Belly Button Lint

Belly button lint, also known as belly button fluff, navel lint and navel fluff, is the result of an accumulation of fluff and other fibers in an individuals belly button.

For millennia the origins of belly button lint have remained a mystery, with very little scientific study surrounding belly button lint having taken place. What you'll find here is a collection of information and resources dedicated to uncovering the secrets of belly button lint.

It is not uncommon for people to find small lumps of fluff in their navel cavity. More often than not, this fluff is most prominent in the mornings and evenings. It's origin and composition have long been the subject of idol speculation, however it is not a topic that has undergone much formal scientific examination.

The leading researcher in the field of belly button lint is Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney, Australia. In 2001, Dr. Kruszelnicki undertook what is considered to be the worlds first systematic survey to determine the origins and composition of belly button lint.

The key findings of Dr. Kruszelnicki's research were that:

• belly button lint is composed primarily of stray fibers from one's clothing, mixed with some dead skin cells and strands of body hair.

• belly button lint is less prevalent in women because of their finer and shorter body hairs.
• contrary to his initial hypothesis, navel lint appears to migrate upwards from underwear rather than downwards from shirts or tops. The migration process is the result of the frictional drag of body hair on underwear, which drags stray fibers up into the navel.
• older men experience a higher incidence of belly button lint because of their coarser and more numerous hairs.
• a majority of the belly button lint studied was blue-gray with Dr. Kruszelnicki theorizing that this is likely the averaging of the colors of fibers present in clothing.
• the existence of navel lint is entirely harmless, and requires no corrective action.

Interestingly, Dr. Kruszelnicki was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in 2002 thanks to his belly button lint study.

The world record for collecting belly button lint currently belongs to Graham Barker of Perth, Western Australia. Barker has been collecting navel lint almost every day for over 20 years since 17 January 1984.

He is reported to collect about 3.03 mg per day. Interestingly, Barker's lint contradicts one of the finding of Dr. Kruszelnicki in that his lint is a shade of red, even though he reports that he rarely wears red clothes.