second-hand cat hair

[cellio]

The laundry goes from the washer to the dryer to the basket to the dresser drawers, without interruptions. Once a shirt comes out of the dresser, it doesn't get back in except through this chain. The cats have never succeeded in opening the dresser drawers.

Given all that, how is it that I can remove a shirt from the dresser, put it on, and see cat hair on it almost immediately? Yeah, the stuff is undoubtedly in the air, waiting to attack, like pollen, but this isn't quite how I expected that to work somehow....

Maybe the dryer isn't doing its secondary job (lint removal) as well as it should. I'll have to pay more attention.

Comments

[chite.livejournal.com]

I have completely given up on keeping cat hair out of everything. I had a black top in a sealed bag, which the cat chose to make into a comfy bed for herself. I now have a black top with white hair all over it.

It's one of those things... like socks in the dryer.

[steven.livejournal.com]

Ah, but where do you *fold* the items?

I have stopped folding clothes on the bed. I use only the kitchen table, because the cats aren't allowed on it.

[cellio]

I fold the clothes in the laundry room: pull item out of dryer, fold, deposit in basket, repeat. I never set the item down between when it comes out of the dryer and when it goes into the basket. And I do wipe out the basket after dumping the dirty clothes into the washer, so I don't think that's the source.

[amergina.livejournal.com]

When I had very long hair, I noticed that my hairs would end up on my clothing (or tangled into the weave of the fabric) even if I's just taken it out of the laundry.

I don't think washing/drying always gets rid of hair from clothing. I think it gets rid of most hair... but not all.

So, the cat hair might be*really clean* hair that just stubbornly clung to your clothes during the washing process.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Try a fabric softener. Clothing builds up a static charge in the dryer and will literally suck the hair out of the air if there is sufficient static electrical build up.

[cellio]

Thanks for the tip. If beegle's suggestion doesn't work, I guess it'll be time to investigate chemical solutions.

[beegle.livejournal.com]

I was once told that, if you have allergies and live in a house with your own dryer, you should run it empty for a few minutes before you put your clothing in. The claimed culprit was the air intake for the dryer. Given cats' fondness for warm things like dryers, your dryer might be pulling in cat hair and blowing it onto the wet clothing.

[cellio]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try this next time.

[geekosaur]

My clothes come out of the wash with clumps of tangled cat hair that's stuck on pretty well; while the dryer gets some of them out, others just seem to get spread out and then trapped.

It's jst one of the costs of having cats, I guess. :)