You’d never know by the looks of it that I am continually losing hair in the shower, but apparently I am. So much so that it plugs up our bathtub drain every 6 months. Not an uncommon problem, eh? Drano to the rescue…almost!
Right before opening the bottle, Aaron decided to take a plunger to the drain and voila. It worked! We saved ourselves 4 bucks, which mind you, is a lot when you are on a tight budget! I took the Drano back and bought goat cheese, which turned out to be a waste anyways because I forgot to refrigerate it. Ugh, so I’m out the 4 dollars. But that’s not my point! My point is that a few hefty blows to the drain dislodged the wad of hair that had been plugging it up for longer than I care to share. That’s all it took folks.
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This is totally gross… But a crochet hook also does WONDERS at our house. Just like you said – about every 6 months things start slowing down. It’s nasty what comes up with that hook, but if you wear gloves & keep the waste basket right near by to dispose it, I find it tolerable when the perk is having a lightening fast drain again! ;)
Oh, I hadn’t thought of using a crochet hook! We tried straightening a metal hanger but it didn’t really work. Thanks for the tip!
Depends on the drain- but a lot of them have a little spiral wire coil in there to trap hair where it is easy to pull out (rather than way far down the line where you have to call a plumber to auger the line). You just have to unscrew the drain cap part and pull it out to see if you’ve got one. If you do, all you have to do is unspool the glob of hair and flush it down the toilet. I recommend a pair of kitchen gloves and a strong stomach though – it is usually pretty gross.
perfect timing!! Thanks so much for this tip. Drano is on my list for tomorrow.
There’s a $4 tool called a Zip-it that gets ALL the hair out, from way deep down, with no chemicals. You can use it a couple of times before the barbs dull, and it’s amazing. Highly recommend it. I found them at Ace and Home Depot.
Thank you, I will try this. I am to blame in my house for it seems like half my hair stays in the bathtub after a shower.
I’ve always kept a pair of those little clamp scissors in my bathroom (ours were the kind doctors use, but anything thin and clampy will work). Every few weeks I stick them down the drain a couple of times, clamp down hard, and just yank out the balls of hair. It works really well and keeps me from having to use drano so much.
A hint for the crochet hook idea : Small metal crochet hooks work best and be sure to wrap wads and wads of tape or something similar (elastic bands,etc.) around the end so that if you accidentally let go of the hook you don’t end up with a much bigger problem then some unwanted hair clogging your drain. ((enough so that it’s larger then the drain hole)) I also recommend rinsing and drying your crochet well if you are using a metal one so it doesn’t rust. One crochet hook will last you a lifetime of hair clogged drains.
P.S. I like the idea of the Zip it for varied reasons but it doesn’t sound very cost effective.