Best vacuum for "human hair" on carpets

December 24, 2013 8:14 AM

There are plenty for pet hair. What about "human" hair? And we are talking "long strands" here.

I tend to shed a lot of hair. Long strands too.

Almost all of the vacuums I have seen for "pet hair" tend to include "Not for human hair since the long strands might get coiled up". The one tool I have seen is a Dyson tool for around $69, but no vacuum cleaner from Dyson is even less than $200 (A.K.A not affordable)

I do have this - http://www.blackanddecker.com/power-tools/FHV1200.aspx It works well. There's no "coil" per se. It vacuums up everything and the "everything" goes in without getting stuck anywhere. Only problem - it requires 20 hours of charging for 5 minutes of run time.

Any other suggestions? I am sure there are other women who suffer from the same issue.

Apart from the human-hair-not-getting-stuck thing, I would also like to have a corded one.

(Note: Not really looking for suggestions on how to stop hair shedding :D I have tried a bunch of those).

posted by anonymous to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

My Neato robot vacuum does OK with my long hair, likely because it is easy to clean. My dyson is not as easy to clean. What really helps though, is using a rubber carper rake before I vacuum.
posted by kellyblah at 8:26 AM on December 24, 2013

The consensus over at Long Hair Community seems to be that the Dysons with removable brush bars and grooves in them so that it's easier to fit scissors or seam ripper in to cut off the hair are best, but you should be able to get more out of a cheaper vacuum if you get the hair off the brush frequently.
posted by asperity at 8:31 AM on December 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I use the purple Shark for animal hair and just pull my hair out with a seam ripper. It doesn't seem to have any ill effect on the vacuum and really gets its all up.
posted by stormygrey at 8:39 AM on December 24, 2013

Dysons are the best vacuums in the history of ever. I have long hair, too. Like @asperity said, you will still have to periodically cut the twisted hair off the brush bars. A few times a year doing that little bit of maintenance, and your Dyson should last years and years.
posted by hush at 8:50 AM on December 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

Even with the Dyson, you have to cut clumps out periodically (how periodically depends on how much you shed). I find running one of these guys over the floor before vacuuming drastically reduces the hair-in-vacuum issue.
posted by melissasaurus at 8:54 AM on December 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

Dyson would be my recommendation, but I have never seen one on sale for less than $200. The hair still gets tangled around the beater bar, but it is super easy to take out and clean. Also the tangle free attachment works pretty well with my long hair, but it's small so it's hard to do a whole floor with it, so I just use it in the bedroom where I brush my hair each morning and great drifts of hair accumulate.

Carpet rakes are great, get a rubber one I used one before I got my Dyson.

If the price is an issue keep an eye on the home shopping networks, they often have deep discounts on old stock Dyson on their website and you get interest free monthly payments, it's usually only "old" stock to the show as they have to get new packages in all the time to keep interest up and still current models. That's how I got my DC39 with heaps of attachments, including tangle free brush for under $350.

You might want to pick up a shop vac. Those things don't have beater bars to tangle and usually have good suction.
posted by wwax at 9:17 AM on December 24, 2013

This problem is the bane of my existence! I've tried carpet-raking before running the vacuum; vacuuming first with the roller brush turned off (floor setting); and trying to contain my hair-combing activity to one area, and using wadded-up duct tape to pick up hair before vacuuming. Though these do cut down on the hair caught in the roller, I still end up having to clean the roller brush every other time I vacuum.

I guess my point is: the amount of time it takes me to clean the brush is about the amount of time it takes me to do any of the steps, above, so there's no real time savings in doing the pre-emptive stuff. I use the seam ripper, and every once in a while, get out the screwdriver and remove the bottom plate and the brush roller to get rid of the hair that gets wrapped under the brush roller rubber belt.

Such a pain in the butt!

As far as vacuum recs: I have a Hoover WindTunnel Air, and really like it. It's somewhat easier to clean the roller, relative to other vacuums I've owned.
posted by nacho fries at 9:26 AM on December 24, 2013

For what it's worth, I've gotten a dyson for ~$200 by watching woot.com for awhile. But I'll nth that even with the dyson you have to periodically cut out the hair that got coiled up. It's pretty easy and quick, but a little gross.
posted by tinymegalo at 10:24 AM on December 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Vaccuum AMA on reddit, is chock full of useful info.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:30 AM on December 24, 2013 [2 favorites]

tl;dr take-away: He uses a Miele for his house, which includes 2 pets and a girlfriend who also leaves her hair all over the place.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:32 AM on December 24, 2013

Hoover grabs everything, no problems. I really wish it had paper bags!
posted by Cranberry at 11:56 AM on December 24, 2013

For carpeting I find that a rubber broom is actually better to pick up hair than a vacuum. For hard floors I don't have a problem with using a regular broom.
posted by raccoon409 at 5:10 AM on December 25, 2013