Why is hair that is not on someone's head so gross?

I only find it yucky when it’s in my food or in the shower drain. Otherwise it doesn’t bother me at all.

Hair in the drain, tub, on the soap, on the bathroom floor, in the sink; they all gross me out. Freshly washed hair on my partner, I will kiss her head. If it’s anyone else’s head (other than, say, my child), oh, hell, no.

When I see hair (that is not on someone’s head) lying around, I wonder if it’s dirty hair (oily hair). Yuck!

I agree! I think it is psychological for me. One time when I was 5 I was tramatized by my cousin. We were in the swimming pool of course there was a huge hair pile that wasnt cleaned out he thought it would be funny to put it on my back, since he saw me desperately trying to stay away from it. I HATED him after that and it truly ruined our friendship and anytime after that I found any reason to physically argue with him until he punched me in the nose one day at the playground. My family was a bunch of bully’s. Alarmingly my cousin has been getting into trouble even having ties to the motorcycle gang…go figure. I do not associate with him at all, ever since the swimming pool.
Now I hate hair that is not attached to something, even my own. I vacuum a lot. As I’ve gotten older it’s not as much on my mind now. I’m sure it’s all psychological as to why we think it’s gross.

I don’t even like the hair that I take out of my brush.

There’s actually a word to describe this but I can’t for the life of me remember it (or, more to the point, phrase a google search to find it). Most people experience the same feeling with most things that come out of or fall off the body. For example you don’t mind when there’s saliva in your mouth because its part of you, but the moment it leaves your mouth the idea of it ever going back where it came from is enough to make most people hurl.

@Lightlyseared puts it well. It’s something about the fact that it’s a part of your body that’s no longer attached to your body. Hair and saliva are great examples, but there’s also nail clippings, blood, dead skin… If it’s inside or attached to the body, that’s fine, but once it’s off/out, no thankee. Blech!

Because it is dead and not where it is supposed to be.
I would imagine it is the same about dead skin. I have no problem kissing someone’s skin, but dead skin is gross too.
Same with clipped nails.

seelix it truly scares me how much we think alike. We were typing at the same time.

Thinking about it, it’s probably an evolutionary advantage to steer clear of dead body parts and other peoples secretions.

^^Uh…what?

I’m not grossed out by blood or nail clippings, just hair. Guess it makes sense, evolutionarily speaking.

@tinyfaery so… when did you realise you had a blood and nail clippings fetish?

Um, @mathewl? This is about hair that’s been shed – @tinyfaery thinks it’s gross, but it’s not gross when it’s on someone’s head. There’s nothing about bald people here.

@tinyfaery – Weird that it’s only hair that’s gross to you. I’m not too bothered by blood (except if it were in huge quantities, I guess), but nail clippings? Barf! And barf is gross, too.

So what about body hair? I mean thats hair that isn’t on a persons head.

My SO thinks it’s gross too. I have no problem with it.
Then again, I shed a lot, so I’m used to it.

@Lightlyseared – I don’t like body hair that’s been shed or shaved, either. Finding body hairs in the tub is icky, as are whisker remnants in the sink. I don’t really know why it bothers me so much, though!

P.S.: It’s only gross if it’s not mine, too.

@Seelix The only hair that is not gross to me is mine and my wife’s.

It’s a waste product. We’re conditioned to think of those as gross and disgusting.

I love to kiss my sweetie’s skin, but his dead skin cells are gross.
I like to eat yummy food, but when it comes out the other end, ewww.
It’s fun to shop for, and wear, new clothes, and not so fun to clean the closet.

Plus, the clot of hair in the drain probably has a mélange of soap scum and dead skin cells adhered to it in a halo of nastiness.

Do you mean hair that grows on the body on other parts than the head?

@laureth Halo of nastiness. Haha.

Disembodied stuff that no longer relatable/personal becomes suspicious, defective and gross.

I love my sweetie and will kiss his hair but if I see hair on the floor, the pillows, the shower drain then it’s no longer him, it’s just cast off dead stuff and yeah, it creeps me out.

There is something psychological about bodiliy materials becoming gross when they leave the body. e.g. we swallow our own saliva all the time, but spit into a clean cup and the same saliva becomes gross. The same is happening to you with hair.

hee hee

site NSFW

I found a couple of nail clippings (not mine) on the lounge carpet last night and thought it a bit gross.

I don’t find body hair to be gross, when it’s on someone’s body. But otherwise, I have to agree with @Neizvestnaya on this one in that “Disembodied stuff that no longer relatable/personal becomes suspicious, defective and gross.” It’s an odd phenomenon and I don’t exactly understand it, but that does summarize how I feel about it.

@Mama_Cakes described it well. I am exactly the same way. I am surprised my partner is not bald ..for the amount of hair she sheds everywhere.

Wow, this question is old, but it was next to a related topic in plain view and I want to answer it. This topic has come up many times in my life.

Hair has never grossed me out, not even on food. I get more grossed out by saliva, and I can’t eat or drink from something where someone else tasted it first. Blood and skin grosses me out too, as well as other things. Hair gets on my nerves when it clings to everything, but it just doesn’t gross me out.