Is the shower drain clogged with hair? Find out how to easily clear it

It is never pleasant to have water stagnating in the shower, bathtub or sink, and when it happens, it is always a symptom of a blockage in the drain.

An obstruction that does not let the water to flow freely, in most cases, is due to clumps of hair developing: hair is among the materials which is most difficult to flush away down the pipes. Instead, it ends up getting tangled together and stopping at some point on their route down the pipe. From that moment on, the blockage grows as it traps more hair and other materials (like soap residue), eventually forming a rancid ball and blocking the pipe completely. But when the time comes to perform the thankless task of clearing the obstruction, it can be tackled with a few methods that will get it done as efficiently and painlessly as possible. Read on below:

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• Manually pull out the hair with the help of a pair of tweezers: use old tweezers and pull up as much of the hair that is visible and reachable in the plug as possible. If they happen to be tweezers that you want to use again later, be sure to wash and sanitize them properly.
• Instead of tweezers, you can also use a metal hanger: you will have to bend the hook a little so as to let it fit into the drain. Alternatively, you can create a hook with a piece of wire (which you can keep to hand for next time).
• The most convenient manual solution, however, is using a plumber's probe, which is a flexible tube with a gripper tip that hooks onto the hair ball and pulls it up quite easily.
• Boiling water: when you are unable to remove the hair manually, or cannot completely remove it, try to dissolve the fatty part of the hair ball with the help of boiling water - just like you do when clearing blocked pipes in the kitchen sink. This way, the remaining hair ball is likely to fall apart and flow away.
• Alternatively, if the blockage is near the mouth of the drain and you have no means to grab the hair ball, you could try using a vacuum cleaner. Be sure to use only the model of vacuum cleaner that can deal with sucking up of water.
• If you need to clear the blockage with a product but don't want to use a chemical one, then try a combination of baking soda and vinegar. After pouring in boiling water, drop a handful of baking soda down the drain. Then also pour a cup of white vinegar: the reaction these products produce together can help dissolve the fatty part of the hair ball, and then pouring plenty of very hot water afterwards, you could solve the problem.

Whenever these methods do not work, it is best not to persist and rather consult an expert: it may be necessary to remove only the first few joints of the pipes under the drain. In this case, continuing to try to work on the blockage by moving in deeper, could do further damage.

In general, however, it is always a good idea to avoid such a problem upstream by using filters that capture hair and any larger debris. And in the case of those with long hair or lots of bushy hair, brushing it well before washing it will help immensely.