Related post: A quick guide to removing cat hair from furniture
Better than fingertips, use a lint roller
There’s about four or five different kinds of lint rollers out there, but do you know which ones are the best for cats?
There’s reusable lint rollers, lint rakes, tacky rollers, peel and stick rollers and brush lint rollers. Typically these types of rollers use the same principle, they are sticky and they do a decent job at picking up the fur that hasn’t completely bonded to your shirts and clothing.
One thing I find though is that sometimes these tacky rollers have a bit of stickiness to them that can alter the texture of certain materials. It may remove the cat fur but some might leave you with a bit of specs of glue or pilling to the fabric.
If this is something you are worried about, try using a lint brush that’s designed to “catch” the fur by brushing it in a specific direction instead of using the sticky tape.
If you have a substantially furry cat, you might find yourself going through lint rollers by the daily, so opting for an eco-friendly and reusable lint roller might be the one to get.
Cat hair catching balls
Have you seen these things before? These cat hair balls come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, weird colours and wacky designs, some are firm and some are soft.
Basically what you do is you throw one or two of these cat hair balls into the washing machine with your clothes and they roll around and grip and grab a lot of the loose cat fur that’s stuck to your clothes.
As long as you get one that’s got lots of texture to it, in theory they will help pull off some of the hair onto the ball instead of it sticking to your clothes. That’s the idea anyway.
One thing I find is they don’t always get the fur out, and sometimes they really can soften up your clothes if they are plastic or silicone.
And, if you have clothing that you don’t want to tumble wash you might want to try using something more gentle instead.
Rubber kitchen gloves
This is a pretty good life hack. Rubber or silicone kitchen gloves are better for brushing your clothes than they are for brushing your cat. You might often see gloves with little bristles on them that companies are selling as pet brushes, but what makes them a bad cat brush is what makes them a great tool for removing cat hair from clothes.
Rubber silicone kitchen gloves are very grippy. When you move it around in a circular motion it starts to grip the fur and rolls it into a ball so it can be easily pulled off your clothes.
If this was the way you brushed your cat however, it would be a very uncomfortable experience, in fact they’d probably dislike you very much for brushing them this way.
But try this on your clothes and it’s mission accomplished!
Use a vacuum made to get fur off clothes
There are lots of little vacuums on the market that are designed to get cat fur out of the carpet. It’s a similar problem to removing cat fur from clothing.
One thing that’s handy about the handheld ones are they allow you to brush and gently pull out the hair from clothes without the heavy weight of a full vacuum so your back will thank you.
The one in the picture is the Bissel Pet Hair eraser. It’s one of the highest rated products for removing pet hair from fabrics, but honestly, any vacuum with a good soft brush doesn’t suck. Well it does suck, but that’s the point. Ah, you get the idea.
Okay, we did think of that, obviously. If a cat brush is made to get the fur out on a cat, then it can do just the same on your clothing, right?
You bet! Some people use the front or back of the bailey brush to get the fur out of their clothing. No matter what brush you are using, as long as it’s silicone and soft it might be just what you need to attract the fur from your clothes and grip it gently in a ball so you can pull it off.
One thing we know is a pure silicon cat brush works great because it naturally attracts fur due to its static generating properties.
One trend we’ve seen go viral in the last year has been people using the same type of pumice stones that would generally be used on their feet being used on carpets and couches.
The reason why pumice stones work so well is their texture. They have thousands of tiny little sharp holes that grip the little fine hairs and don’t let it go.
Ah yes, those natural volcanoes, we knew they were good for something!
I guess the best thing about these is not only will you have nice carpets and fur-free clothing, you’ll also have the smoothest feet on the block.
Pumice stones come in many different sizes and textures, from very porous to very smooth. Depending on the type of fabric of your clothing I would recommend getting a very smooth and soft textured pumice stone to start with. If you don't, you may find that your shirts start to look like moths had a thanksgiving feast with them.
It doesn’t really matter what brand of anti-static spray you use, but if you use it, you’ll greatly reduce the amount of cat hair that sticks to your clothes. We recommend the ones that aren’t sold in aerosol cans, they are basically all the same and work the same way.
These sprays basically work as a water-based liquid that coats your clothes. Once the water dissipates it leaves an ultra-thin static-dissipative layer that will prevent your clothes from building up static electricity.
Science! Who knew it could be so useful, am I right? It’s the static that attracts cat fur to the clothes, so one of these sprays really stops the problem before it starts.
Another option is using a dryer sheet, these are also great to rub down on your clothes to prevent static from building up on them too.
It’s also worth noting that some fur issues might be entirely preventable. If you brush your cat every day with a silicone cat brush like the Bailey Brush, you’ll be reducing shedding over time. And with reduced shedding you’ll be finding less loose fur floating around and sticking to your clothes.
How does that work you ask? Well with a long round tipped bristle, the silicone tips of the bailey brush massage the skin and create healthier and stronger fur over time.
This produces cat fur that sheds less and the loose and dead hair that does fall out is less and less each day. There’s less for your cats to swallow and even less to get on your clothes, so brush that cat every day!
What methods of getting cat hair from your clothes do you like the best? Let us know in the comments!
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