Does anyone know where tummy button fluff comes from and MOST importantly, why is it always blue?

Never ever had tummy button fluff. Probably because I'm quite trim, so don't really have a belly button hole like 'larger' people do.

I can only assume though, that it's due to the colours of the fibres you wear. It's just lint, the same as the stuff you find in the filters of tumbledriers. Depending on what you put in, depends on the colour of the lint.

I bet you do a good line in 'Myth-busters' too, eh Si? :D

but it doesnt appear to be anything to do with hair, or what you wear! it IS always blue! whats going on?!? :wack:

It's the magical pixies that live inside your belly button that produce the fluff, Its blue because they are related to the smurfs and they like that colour.

I bet you do a good line in 'Myth-busters' too, eh Si? :D

 

Cracking program that!!!

Michael Biesecker wrote an interesting article on navel fluff in the 19/4/95 edition of Technician, accessed via North Carolina State University library. In it he discusses the widely held belief that navel fluff forms when very tiny pieces of fibre break off the inside of clothing. These tiny fibres gather in the belly button and amalgamate into balls of lint.

 

He observes that the colour of navel fluff varies amongst different people, and that those who habitually wear clothes of a similar colour tend to produce fluff related to that colour. However, those who wear a variety of colours usually end up with fluff of a grayish blue colour similar to the lint found in the lint filters of clothes driers. This colour is most likely an average of all clothing colours worn.

 

Those with hairy stomachs tend to generate more fluff, as abdominal hair is alleged to assist with dislodging fibres from clothes then collecting and channelling them into the navel. Also those with larger bellies often experience greater volumes of fluff - possibly due the tendency of large stomachs to possess deeper navels, thus a larger space for the lint to lodge in.

 

But how does it accumulate in the navel? Dr Donald E. Smith remarks that navels may possess a moist and sticky secretion that catches whatever lands nearby. On the other hand, Dr Bhupendar S. Gupta, whose doctorate is in the study of textile fibres, attributes the accumulation of navel fluff to the stomach's "microclimate" - where the flow of air between clothing and the abdomen carries small lint particles that get lodged in the navel.

 

Probably the best investigation into navel fluff was conducted by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney. He devotes a whole chapter to it in his popular science book "Q&A With Dr K" (Harper Collins Publishers 2001). The role of abdominal hair in dislodging and channelling clothing fibres is confirmed, but he also suggests the type of washing machine can also play a role. Apparently top-loading machines are not as gentle as front-loaders, leading to greater quantities of dislodged fibres, many of which remain in the clothing and cause greater accumulation in the navel. He also found that a well developed "snail-trail" - hair connecting the pubic hair to the navel - also encourages lint in the belly.

Screw the fluff, why does my belly button smell like toe jam :shock:

im with Scotty on this one - its the belly-button pixies, damn them!

pmsl :rofl:

 

The internet, full of interesting stuff :D

They covered it on Brainiac.

 

They wore different colour clothes and it affected the colour of the fluff.

 

Red clothes - red (obviously)

Yellow clothes - yellow (surprise)

Didn't I suss this out at the beginning of the thread? LOL

 

I bet scientists have spent millions of pounds in research to come up with the above. In much the same way as scientists have just discovered what makes toast fall butter side down....again, millions of pounds of research. Donate it to charity...don't think anyone's really that bothered.