Lint (material)#Navel lint

A Bauchnabelfussel is a fuzz in the navel, which is formed from abraded loose fibers from clothes and consists of a small part also of the dust.

Many people in the evenings or even in the morning a little lint in the recess of her belly button. The reason for this was unclear for many years, until, carried out a systematic investigation in 2001 Karl Kruszelnicki of the University of Sydney, Australia, to determine the properties of the Bauchnabelfussel. Its main findings were:

• Bauchnabelfussel consist mainly of loose fibers of the clothing, mixed with dead skin cells and tattered and unusual body hair.
• Contrary to expectations, Bauchnabelfussel also move upwards from underwear rather than downwards from shirts and tops. The movement is due to the frictional traction of body hair on underwear that pulls loose fibers in the navel.
• Women have less Bauchnabelfussel because they have thinner and shorter body hairs. Conversely, older men more because they have stronger and more numerous hairs on the body.
• The characteristic blue-gray color of the Bauchnabelfussel is the average of the colors of the fibers in clothing. The same color have lint in clothes dryers.

2002 Kruszelnicki was awarded for his interdisciplinary research with the Ig Nobel Prize.

Graham Barker of Perth, Western Australia, according to the Guinness Book of Records is the record holder for collecting Bauchnabelfusseln. He has almost collected since January 17, 1984 every day his Bauchnabelfussel. It takes about 3.03 mg daily. In contrast to the studies of his Kruszelnicki lint are allegedly of a reddish color, though he hardly wears red clothes.