Facts: Belly button fluff

anquex:

I keep reading in Guiness World Records, Ripley’s Believe it or not, and other various books about all these collecting belly button fluff, the various colours they have, the research papers about it, etc. I remember the first time I read about it, I had no idea what they were talking about. What the heck was this “belly button fluff” business? I’ve never had weird fluff in my navel, and neither does anyone else I know (a fact that I’ve tested and validated time and time again during awkward silences; it’s an effective conversation stimulator).

Finally today, I’ve found some answers about BBF.

Belly Button Fluff

  • it’s basically collected fibres from clothing (+ some dead skins and dust)
  • fibres mostly from underwear, not tshirt or top
    • wearing old clothes (sheds less lint), helps prevent BBF
  • more common in fat people
  • more common in men
    • women tend to have fine body hair, while men tend to have coarser, thicker hair - this allows the hairs to more easily drag fibre residue up to the navel area
    • note: shaving belly only prevents BBF until hair grows back
  • less common in people with pierced navels
    • probably because this means navel becomes more exposed and, thus, less likely to collect fluff
  • generally a pale blue-grey colour
    • because clothes tend to have white and blue components
      • eg. black dyes tend to be dark blue
      • FACT: also the colour humans perceive to be “pure white” is actually a little blue)
    • also, average of colours blended together ~ grey
  • it’s great kindling for fires
  • unique as finger prints
    • due to dead skin cells, fat, sweat
      • these dead cells are loose, of a low amount in BBF, can be mixed with someone else, etc = inefficient for identification
  • People commonly linked to BBF:
    • well known physist Australian Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki
      • did a survey of over 5000 people (lead to him being awarded an Ig Novel prize in 2002)
      • apparently 2/3 of the population reported finding BBF in their navels
    • Guiness Word record navel lint collector = Australian Graham Barke
      • has been collecting since 17 Janurary, 1984
    • Austrian Dr. Steinhauser - did three years research on 503 pieces of his own navel lint
      • identified what hair type contributes to greater BBF
      • studied what shaved belly vs. unshaved in relation to BBF

[ Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ]

That’s right. I just spent one and a half hours researching belly button fluff, and the first time I left the house in the past month (excluding school) was going grocery shopping today. How’s that for having no life?

I have BBF sometimes and you are very, very awesome for doing this research.