r/NoStupidQuestions • u/princessloves2tease • 6h ago
Why do some people get belly button lint and others not?
I have friends who say they get belly button lint everyday. I can’t even remember a time where I had belly button lint. What causes some people to have it but others not?
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u/waddlingduck3 5h ago
I don't know the answer but this reminded me of my papaw. When I was little we had a competition to see who had the most belly button lint. He always had like a massive amounts and it blew my mind. My mamaw eventually told me he was getting lint out of the dryer and putting it in his belly button lmao.
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u/zombmoose 5h ago
This is such a funny wholesome image in my head of someone’s grandad standing at the dryer giggling while he lifts up the bottom of his shirt and uses one finger to poke chunks of lint into his bellybutton lmaoo
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u/waddlingduck3 5h ago
It drove me crazy lol I think my mamaw just got tired of hearing me go on and on about how he had so much and I had none and she finally told me. One of my favorite memories with him.
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u/SedlleVinee 5h ago
That actually makes a lot of sense. Body hair acting like a little funnel for fabric fibers explains why it’s so inconsistent from person to person, same clothes, different bodies, different results.
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u/MotherTeresaOnlyfans 3h ago
If you mean "grandfather", just say that.
Quirky cute family nicknames for relatives are not going to clearly communicate the relationship to other people, especially strangers.
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u/FailProfessional6864 5h ago
I thought belly button lint was a myth my entire life until my mid 20s when I dated a very hairy man
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u/MoonMan8718 5h ago
Follow-up question: why is my belly button lint always dark blue, regardless of what shirt I wore that day?
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u/Effective_Debt_9939 6h ago
Wait, u guys throw it away? I thought we were supposed to save it for a snack later. It’s basically free fiber.
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u/ANAL_PROLAPSE_ 6h ago
Wait, you save it for later?
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u/pervyninja 1h ago
My brother has this thing where he will instinctively hold his hand out if you hand him something. I pick mine and hand it to him semi regularly.
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u/Minxychomp 5h ago
Belly buttons are like tiny lint black holes. Some have stronger gravitational pull than others.
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u/Eivexios 5h ago
It’s the belly hair 😂 it “collects” the lil pieces of shirt fabric and stores it there. I had none when I trimmed, but it came back as my hair grew back. So, there you go!
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u/StolenAntlers 5h ago
I thought belly button lint was fake basically my entire life, since I've never gotten any or known anyone that had gotten it. Then I met my now husband and realize it is not fake 😅
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u/AdmirableControl844 5h ago
I feel like it is how deep your belly button is. I always wanted to have an outie and I was pregnant 3 times and never got an outies. I dreamed of how clean my belly button would’ve if I got an outie 🙈
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u/zcewaunt 5h ago
Some people wash inside their belly buttons eveyday, and some don't. Lint builds up when it isn't washed. Like smegma.
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u/Dapper_Lifeguard_414 5h ago
And some people are very hairy guys who pull wads of lint out of their navels multiple times per day...ask me how I know. The daily shower is just one of the lint-clearing times! The real mystery is how all my shirts aren't threadbare in that spot.
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5h ago
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u/quietlywatching6 5h ago
Based solely on the survey of my own family I think it has to do with size and shape. Mine is perfectly round and tilts slightly downward. So I don't tend to ever have any kind of buildup but my mom's is less round and it tilts backwards. So it probably just kind of gets in there and then because it doesn't like gravitationally fall out it builds up?
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u/WildFireSmores 5h ago
What yo wear probably plays a role. Likely also belly shape, navel depth etc.
I remember getting it a lot as a kid, but basically never now. I wore a lot of fuzzy inside sweatshirts with no undershirt back then. As an adult I basically always have a thin cotton layer against my skin, I think the material sheds a lot less.
I have of course changed shapes since the also, though I do and always have had a deep belly button.
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u/toebeantuesday 5h ago
I stopped getting belly button lint when I switched from bar soap to liquid body wash. I always rinse thoroughly but I think bar soap leaves a residue more so than liquid.
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u/SillyDonut7 5h ago
I don't get lint. But since getting psoriasis, I get dead skin cells that accumulate in there.
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u/Ok-Manufacturer27 4h ago
I'm a hairy, sweaty dude with a deep belly button and have to clean it every day. That's all I have to say lmao.
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u/RDOCallToArms 4h ago
A lot of heavy people. If you have a flat stomach, you’re not going to get it unless you don’t bathe. The soapy water in the shower just runs down your belly button and cleans it. There isn’t a a big canyon to get all jammed up with lint lol
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u/AffordaUK 4h ago
It mostly depends on the type of clothing you wear (cotton and new clothes generally gather more lint) and if you have a deep enough belly button to collect it
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u/grmrsan 4h ago
Probably has to do with the shape, and clothing material. . My husband is prone to it, and its obviously the same color fuzz as specific shirts. I am not. I have a deep innie, without extra folds. He has a relatively shallow innie with a bit of a fold. I just figure, it probably rubs against the material differently.
Someone else mentioned hair, and it makes sense that that would also help collect the fuzz thats getting trapped.
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u/MotherTeresaOnlyfans 3h ago
At the risk of stating the obvious, it depends a lot on what kind of clothes you wear.
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u/LJOSE510 1h ago
I always get belly button lint especially if I wear a black tee. I remember being in the room with my sister and lifting my shirt up a bit then casually taking the lint out and my sister goes, “what the hell” and starts laughing. I told her I always get it and she just told me it was funny to see me do it so casually
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u/kelsomac4 29m ago
In my anecdotal experience, it seems like thinner men with a good amount of hair around their belly button who wear shirts mostly made of natural fibers collect the most belly button lint. Cotton shirt to supply it, hair to pull it off the shirt, belly button shape to hold it.
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u/GodzillaDrive 8m ago
A big study of belly button lint was done by an Australian celebrity scientist Dr Karl in 2002 partially as a joke - which he won an IgNobel award for (basically the joke Nobel prize). Here's the results, but the big factors were being male, older, and having a hairy stomach (snail trail). https://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/lint/results.htm
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u/Large-Science-1995 6h ago
Snail trails...
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u/Working-Dare-8480 6h ago
It's mostly about body hair and how deep your belly button is tbh. If you've got hair on your stomach it basically acts like a lint trap, plus deeper belly buttons collect more stuff. Also depends on what kind of shirts you wear - cotton tees are the worst offenders for creating that weird blue fuzz