Help me get enough cat hair to make a new cat off my kendo pants
May 6, 2012 2:35 PM   Subscribe

I have a hakama covered in cat hair. I mean covered. How can I clean these?

So, unbeknownst to me, my hakama (kendo pants) got left out of their bag for an entire winter, and now they are covered in cat fur from where my cats have been sleeping on them. And I mean covered. There is more hair on them than I've ever seen. They look orange instead of black. THAT much cat fur.

The complicating factor is they are traditional hakama, made from really thick, heavy cotton cloth, that is hand-wash only, and takes nearly a week to dry after they've been washed.

So how can I get all this cat hair off my wonderful hakama?
posted by strixus to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (11 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I had a little vacuum cleaner for pet hair and it got my orange cat's fur off of the black corduroy futon cover. It worked much better than a regular non pet DustBuster.

Get the bulk off with that and sticky tape up the rest?
posted by artychoke at 2:47 PM on May 6, 2012


You're going to have to use a combo of some things unless you want to spend two hours using a lint roller. Do not bother with 3M or Scotch brand lint rollers, they are pure crap. Evercare makes the best and the stickiest. They just came out with a new one (I bought it at Target however I can't find an image of it online) but it has a rubber brush attached to it. You use the rubber brush to help lift the hair up from the fabric and then you use the sticker roller part to get rid of the hair. The thing really works. If you can't find that specific one, then buy a Pledge Fabric Sweeper (also found at Target) and follow with another kind of Evercare lint roller.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 2:52 PM on May 6, 2012


First: shake loose hair off.
Second: Try a lint roller.
Third: Wet your hand with water and rub over the fabric. Little fur balls will form.
Fourth: Get a nail brush wet and brush the fabric. It gets a lot of hair out!
Fifth: Wash pants.
Sixth: Do kendo.

Try each step. If no hair come off, move to the next step.
posted by travelwithcats at 2:55 PM on May 6, 2012


Seconding all of the above, plus two other tips:

Wipe with a damp kitchen sponge.

Put on rubber gloves (the kind for washing dishes) and run your hands over the pants in a wiping motion.
posted by Majorita at 3:08 PM on May 6, 2012


I've found running cloth items through the dryer (sans washing) will get a lot of hair off. I've used this for table runners and the like. I suspect you will need to use several of the suggested methods...good luck!
posted by maryrussell at 3:18 PM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Try a magik lint brush too. I bought mine at the drug store, and it picks up loads of fur off of most kinds of fabrics, carpets, etc. It's entirely reusable too, you just rub your hand with the grain and the fur comes off. This brush can do the heavy lifting, and then touch up with a sticky roller.
posted by amileighs at 3:30 PM on May 6, 2012


Duct tape or packing tape wrapped around your hand, sticky-side up. Worked really well for me with my fur covered couch (gets up the hair that has somehow woven itself into the fabric).
posted by littlesq at 3:48 PM on May 6, 2012


Try a microfiber pet hair mitt. That might help take most of it off. Here two examples of mitts that work. Then put it in the dryer on gentle or delicate with a couple of bounce sheets.
posted by Yellow at 4:00 PM on May 6, 2012


The tool you are looking for is called a clothes brush (but yours will probably not have a microfilm camera concealed inside). In a pinch, though, any brush with stiff, densely spaced bristles will do. I've used a vegetable scrubber. Brush with short, parallel strokes, letting adjacent strokes overlap generously. If your hakama is as furry as you say, you'll soon see windrows of hair forming at the end of each stroke.
posted by d. z. wang at 8:44 PM on May 6, 2012 [1 favorite]


Get a zoom groom pet grooming tool (available at any pet supply location). They are made of rubber and are the best thing I've found for removing pet hair from clothing and upholstery. Latex kitchen gloves work too, but not as well as the zoom groom.
posted by luneray at 9:30 PM on May 6, 2012


If it's a really nice Hakama, it would be worth taking to a dry cleaner. Tell them it's supposed to have 8 pleats, and you wont believe how good it will look when they are done with it. I used to have 2; one for everyday practice and one for more formal occasions. I'm no good with an iron, so I would always take it in for washing and pressing.
posted by ambulocetus at 11:09 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]


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