Even without looking down the depths of your shower drain, you already know what’s lurking there: days, weeks, and months of hair buildup. While this unruly ball of hair is gag-worthy and unsightly, it’s actually even worse than that. Hair in drain pipes can cause problems in the parts of your plumbing system that you can’t see.
The Process
It probably doesn’t seem like that much of a problem. After all, you can’t help the hair that falls out of your head when you bathe. It’s almost like a rite of passage, especially for women with long hair. One swipe of the hand through the hair while rinsing shampoo or conditioner, and you get a handful of shiny hair.
Another must-do task, bathing your dog in the tub is also a hairball-inducing activity. If your pet is extraordinarily hairy and sheds a lot, think about the amount of hair that goes down the drain every time you bathe her.
Over time, the buildup of hair can cause a serious blockage in the drain. When you notice that you can no longer shower without a few inches of water backing up, you’ve got a serious problem.
The Solution
It’s not feasible to stop caring for your hair or bathing your pets, but you should take steps to prevent clogs. The issue is that the ball of hair that’s accumulated inside the drain doesn’t just cause a water backup when you’re showering. The big problems with letting hair go down the drain happens further along in the plumbing system. If you also pour grease, oil, or fats down the kitchen drain, these harden on the walls of the pipe, which makes it harder for any sediment or hair flowing through the pipes to pass. Eventually, the hardened fats cause hair to cling to the walls, which creates an even larger clog and an ever-narrowing pipe.
Here are a few things you can do to deal with hair in drain pipes:
- Keep hair out of the shower: If you have long hair, brush it right before you shower. This will help remove some of the loose hair before you even get in the shower. As a bonus, detangling your hair before you shampoo is actually better for your hair.
- Use a drain protector: You can purchase a device that looks like a mini-strainer at your local home improvement or kitchen store. Keep it over the drain at all times. The depressed part of the drain protector will fill up with hair. Just empty it as you go.
- Pour a solution down the drain: To deal with grease that’s trapping hair, pour very hot water and a grease-cutting soap in the drain to break up hardened fats.
Treat your plumbing system with kid gloves, and trap hair before it wreaks havoc in your plumbing.
For answers to your questions, contact the Pink Plumber today.
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