How to get dog hair out of a car

Half the vehicles we detail in Duluth have a dog in them at least part of the week, and dog hair is the single most common reason people give up on cleaning their own car. The hair is not sitting on the carpet; it is hooked into it. Vacuum suction does not unhook it. Something has to lift the hair out of the fibre first, and then the vacuum takes it.

The tools, in the order we use them

1. A rubber brush or a rubber-bladed squeegee. Dragged across carpet or cloth in short strokes, rubber builds a static charge and physically rakes the hair into rolls. This is the tool that does most of the work. A dry rubber glove works in a pinch.
2. A pumice stone for the stubborn spots: the cargo area, the seat backs, the footwells where the dog stands. Light pressure, one direction; it lifts hair that the rubber brush leaves. Do not use it on leather or on thin fabric.
3. Compressed air to blow the hair out of seams, seat tracks, under the seats and out of the vents, where no brush reaches.
4. A real vacuum, meaning a shop vac or an extractor, with a crevice tool and a brush head. A cordless hand vac is the reason people think dog hair cannot be removed.
5. Repeat. Brush, vacuum, brush, vacuum. The second pass finds what the first loosened.

What does not work

• Vacuuming harder. Suction does not unhook hair.
• Lint rollers on carpet. Fine on a seat, useless on loop-pile floor carpet.
• Duct tape, which works on a small patch and leaves adhesive everywhere.
• Wet carpet. Hair in wet carpet mats down and is harder to lift. Get the hair out dry, then shampoo.

The order for the whole car

Hair first, everything else second. Remove the mats and do them separately. Dry-brush and vacuum every carpet and cloth surface, then the seats, then blow out the seams and tracks, then vacuum again. Only then shampoo and extract, which lifts the dander and the smell the hair left behind. Shampooing a hairy carpet just makes a wet hairy carpet.

Keeping it down

• A seat cover or a cargo liner the dog actually rides on, washed at home.
• A rubber brush kept in the door pocket and used once a week for two minutes.
• A quick clean between full details, which is what our refresh cards are for.

When to call us

When the hair has been building for a season, when it is in a vehicle with a lot of carpet (a van, a wagon, a three-row SUV), or when the smell has set in with it. Pet hair is a line item on our interior detail for exactly that reason: it is slow, and it is worth doing once properly. Book the "very dirty" level if the dog is the main passenger. Interior detailing.