Yes, Muffler Hair Is Real — Why It Looks Like the Back of Your Car Needs a Brazilian

If you've ever seen a car with a ponytail, no, you aren't just seeing a whole new meaning behind the word "horsepower."

What you're seeing is muffler hair. And yes, the stuff is very much real.

Videos of people freaking out over the fact that their car is seemingly barfing out "hair" has folks wondering if this is a mass TikTok prank a bunch of users are getting in on to convince folks that there's human hair coming out of their vehicles.

With the way 2024 is going, it's hard to blame people if they think there's something esoteric and downright creepy going on with people's vehicles that would result in human hair coming out of them.

This TikTok video posted by user Kimberly DeFisher is one such upload that had people shaking their heads in disbelief ... and horror.

"We got the heebie jeebies, wow. Imagine that 911 call though…" Kimberly wrote in a caption for her post, while several other users chimed in with thoughts of their own.

One person quipped: "50 years old and I have never heard of muffler hair … gotta love TikTok!! 😂😂😂"

But then there were other people who didn't seem all that perturbed by the existence of muffler hair, like this one app user's significant other: "The way I was scared then my husband walked past and said 'they shouldn’t be pulling the muffler hair out.' I was like, 'WHAT?!'"

Are these videos people showing part of a large-form prank a bunch of TikTokers decided to pull? Do furry creatures climb into people's mufflers for warmth and then unknowingly get caught in a mechanical Richard Gere-accusation-situation and their bodies are extricated at a later time?

According to The Autopian the "hair" inside of muffler hair isn't really hair at all — it's fiberglass. If you've ever seen rough carpentry being completed in a home and watched those large pink sheets of forbidden cotton candy being put up for insulation, then you're probably familiar with its fuzzy texture.

A video posted by YouTuber @HumbleMechanic features a dissection of a muffler, and one component of the vital mechanical part is a wad of fiberglass used to "deaden that exhaust note coming out," according to the content creator.

According to The Autopian the "hair" doesn't really provide any specific mechanical function to one's vehicle — its primary function is to just deaden some of the sounds that are coming out of your muffler.

So if you saw a bit of a strand coming out of the back of your vehicle and you decided to pull it out, there's no need to fret, the outlet states. The only thing you have to worry about is now having a louder muffler.

But if you live in my neighborhood, then you'll know there are plenty of people who love the fart gasket effect on their vehicles. Where they learned to think that was cool, it beats me, but I wish they had more muffler hair stuffed up the tailpipe of their cars, not less.