain old genetics (those with curls tend to have drier hair), these scales stick up and catch on things, a little like Velcro.

A lot of carpets are made from natural wool or a wool blend. This has a lot of advantages, but one needs to remember that natural wool is made from the same basic stuff and has the same basic structure as long hair. The clingy nature of the sheep hair in natural wool fibres is all very well when it comes to forming a strong strand of yarn during the spinning process – but that Velcro-like roughness is still there. The type of wool used to make carpets is rougher and scratchier than the sort in your favourite sweater, which means that it’s even scalier at the microscopic level. This means that when the roughness of the wool meets the roughness of the shed hairs, the two grab onto each other and don’t want to let go.

How To Cope With Pet Hair and Human Hair On The Carpet

The only way to completely avoid the problem of having hairs sticking on the carpet is to have no carpets, shave yourself bald from head to toe, and not keep pets. However, this is completely unrealistic! Most of us like having hair; enjoy the warmth, softness and other benefits of woollen carpets; and appreciate the companionship of a pet. Short-haired humans and short-haired pets could be another way of preventing the problem – but this isn’t always to everyone’s taste either.

Assuming that you live in a household that includes a pet or two (with any length of hair) and people with long hair, what can you do to avoid your carpets degenerating into a disgusting mess? Here are some of our best ideas that you can try to cope with the problem.

Regular Pet Grooming

Groom your pet regularly with the right sort of brush, preferably outside, so that the hair ends up on the brush or outside in the air rather than all over the place throughout your house.

Choose Rooms Without Carpet

Do your own personal grooming in rooms that don’t have carpet, and don’t skip a day. Again, it’s better to have hair on the hairbrush rather than on the carpet.

Update Your Vacuum Cleaner

Get the right sort of vacuum cleaner. Some vacuums are designed with the pet hair problem in mind. If you don’t have pets, but you and other people in your household have long hair, you can still get one of these. These vacuums often have a brush that gently scrubs up the long hairs from the carpets. If you’re using one of these, don’t forget to unclog the bristles while you’re vacuuming.

Squeegee Magic and Rubber Mop Awesomeness

Use a squeegee or a rubber mop. Damp rubber clings to hair very well – but don’t ask me for the chemistry or physics behind this one. This means that if you run one of these tools across a hairy carpet, you’ll be able to remove the hairs from the carpet’s surface. Use a paper towel to clean the squeegee or rubber mop afterwards.

Vacuum More Often

Whether or not you have a special type of vacuum cleaner designed to remove long hair, frequent vacuuming will deal with the hairs on the carpets when there aren’t so many of them. This means that the carpets will stay looking good.

Don’t Slack Off The Cleaning

Keep up the deep cleaning schedule. Despite your best vacuuming efforts, some hairs will remain on the carpets. Deep cleaning, preferably via carpet shampooing or steam cleaning, will remove these, so make sure you have an annual appointment with your local carpet cleaning service.

Rubber Rules

Use other rubber items. Hair will cling to any wet rubber item, so if you don’t have a rubber mop or squeegee, you can use a pair of damp rubber gloves or a damp balloon – or even rubber-soled shoes. This will require a fair amount of elbow grease, but treat it as a workout!

Well, apart from the “shave yourself bold”, I believe you have a pretty handy list of do’s and don’ts. If you have any suggestions or improvements on the above list, please hit me in the comments below. Don’t be shy, share your own proven strategy and techniques for keeping a carpet clean (mainly from annoying hair).