Furry friends bring an awful lot of happiness into their owners’ lives but having a pet also comes with a unique set of challenges. If you travel often with your pet(s) in your car, you’ll notice that the seats and floors get covered in pet hair very fast. Left unchecked, pet hair can quickly build up, making your car look untidy and potentially damaging your upholstery.
Luckily, there are ways to deal with pet hair in car seats, and this guide will show you how.
Understanding the Pet Hair Problem
To get a better idea of why pet hair is such an issue, here are some stunning statistics:
- Dogs have approximately 15,000 hairs on every square inch of skin.
- Generally speaking, cats are even hairier. They can have around 60,000 hairs per square inch.
- During periods of shedding, dogs can lose over a hundred hairs a day.
- Cats can lose around a thousand hairs daily.
Obviously, these figures will vary from breed to breed and depend on other factors too, like the size of the animal in question. However, even smaller animals will still lose some hair, especially when rolling around or lying on the back seat of a car. If you want to take them with you on drives and journeys, you have to find a way to deal with that.
Why? There are two main reasons: aesthetics and cleanliness.
First, having pet hair all over your car isn’t a pleasant sight, and any passenger who has to ride with you might be put off by it.
Second, and more importantly, it can be a health hazard to let pet hair build up in a car. Between 10 and 20% of the world’s population suffers from cat or dog allergies. This means that if someone with an allergy enters your vehicle, they may have a hard time with all those hairs around.
Even for non-allergy sufferers, there are risks: pet hair can be a breeding ground for germs, bacteria, and even parasites. All those hairs that leave your dog or cat’s body and stick to your car seats could make the inside of your vehicle an unsafe and unhealthy place to be, even for non-allergy sufferers.
How to Effectively Remove Pet Hair From Car Seats
So, what’s the big secret, the No. 1 most proven, unbeatable, flawless way to remove dog and cat hair from your car seats?
The answer: prevention. Many people simply let the hair build up and then try to find a miracle product or tool to remove it. Different brands also try to sell the idea that their method or product is all you need to deal with pet hair on your seats. However, in reality, it’s always better to prevent pet hair from building up in the first place.
You won’t be able to stop it entirely, of course, but with some proactive measures, there will be less to deal with. Then, when you do clean it, or hire a pet hair car removal service in Chandler to clean it for you, it won’t be such a large task.
There are also several tools and methods you can use on your own to keep your car hair-free as much as possible.
Brushes, Gloves, and Rollers
If you’ve ever tried picking pet hairs off car seats with your bare hands, you know how hard it is. The hairs have a habit of sticking to the seats and embedding themselves deeply into fabric, so it helps to use tools that are abrasive or adhesive in some way to draw them out. Sticky lint rollers are good for this, along with rubber gloves and wire brushes.
Vacuum Cleaning
Many car detailers use the trusty vacuum cleaner to clear out pet hairs, too. They’re good for sucking away loose hairs that are on the surface, but less effective on those that are bedding into the upholstery. It’s often helpful to use brushes and gloves to break the bonds holding hairs in place, then bring in the vacuum to suck them up.
Fabric Softener
A clever solution for dealing with pet hair is to apply a bit of fabric softener diluted with water onto the car seats. This tends to eliminate the static that helps to attract hairs and makes them stick to the fabric. If you spray your seats with a softener regularly, that may minimize the amount of hair that sticks to them.
Seat Covers
Investing in car seat covers is a wise decision for any pet owner. You can find these covers online and in pet stores. They cover up the bottom and backs of seats, forming a layer or shield between your pet and the upholstery. You can take them off when they get too hairy or dirty and clean them easily.
Grooming
Another preventative measure is grooming. It won’t fix or erase the pet hair problem entirely, but dogs that are groomed often tend to shed fewer hairs. You don’t even need to pay for professional grooming – though that is usually the best option. You can buy your own supplies and get in the habit of brushing your dog or cat daily to clear out dead hairs.
Anti-Static Sprays
If you’ve ever wondered why pet hair seems to cling to car seats and upholstery in general, the answer is static electricity. Friction from your pet moving around in the car, as well as the friction between the pet's fur and the car's upholstery, can generate static charges. These static charges essentially cause the pet hair to adhere to the fabric. You can prevent those charges from building up by using anti-static sprays on the seat covers and elsewhere around your car’s interior.
Car Seats and Boosters
Along with car seat covers, you may want to consider pet car seats or boosters when driving your pets. These seats have walls and belt systems built in to secure your pet in place. They’re great for safety, and they have the added bonus of keeping your pet in one position, rather than having them roam around and spread their hairs all over the place.
A Regular Detailing Schedule Will Keep Pet Hair Under Control
As you can see, dealing with pet hair on your car seats isn’t just a question of buying or using a single product. It demands a holistic approach that includes various tools and techniques, and the easiest, most effective way to get results is to put your car in professional hands. Find trusted car detailing services in your area and set up a cleaning schedule to suit your lifestyle for a clean car all year long.
