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Hi guys, I have recently discovered a major cause of tangling and knotting. The closeup image shows what I call "tangle fuzz". Does anyone else here get this? Is it from clothing fibers? The fibers are white to gray and I wear tie dye shirts, so I am not convinced it comes from my clothing. I am not sure of all of the sources of this fuzz and am looking for answers. I do know it causes most of my tangling problems.
Scott
Hey Scott
Yes..........the same happens to me and I was given the tip on how NOT to let this happen at a salon. The "Tangle Fuzz" is caused by long hairs which have fallen out, but are still trapped within the hairs still intact. In time they have a way of ganging-up and forming nasty little fuzz-balls that are enough to drive one up a wall to untangle. I NO LONGER have this problem. The remedy:
1. EVERY AM finger comb the hair and get all of the snags out. Especially pay attention to the back of the head to make sure any stray loose hairs will come out while finger-combing.
2. Follow up with a wooden wide tooth comb which will result in getting more of these detached hairs out.
3. Finally finish all up with a Boars Bristle Brush. Be sure to keep pulling the hairs captured in the brush out of the bristles.
I have been doing this EVERY DAY now for over 6 months and NEVER since have had the fuzz-ball problem strike.
Hope this helps Scott. I rather think this particular problem occurs mostly with guys like you and I who have especially long hair.
Take care-
Justin~
Hi Justin, they are something other than hair for sure. I magnified them to the extreme. It is not pet hair but maybe a synthetic fiber.
Scott
Fibers and/or loose hairs are often at the "nucleus" of my tangles. The fibers are usually traceable to clothing. They don't look anything like yours. Is there some tree or plant that's shedding those things? They look like they come from a plant.
It could be a plant, Steve. I have a tree that sheds fuzzy things, but I am reasonably sure the fibers are larger in diameter. I am just not sure. I have shown a second image that is highly magnified. I don't think they are from clothing.
Scott
Could those be carpet fibers?
Occasionally I have found carpet fibers in my hair. They are much more tenacious than lint from clothing.
I saw your post below - yes, I do check this board periodically.
Ed
Could be, Ed. I am just not sure. I have included a much more magnified image. I said 20x in my post, but after I looked, it appears to be more like 35x on a 19" monitor. (I have no way of knowing the magnification until after posting it here.)
Scott
see my earlier post linked below, one of several in which I reveal how I avoid tangles by not giving them an opportunity to happen in the first place.....
Detangling post
These are NOT made of hair. I included an extreme magnification image. Thanks for your input, Rob.
Scott
Hi Scott,
I know exactly what you are referring to as I get those kind of fiber tangles if I wear fleece jackets.For some reason fleece and my hair don't like each other so I won't wear that type of fabric anymore.Other than that I can't think of any other fabric that has caused me that much grief.
Mark
Hi Mark, I don't think it is clothing fibers because it is white to gray. I have added a highly magnified image.
Scott
I get carpet fibers in my hair most of the time. I have carpet in my house so it can be a hassle for my hair. They look grayish/whitish and cause severe tangles and knots. There really isn't much I can do but vacuum very often. Vacuuming often helps.
What colour is your carpet? Mine is sort of brown and the fibers stuck in my hair are white to light gray. I have included a highly magnified image to show maximum detail. Thanks, Chris.
Scott
I've got commercial Grey carpet Scott. It's texture feels rough.
I've got a nice cream carpet and does that help!
Damn it I feel jealous now! I want your cream carpet John!
Cream carpet isn't all it's cracked up to be. Although Johns
carpet is very nice.
Imagine if we all had hardwood floors....
I have hardwood floors, and I really prefer them over carpet any day of the week!
Here they are highly magnified. (Maybe 20x on a 19" monitor.)
Scott
As other have mentioned, this looks like carpet fiber, but maybe it's not. Look at the upholstery on your furniture, is it a fiber like this? Do you have a certain kind of seat cover in your vehicle that could be "shedding" its fibers? What kind of towel do you use when you dry your hair after washing? Also, if you wash your towels together with the rest of your clothes, the shirts and things will pick up the lint from the towels. Further, if you line-dry clothes rather than drying them in a dryer, then whatever fibers they have picked up will remain on them, whereas most of this gets caught in a lint filter in the dryer. Look too at any blankets or bedding. Sometimes those "stuffed" comforter-type bedspreads have that artificial/polyester fiber in them like is found in a pillow, and a small hole in the bedspread will allow the fibers out. Or do you have pillows, etc. or even stuffed animals (not stuffed as in taxidermy, but stuffed as in a teddy bear/toy) that are letting go of some of their stuffing? Some upholstered chairs/sofas have this in them too. It really doesn't look like fiberglass insulation or a product from a tree/plant, though it could be. I don't guess you've been in a cotton field walking around the open bolls of cotton though. I don't think your part of California grows much cotton. My best guess is that this is some sort of polyester stuffing from an ob ject you have been around or brushed against.
Good luck, Matt B.
At this point I think it is from a couch cushion. I think you may have solved the mystery. I do doze on the couch a lot. My head is against the cushion. It is possible that this is the source, Matt. The fibers from the couch cushion appear to have similar diameter as strands of my hair. The fibers that are tangling my hair are of smaller diameter than my hair strands. (I am not sure if these fibers can split into thinner filiments.) Assuming they can, they are likely the source. Here is an image with a closeup at the right. One of my hairs can clearly be seen at the right.
Scott
That couch looks to be the culprit.Take a bed sheet and drape it over the couch for a few days and see it the dust kittens disappear.The pic you had of your hair had a lot of those kittens.Did that start recently?Are you doing something different like maybe spending more time on that couch.Never had anything like that in my hair.
Arrick
This has gone on for a long time, Arrick. What puzzles me is that the fibers in the couch cushion are at least the same diameter and larger than my hair strands. See photo. It shows a hair at the right to compare with the couch fiber size. My conclusion is that those fibers can split lengthwise. into thinner strands.
I may try covering the cushion to see if that helps.
Scott
...sure looks like baby 'dust kittens' to me. If your hair is the source of these tiny 'tumbleweeds' then I would imagine that there has to be some extreme form of damage going on here.
Perhaps a microscope would be of some help in determining is these 'muss balls' are made up of hair fragments or cloth fibrils.
Of course if you have been involved in some passionate
lovemaking on the floor in front of a fireplace, then there
is always the possibility that the 'culprit' is made up of
carpet fibers.
These are not composed of hair fragments. They are foriegn fibers from some other source. They appear to be synthetic fibers of some kind. I added an additional image which actually turns out to be 35 to 40 power on a 19" screen. My digital camera on macro setting makes a reasonably good low power microscope. It is reasonably sharp up to about 30 power.
Scott
...so evidently this "foreign matter" is attracted to your hair for some unknown reason. Additionally your hair is coming into
contact with something like a blanket or some article of clothing.
Of course there are many other possibilities such as leaning against drapery, for instance, or lying on a dirty floor. I think it's highly unlikely that these foreign objects would be floating around in the air since they appear to be too heavy to remain suspended for any length of time.
Perhaps the mystery could be solved if you started out with clean, freshly washed, fiber-free hair early in the morning and then checking your hair on an hourly basis until the first 'mystery ball' made its appearance. At the same time you could keep a journal of ALL your activities so that you could trace your way back to the likely culprit.
If all of that seems a bit too involved, you could take some of your magical mystery balls to a lab for a bit of scientific analysis, along with fiber samples from clothing, bedding materials, carpeting, etc.
Getting a good match wouldn't take long, so in no time the source of those nasty mystery balls would identified and then you could get rid of the offending material(s).
Good luck!
...sure looks like baby 'dust kittens' to me. If your hair is the source of these tiny 'tumbleweeds' then I would imagine that there has to be some extreme form of damage going on here.
Perhaps a microscope would be of some help in determining is these 'muss balls' are made up of hair fragments or cloth fibrils.
Of course if you have been involved in some passionate
lovemaking on the floor in front of a fireplace, then there
is always the possibility that the 'culprit' is made up of
carpet fibers.
Yea i noticed it. I even got knots from plain old dust and fibers from my bed sheet and pillows.
Yes, I get these. If I have an impossible tangle, it's very likely that some of this stuff is at the root of the problem. My preferred method of detangling this sort of tangle is to pinch the tangle with one hand and slide hairs out of the tangle with the other. Don't detangle too many hairs at a time or this will tighten the tangle.
After I'm through detangling, I'm left pinching a small wad of lint.
I suspect there is not a single source. My chair at work has a fabric back. So does the other one. My car does, too. So does my couch -- and my love seat, and the cushions I use to rest my head on. Sure, the threads used to make these fabrics are thicker, but each thread is composed of multiple filaments. Usually, it's just a few filaments that are the culprit.
I suggest getting some tape and sticking it to several items that are potential culprits. The real culprit will likely shed readily.
Other possibilities are bedding and bath towels. Do you use a boar's hair or other fine bristled brush? Then look at the bristles for lint. Your head hair will be there, but so will lint. In fact, if you remove all your head hair with a comb or something, there will still be lint left on the brush. And it may be in great enough quantities there that you can get a better idea of the color, etc.
I think puffs from trees are unlikely to be the culprit, because they are usually composed of fibers that are more fragile (but not always). Examples would be cottonwood and sycamore.