Can I allow my cat to lick my hair?

Renne

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My kitten\cat (she is more like a teen right now) really likes to lick my hair whenever she feels like being carressed and gets in the mood. I understand that it's an instinct, cats lick each other, and I sort of 'lick' her by carressing her, too, but I'm worried that she'll eat my hair and have an upset stomach or something else. It just doesn't sound good. On another hand, I don't want to discourage or curb her natural instincts and responses.

My hair doesn't just stay put when she licks it, maybe because her tongue isn't smooth, one or two tiny strands of my hair go up deeper into her mouth, and it makes her shake her head from side to side, as if she wants to lick it and wants to get it out of her mouth simultaneously.

It's a shame she won't just lick skin instead of hair. Once when I was asleep she came up purring and licked my eyebrow, which is kinda like hair I guess, but she completely ignores skin! Although she used to when she was 2-3 months old, she'd lick my fingers in between biting on them when we played.
 

susanm9006

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I don’t think it’s the best idea. My concern would be hair breaking off and the cat swallowing it. I would discourage the cat by moving her in front of you and petting her. You can also try giving her a fuzzy blanket for her to knead on or nuzzle.
 

KarenKat

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Olive does this with me rarely - she is sitting on me and grooming herself and then just continues on to me. One lick though and she’s not a fan and stops, so it doesn’t become a big deal. She never goes back for seconds.
 

ArtNJ

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In fact, we had a poster a week or two ago, their cat was having problems with poop sticking to the its butt because there was long human hair in the poop. Maybe yours isn't getting any hair ... but I don't think you want to risk seeing what that prior poster did?
 
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