Navel lint facts for kids
Navel lint, also called belly button fluff, is a small collection of soft fibers found inside your belly button. Many people notice this fluffy stuff at the start or end of their day. For a long time, people wondered why this happens.
Why Does Belly Button Fluff Appear?
In 2001, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, a scientist from the University of Sydney in Australia, conducted a survey to find out more about navel lint. Here is what he discovered:
- Navel lint is mostly made of tiny fibers that come off your clothes.
- These clothing fibers mix with dead skin cells and body hair.
- The lint usually comes from your shirt or top. It gets pulled into your belly button by the friction (rubbing) of your body hair.
- Women tend to have less navel lint because their body hair is often finer and shorter.
- Older men might have more lint because their body hair is usually thicker and more plentiful.
- The color of navel lint is often blue-gray. This color is likely an average mix of all the different colored clothes people wear.
- Navel lint is completely harmless. You don't need to do anything about it.
Dr. Kruszelnicki received the Ig Nobel Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in 2002. This award celebrates "achievements that cannot or should not be repeated," often for funny or unusual scientific studies.
Another scientist, Georg Steinhauser from Austria, has also done research on navel lint.
Images for kids
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Close-up of dryer lint.
See also
In Spanish: Pelusilla del ombligo para niños
