Making fire using hair

[Random Terrain]

I saw a TV show in the late 1990s where they made fire by doing that thing where you rub two sticks together, but instead of just using kindling, they also used some hair. Hair is supposed to be one of the best things to start a fire with if you have no matches or a lighter.

So far, whenever I have seen people on Survivor trying to make fire using sticks, they never seem to use hair, although there is usually someone around who has hair which is long enough that it wouldn't matter if a small bit was cut off. I wonder if the reason it's not used is that most people just don't know about using hair when trying to make a fire from scratch.

Maybe some future cast member of Survivor will read this and try using hair if they are forced to rub sticks together to make fire. Using hair should speed up the process.

[haejin]

That's interesting. I've never thought of hair as being flammable before. Guess you learn something new every day.

[Paulie]

Hair stinks pretty bad when it burns.

I just felt like sharing that.

[Random Terrain]

Hair stinks pretty bad when it burns.

I just felt like sharing that.

I wonder which smells worse, burning hair or unwashed Survivor contestants out in the middle of a desert somewhere?

[Stargazer]

Ugh, I guarantee human hair. If you ever smelled it, you wouldn't even ask.

[Random Terrain]

Ugh, I guarantee human hair. If you ever smelled it, you wouldn't even ask.

I've smelled burning hair, but not an unwashed Survivor contestant out in the middle of a desert somewhere (I don't think I want to). Burning hair outside for the limited time it would take to start a fire wouldn't be so bad, especially if there was a little bit of a breeze (blowing the smell away from your face).

Believe it or not, I've smelled some nasty butt burps by various people in the past, and I'd choose a fist full of burning hair over those any day (in a small room, with the other end of the hair shoved up my nose, and someone beating me in the back of the head with a frying pan).

[Stargazer]

I've smelled burning hair, but not an unwashed Survivor contestant out in the middle of a desert somewhere (I don't think I want to). Burning hair outside for the limited time it would take to start a fire wouldn't be so bad, especially if there was a little bit of a breeze (blowing the smell away from your face).

Believe it or not, I've smelled some nasty butt burps by various people in the past, and I'd choose a fist full of burning hair over those any day (in a small room, with the other end of the hair shoved up my nose, and someone beating me in the back of the head with a frying pan).

You are an interesting poster Random. You might have a point. I have never smelled a ripe Survivor so I could be wrong. All I know is human hair is one of the stankiest smells on the planet.

[haejin]

All I know is human hair is one of the stankiest smells on the planet.

Oh, I wouldn't know that. After gym class on some days, don't even get me started...

[haejin]

Believe it or not, I've smelled some nasty butt burps by various people in the past, and I'd choose a fist full of burning hair over those any day (in a small room, with the other end of the hair shoved up my nose, and someone beating me in the back of the head with a frying pan).

That's a bit of a first. But you could be right. I guess I'd be so senseless after being beaten in the back of my head that I wouldn't care anyway.

[Paulie]

Back in high school, I singed some of my own hair trying to set a fly on fire with a cigarette lighter. I'd take smelly Survivor over that scent any day.