How to Get Dog Hair Out of the Car

If you have a four-legged friend, at some point you’ll likely need to transport them in your car. Whether it is a trip to the vet or a routine visit to the local park, depending on the type of dog, you may quickly notice a gathering of loose or dead hair gathering on the car upholstery. Knowing how to get dog hair out of the car is vital to keep up the condition of your car’s upholstery despite regular visits from your dog.

Whether your dog is short or long-haired, loose dog hair is a problem if left alone. Before you know it, pet hair covers the backseat upholstery as well as areas between your seats where your dog might wander if left alone in the car.

Because of how delicate the hair is, finding and removing stubborn hair in hard-to-reach places can be a chore. Keep reading to discover numerous tricks to remove dog hair from the car interior easily.

Get Pet Hair Out of the Car

Whether you find your car seats covered in dog or cat hair, knowing how to clean it out is crucial. Learning how to eliminate pet hair is just as important as removing gum from car seat cushions.

Not only does excess pet hair in your car look unappealing on your seats or cling to your clothes through contact, but it can leave a pet odor in the fabric of your car’s interior.

Excessive hair may be an allergen for passengers in your vehicle and unpleasant to smell day after day. It’s possible you may discover a need for a homemade dog pee cleaner while you are getting rid of pet hair. Save yourself from that terrible aroma, too.

Using Fabric Softener to Make Dog Hair Easier to Remove

Fabric softener loosens fabrics, and these ingredients work well on hair follicles, too. Applying a softener spray to your seats helps gather stubborn hairs or embedded hair in your car seats. Use it to get pet hair out of clothes, blankets, or furniture, and to remove dog hair from the laundry, too.

Using this method of pet hair removal doubles as a way to freshen up your car and eliminate pet odors left behind.

Due to the viscosity of the fabric softener, dilute it with water in a spray bottle before using. Spray the mixture onto the cars upholstery to saturate the fabric and hair.

To effectively get your dog’s hair out of car carpet or the upholstery, wipe the hair strands with a paper towel to remove dog hair from the car. Vacuum any remaining hair that did not come away from wiping.

Collect Pet Hair with a Pumice Stone

Pumice stones aren’t just for feet; their rough and rugged surface makes the stone an excellent choice for cleaning dog hair from car interiors.

Natural and artificial options are available, and there are even pumice stones designed especially for pet hair removal, none of which will break the bank.

Gently drag the stone across the fabric of your car and allow it to catch the strands of hair and pull them along, forming small piles of pet hair that are easy to grab and toss.

Note: Because pumice stones are rough, we recommend only using them on fabric seats.

Gathering Unwanted Pet Hair Using Velcro Curlers

Hair curlers, yes, the kind your mom used, are designed to roll through hair and gather it around its cylindrical shape using small fasteners that hook and hold hair.

While effective, pet hair stuck between seats or embedded into the seats is not likely to be picked up by a Velcro hair curler.

Roll the hair curler along the car’s upholstery to collect any stray pet hair on your fabric seats. Once enough hair gathers on the roller, pull it off and continue rolling until you collect all the loose hair piled on your seats.

Attract Pet Hair Using Dryer Sheets

The fabric sheets you use in your dryer repel hair from your clothes and allow it to catch in the dryer’s lint trap. These same dryer sheets are effective at gathering hair from inside your car or to remove dog hair from couch and upholstered chairs.

While holding the sheet, run it across the surfaces of your car where you find pet hair to pull it onto the dryer sheet. Dispose of once full.

Repeat this process as often as needed and watch as the hair in your car goes away and in its place is a fresh scent left by the dryer sheet.

Vacuuming Up Pet Hair

When it comes to cleaning, using a vacuum cleaner is the best way to get dog hair out of the car, as well as to remove dog hair from the couch or other indoor furniture.

Vacuums, whether they are the kind you use inside your home, ones found at the car wash, or handheld vacuums meant for travel, are specifically designed to pick up fine materials from the carpet and neatly store them for disposal.

Industrial vacuums at the car wash typically come with only one nozzle to pick up small debris, but vacuums sold for residential use come with several attachments.

Adding a vacuum attachment that is either thin enough to reach into small spaces or one with rubber teeth easily helps gather hair and quickly remove it from your car.

Pull Stubborn Pet Hair from Fabric Using Tape

Duct tape and packing tape are two types of tape commonly used outside their intended purposes.

Their adhesive strength makes them great for home repairs. They make great tools to pull hair from your car seats when rolled around your hand.

With a roll of tape around your hand, sticky side out, firmly press the tape into your seats to pull pet hair from the fabric. Continue until the tape loses its adhesiveness before replacing it with a fresh roll.

Because packing tape typically comes with a holder, pull a stretch of tape out and tamp it down onto your seats for hair removal before replacing.

Remove Pet Hair from the Car Easily with Seat Covers

If your dog is often in and out of your car, investing in a pair of seat covers is an effective way to contain loose pet hair in your vehicle.

Seat covers are quickly removed from the seats to be shaken out or cleaned while leaving the seat upholstery in the car unaffected.

In combination with floor mats, by using seat covers, you drastically reduce the amount of pet hair lingering in your car after each ride.

Old sheets or towels also make great impromptu seat covers because they fit around the seat’s shape to trap stray hair.

Remove Dog Hair from the Car with Balloons

Using a balloon to get pet hair out of the car might seem odd, but if you’ve got a few balloons lying around, they effectively gather loose hair.

This unique solution to get dog hair out of the car interior involves harnessing static electricity.

The science behind this trick involves electrons being transferred from loose hair to the balloon’s rubber, providing the balloon with a negative charge and the hair a positive charge.

The opposite charge between these two objects causes the loose hair to become attracted to the balloon as the balloon moves away.

Although using a balloon is a fun way to clean the car, it is unlikely to pull strands of hair stuck into the seats or on the car carpet. Only use this method if the amount of hair in the car is minimal or concentrated in a small area.

Scrape Up Pet Hair with a Squeegee

Another odd choice for effective hair removal is a squeegee, typically meant for water on windows, to gather pet hair. The rubber blade attached to squeegees catches loose pet hair and pulls it into a pile for easier removal.

Because of the shape and size of a squeegee, this option might be more useful when cleaning hair off the floor of your car. Due to the contours in car seats, work from left to right to follow the curves.

Removing Dog Hair from Non-Fabric Areas in the Car

Just because your dog sits in the back doesn’t mean you won’t find its hair all over the car. Through shaking, your dog releases its hair into the air, and airflow causes the hair to gather in cupholders and vents.

Dry or damp with water, a paper towel makes gathering loose hair easy. Wet paper towels are also quick to remove any pet hair that might have gathered in the creases of leather seats.

How to Get Dog Hair Out of the Car with Lint Removers

Lint removing tools are everyday items in the home to ensure your clothes are free of dryer lint. For a pet owner, they are a must-have for your home and car.

Collecting Dog Hair with a Lint Remover

Lint rollers are rolls of adhesive strips perforated around a plastic handle that make removing hair simple as it allows you to roll over loose hair and gather it quickly.

When it comes to removing hair stuck in the seats of your car or the floor carpet, a lint roller may be moderately effective at pulling these strands out but may leave some behind as the roller becomes full of hair.

Depending on how much hair you’re gathering with the lint roller, you may find yourself going through a lot of roller sheets to complete the job. You may want to try a non-adhesive lint roller or brush to tackle the job.

Use a Non-Adhesive Lint Brush to Remove Hair from Fabric

Like the sticky rollers, a lint brush uses a fabric cushion mounted on a handle that gathers hair when rubbed across fabric.

Because of their size, you may have to clean the brush more often by reversing the direction of movement or simply picking off the hair.

Most lint brushes are double-sided, making them great for use between seat cushions and under headrests to gather hair from possibly hard-to-reach places.

Their size also makes them great for gathering hair around the contours of the seats in your car.

Removing Hair with a Wire Brush

Variations of the lint brush exist with hard or soft bristles that work similarly to pet grooming brushes. One of these is a wire brush, a wooden handle with numerous small bristles inside for gathering hair.

Wire brushes work well because they pull stubborn hairs from difficult-to-reach places.

A wire brush is a significant final step to your cleaning process to make sure you remove any tiny hairs after using a more extensive cleaning method like vacuuming.

Be careful if using a brush with stiff bristles so you do not damage or tear the fabric of your car seats.

Scrape Hair From Fabric Using a Shaver

A standard tool for those looking to remove pill balls of fuzz from clothes is a non-electric epilator shaver.

The device is usually wooden or plastic with a metallic blade you drag against the fabric to gather and remove fuzz, fabric pills, and pet hair.

The small metal blade effectively shaves the fabric and restores it to a new-looking condition. Use it in your car to remove unwanted pet hair from your seats and any fuzz left behind from clothes or pill balls that form from friction.

Clean Up Dog Hair with Gloves

Like the rubber of balloons, rubber gloves are a great way to remove pet hair from the interior of your car. Unlike balloons, gloves give you the advantage of using your fingers to pull hair from hard-to-reach places between the seats.

Gather Pet Hair with Rubber Gloves

There is no need for anything special with this method as the rubber gloves you find at the store easily remove pet hair from car seats in your car.

Place the gloves on your hands and use a sweeping motion in one direction to drag and collect pet hair on your seats. Loose hair sticks to the gloves while larger clumps of pet hair gather into balls, making it easy to dispose of.

Adding water by spraying your seats beforehand makes removing hair even easier if you’re having trouble removing stubborn hair.

Brush Unwanted Dog Hair with a Pet Glove

A popular item on the market for dealing with a pets hair is a pet glove designed with soft rubber bristles to remove loose hair from your pet while you pet them wearing the glove.

Ensure the pet glove is clean before using it in your car and brushing along the seats and between cushions.

Like regular gloves, hair gathers on the rubber, and the rubber bristles work well to hold onto and gather hair, making removing it from the glove easy by simply pulling all the collected hair off in one clump.

After removing excess hair, follow up with the best homemade car interior cleaner to get it back to like-new condition.

Preventing Dog Hair from Accumulating in the Car

As important as it is to know how to get dog hair out of the car, save yourself the trouble of cleaning dog hair from car upholstery by tackling the problem before it starts.

Taking preventative measures before your next trip to the dog park lessens the amount of excess hair left behind.

Regular Brushing

Before your dog jumps into your car for its next ride, consider brushing them down with a pet grooming brush or glove to remove as much loose hair as possible.

Brushing is essential when pets begin to shed their winter coats after the winter months. While this won’t ultimately save you from getting hair in your car, it lessens the amount and makes cleaning more manageable.

Unless shaving your pet is part of its regular care, knowing how to keep your car hair-free should be part of your routine car upkeep.

With regular cleaning and attention, you won’t have to worry too much about detail cleaning your car to get your dog’s hair off the seats.

If our tips on how to get dog hair out of the car help you, consider sharing the guide on how to get pet hair out of the car with your fellow dog owners on Facebook and Pinterest.