# Why is hair in food considered so gross **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2018, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544 "2018-02-25T14:34:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/21 "2018-02-26T02:46:47Z")
> [@TheChileanBlob](#): > > Because it’s someone else’s body part! _Dead_ body part! > [@Oglomott](#): > > My aunt used to say she could eat a turd until she found a hair in it. Is Auntie still around? Can I get her digits? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/22 "2018-02-26T18:41:32Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > I remember a woman at a party saying that if a dog licked one of her plates, she’d throw the plate away. I just saw this in a 2012 movie called Starlet! The old woman is aghast at the younger one’s dog drinking out of her glass. I realize the texture of hair might be objectionable completely apart from “cooties” but yeah, it seems like an excessive, pre-scientific way of thinking. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/23 "2018-02-26T18:49:39Z")
So do you send it back and ask them to serve you a burger without a hair in it? It will be made in the same kitchen by the same cook who I guarantee will use the same degree of cleanliness- or lack thereof- as with the first burger. How is that better? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/24 "2018-02-26T19:08:57Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > So do you send it back and ask them to serve you a burger without a hair in it? It will be made in the same kitchen by the same cook who I guarantee will use the same degree of cleanliness- or lack thereof- as with the first burger. How is that better? My guess it’s not necessarily a cleanliness thing, but some sort of visceral reaction by the folks for whom this bothers. Yeah, you send it back and hope to get a burger without hair. No hair, no gross-out reaction. (And it’s completely possible another cook makes it, or the patties were pre-made and you just got a bad one where a rogue hair found its way in. It may have nothing to do with the kitchen or cook preparing it. I mean, I’ve worked briefly as a clean-up boy in a Michelin-starred kitchen, and it was spotless and regimented, but nobody wore hairnets or any of that crap. A hair could conceivably find its way into the food by accident, and I wouldn’t blame it on the cleanliness standards of the kitchen. That was the most spotless kitchen I’ve ever worked in.) ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/25 "2018-02-26T22:32:16Z")
Man, I find so many of my own hairs in my food at home, that I certainly can’t complain about a rare hair in my food at restaurants. It might be the cook’s, but there’s a good chance it isn’t, and if you can’t keep your own hair out of your food anyway how do you expect others to do so? We’re mammals. We are hairy animals. Deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/26 "2018-02-26T23:52:59Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Because the sensation of pulling a long strand of something out of your mouth is one of the most nauseating things I can think of. I’d much rather find a bug than a hair. Uhhhh no. Would i rather pull a hair out of my mouth that is probably mine…or crunch down on something and start spitting legs out? ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/27 "2018-02-27T08:17:59Z")
I can think of two things that beat it in sheer grossness (and that have happened to me): - Teeth in head cheese - Wood chips in beer (partially fermented – like it’s been pulled out of a bog) ---
**Author:** ![DidierAubin87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DidierAubin87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DidierAubin87)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/28 "2018-02-27T08:54:15Z")
Whenever I saw it, I would think that’s is someone’s body part (it might be not hair). It scared me a lot ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/29 "2018-02-27T10:14:09Z")
Hairs in food have never bothered me. I pull it out and continue eating. It’s happened maybe a half dozen to a dozen times in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/30 "2018-02-27T18:53:39Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Is Auntie still around? Can I get her digits? 😉 Yeah, I think I’d get along right well with **Oglomott** ’s aunt. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544/31 "2018-02-27T20:12:30Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > It will be made in the same kitchen by the same cook who I guarantee will use the same degree of cleanliness- or lack thereof- as with the first burger. Take it from me this is an absolute best case scenario, unless we’re talking a starred restaurant where you’re sending back your food with a resonable request and a glass of Bordeaux for the chef. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-hair-in-food-considered-so-gross/809544.md?page=1)