Dog hair gets everywhere. In every nook and cranny in the home, and – particularly – it clings to your best cashmere sweater and other garments. Knowing how to remove dog hair from clothes is a vital skill in dog ownership, if you don’t want to look like you live in a kennel.
A few tools are essential in your efforts to rid your clothes of canine hair, as it can be mightily stubborn. It’s rarely a case of picking off a few strands from your smart work suit with your bare hands and heading into the boardroom. Nor can you rely on the washing machine alone to do the trick. These items are handy to have at your disposal before you even get to the washing stage.
Removing dog hair: tools for the job
Lint roller: a roller with an adhesive surface, like this Nobleza Lint Roller (that you can find on Amazon), which you can pass over your clothes, picking up unwanted hair. Great if you’re in a hurry and need to give your clothes a quick once-over, or before you put them in the washing machine.
You can also find rollers that don’t need replacement adhesive, such as this Ace2ace roller (also on Amazon), which uses a combination of fleece force and static charge, and is really effective.
Fabric brush: rather than using a sticky surface like the roller, this picks up the hairs with its teeth or bristles. Find one designed for pet hair, like this pet hair remover (found on Amazon).
A specialised sponge can work wonders at removing pet hair, such as this Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter (which you can find on Amazon). For a sponge it’s on the pricey side, but it is designed specifically for dog hair. However, we found it’s more effective on fixed fabrics such as carpets rather than loose items such as clothing.
If you’ve got no kit in the house, and a shadow of black lab hair all down your white jeans? Try simple household sticky tape to lift the hairs in a jiffy. Regular tape such as Sellotape works fine, whereas a stronger duct tape isn’t ideal for use on clothes.
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Nobleza Lint Roller at amazon.co.uk This lint roller has 540 sheets and this pack includes two handles and six refills.
Pet Hair Remover Roller at amazon.co.uk
Pet Hair Remover at amazon.co.uk This brush has two sides with different removable brush teeth.
Gonzo Pet Hair Lifting Sponge at amazon.co.uk This sponge claims to be more effective than a vacuum cleaner or lint brush. It can be used on lampshades, blinds, bedding, upholstery, clothes, window screens, baseboards, car interiors, walls, and computer screens.
A step-by-step guide: how to remove dog hair
1. First try to remove the hair manually, using a fabric brush, roller or specialised sponge. For just a few hairs this will suffice.
2. For clothes that are covered in hair, you will struggle to get rid of all of it manually, and anyway will want to wash the garment as it is likely to have a certain eau de chien aroma. Some people recommend running the item through the tumble dryer before washing – providing you have checked this adheres to the garment’s cleaning instructions. This might seem like the wrong way round, but the dryer will loosen the hair and collect it in the lint trap, doing half the job for you. Use dryer sheets, such as Bounce Outdoor Fresh (that you can find on Amazon), whose anti-static properties will further help loosen hair.
3. Wash your clothes in the machine according to the garment’s instructions. As well as your usual laundry detergent, you can add a specialised pet hair dissolver, such as Vamoosh (that you can buy on Amazon). This breaks down the keratin in the hair, dissolving the hair strands so they can wash away. This not only helps remove doggy hair from your clothes, but leaves your washing machine hair-free too and helps prevent its drains from clogging up.
Another useful trick is to add half a cup of household vinegar to your wash cycle as this helps soften fabrics, which stops the hair clinging.
For most owners, dealing with dog hair is just part and parcel of the joys of sharing your home with a dog. Unless of course, you have a low-shedding breed, in which case you are probably feeling pretty smug as the rest of us combat the perils of canine fluff.
Bounce Outdoor Fresh Tumble Dryer Sheets at amazon.co.uk These dryer sheets can help to loosen pet hair before you wash clothing.
Vamoosh Pet Hair Dissolver at amazon.co.uk This formula dissolves pet hair in the wash, leaving your clothes, bedding and washing machine free of hair.
Pet Hair Catchers at amazon.co.uk These catcher balls remove hair and lint from clothes in the washing machine for a cleaner look.
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
