Many cats will lick their owner’s hair — even their beard and eyebrows! This odd behaviour towards humans can be easily explained: cats groom the head area of their “favourite companions”.
So grooming is just one way your cat shows its love! Congratulations: your cat has chosen you to join its “preferred companion” group, which usually only the VIPs in its heart are qualified to enter. You’ll notice that your cat usually grooms your hair while you’re lying down or asleep — the time it considers suitable for “bonding grooming”. If it “grooms” or “eats” your hair while you’re busy with something else, then this behaviour may be related to its playful, mischievous nature.
There’s another reason cats groom humans: marking “territory”. Your cat wants to remove other smells and “debris” from your “fur”, so that you smell like you belong to it. This is care for a member of its “group”, or for someone it hopes will become a member of its group (Cat: I take care of you because we’re one of a kind).
Although at first we’re delighted to receive such “favour”, the cat drooling on our hair (er…) or licking our delicate skin with its rough tongue… is usually not as enjoyable as our beloved cat imagines.
What can we do to stop this behaviour?
Gently pushing your cat away or stroking it won’t give you the effect you want. On the contrary, it will see this attention as a display of love (which in effect encourages it to lick you even more…), making it more likely to keep licking your hair. In fact, any interaction can be seen as a sublimation of affection and will therefore reinforce this behaviour. Unless you want your whole head covered in your beloved cat’s saliva…
The correct approach is that, the moment it starts “grooming” your hair, immediately move your head away (don’t let it keep licking). Cats remove themselves from situations they don’t like, so this reaction of moving your head away is a very natural and clear message to them (stop licking me!).
If your cat is very insistent on licking you, then something cats dislike may also help! Cats usually hate the smell of citrus/oranges, which makes any hair-care product with a citrus/orange scent an effective deterrent for your cat.
Reading this far, do you feel conflicted? Hee hee… you want your cat to be close to you, yet you don’t want your whole head covered in its saliva. Love is just this contradictory, haha!
“Love strikes back!” — give your cat a massage in return; here’s a recommendation: a really handy rubber massage brush
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