Using ring, rotor, air-jet, and open-end friction spinning, viscose yarns of same count were spun and compared for hairiness in terms of types of hair and hair-length distributions. Hair-length distributions present on as-spun yarns, regular wound yarns, and yarns wound passing them through an air-vortex nozzle were obtained using microscope and instrument. Hairiness of Dref-II yarn is the maximum followed by ring, air-jet, and rotor yarns. Rotor and Dref yarns have higher proportion of looped hairs followed by air-jet and ring yarns. Contribution of looped hair to hairiness is predominant followed by leading or trailing hair. Smaller hair (class interval of 0–1 and 1–2 mm) are major contributors to the total number of hairs on all the yarns. Hairiness of all these yarns increases by winding without the nozzle and hairiness decreases by winding with nozzle and this is found for all types of hairs. The total number of hairs ≥ 3 mm (i.e. S3 values) for nozzle-wound yarns is about 16–30% less than that observed for the corresponding spun yarns. When many hairs are present on the yarns before feeding into the nozzle, a higher percentage reduction in hairiness is achieved by nozzle-winding. An empirical equation has been proposed based on exponential distribution to characterize the hair-length distribution present on various yarns. The number of longer hairs counted by the instrument is higher compared to that estimated by the equation and opposite is the case for the shorter hairs.