If you are an average person with an average head of hair, you lose at least fifty hairs a day! For a family of four, that means up to 200 hairs could make their way down your shower drain. Believe it or not – a plumber’s worse nightmare is hair in your drain. It causes clogs, backed up water, and endless headaches. We have a few pointers to help you prevent hair from causing plumbing problems.
What type of plumbing problems does hair cause?
The most common is clogs in the drain pipe associated with the shower itself. The drain will slow down before it stops draining completely and can leave you standing in a puddle of water as you shower. If you have hard water, the risk of such a clog is even greater. The minerals in hard water react with soap to form soap scum which then adheres to the hair making it stick together to form tougher clogs.
The hair also travels further down the pipes and then can cause clogs in larger drain lines. If it travels far enough, it may reach patches of grease that started in your kitchen sink. Grease and hair make for some really tough clogs. When this happens, they slow down or can block multiple drains in your home, including your toilet.
On occasion, hair contributes to issues with your main sewer line. If you happen to have roots growing into your line, hair will get caught on those and make the clogs even worse.
Before you reach for that bottle of drain cleaner or container of lye, consider this. Repeated use of any type of drain cleaner to clear a hair-based clog can damage your pipes, leading to leaks and corrosion. They are also a health hazard, as they can cause severe burns to the skin, and blindness if it comes in contact with your eyes.
How do you keep hair out of your pipes?
If your shower comes with only a standard metal drain guard with holes the size of a pencil eraser, that is not enough. Hairs flow right through those large holes. We recommend a guard made from flexible plastic with tiny holes, or a one made from wire mesh.
It’s simple to check to ensure that your guard is working properly. After a few showers if there’s no hair, then it’s not working properly. Try another until you find one that works right for you and your family.
How can you tell if your drains are full of hair?
Not every slow or clogged drain is caused by hair. That being said, if you suspect that’s the case, we can come out and conduct an inspection with the use of a video camera. The camera will inspect your drain, as well as your sewer lines to locate the blockage. We will then remove the clog. Depending on where it’s located, we may use a snake or perhaps hydro-jetting will be used to clear the drain lines.
Hydro-jetting involves shooting a pressurized stream of water into the drain. This method will also remove soap and grease buildup, so these sticky substances don’t keep grabbing onto hair and causing more clogs.
If you suspect or are uncertain if your sluggish drains are caused by hair, give us a call, and one of our technicians will come out and do a complete inspection on your drains and sewer lines.
That’s good to know that most pipe cleaners will cause damage to your pipes. I wouldn’t want to have a bunch of acids eats through my pipes, so I’ll make sure to not use them. I’ll have to think about having a plumber come in to take a look at my pipes if I notice them draining slowly.
I didn’t realize that hair could cause such problems for a drain. I wish I had known to keep hair from the shower drain before it got clogged! Maybe it would be a good idea for me to get a professional to clear it out for me.
My shower drain is clogged, and I noticed a considerable amount of hair in there. It makes sense that the clog is likely caused by the hair! I had no idea that clogs like this could end up clogging things so deep. Maybe it would be a good idea to get a professional to fix it up for me.
I noticed that my shower isn’t draining anymore, and I think it might be a hair clog. It makes sense that getting a professional to clear this would be beneficial! They would know the best way to get it cleared out.
I found it interesting how you mentioned how hair can accumulate over time and clog your drains. My wife and I are opening up our home for our family reunion and we want to make sure our drains are clean and clear after everyone leaves. We’ll be sure to keep this in mind and find a plumber that will remove hair from our drains!
I like how explained how hair can clog drains. It is interesting that soap and minerals attached themselves to the hair, making the clog that much more difficult to get rid of. Knowing this, I can see how it is best to try and keep hair from going down your drain.
There are some problems with my shower drain. It is going down very slowly and has been for a while. There might be a clump of hair stuck in the drain.
I like how you mention the most common type of clog is shower drain due to hair getting clogging the drain lines. My brother’s wife loses a lot of hair. Thank you for the information. I’ll recommend my brother to contact a plumber so he can get his drain unclogged.
My daughter seems to have a lot of hair go down the drain and cause blockages that don’t let the water to drain properly. I don’t want to keep fixing this issue and buying drain cleaner so I think we will take your advice and put down a cover that has much smaller holes in it. If this doesn’t work we will need a plumber to come in and help us install some new pipes that won’t get clogged.
It’s a great point that the drain will slow first before clogging up completely. My brother is trying to get in touch with a plumber that can help his home this weekend. He is really worried about his drains clogging completely because they have been puddling recently.
It makes sense that the hair and tree roots in the mainline can easily contribute to a drain clog. My brother is having some big issues with his septic services this year. He needs to get them cleaned out immediately so that he doesn’t have to pay for major repairs in the future.
It’s great to know that the hair can really clog the lines if they are already having issues with things like roots. My brother is trying to get his septic lines repaired this fall. He wants to avoid any major repairs in the future by just maintaining the sewer properly.
I never thought about how the hair could travel further down the pipes and create some major issues by clogging. My cousin is trying to get a new plumber to look at his sewer lines. He needs to be sure that the sewer line is working properly so that he doesn’t have to pay for expensive repairs.
It’s a great point that sometimes the hair will travel further down the pipe and cause issues later on as well. My parents have noticed that their plumbing seems to be getting blocked up. They want to find a local professional that can look at their system and get it fixed pretty quickly.
You make an excellent point that sometimes our plumbing issues are caused by hair. The other day my wife mentioned our plumbing is backed up. I will call a residential plumbing service to have the pipes cleaned.
You make an excellent point that sometimes our plumbing issues are caused by hair. The other day my wife mentioned our plumbing is backed up. I will call a residential plumbing service to have the pipes cleaned.
My parents are having plumbing issues right now. They think that hair is clogging all the pipes up. It’s good to know that hair can travel down the pipe and clog there as well.
It makes sense that the shower drain would get clogged the most because that’s where all the hair goes. My sister has noticed that her home has had some plumbing issues lately. She needs to find a local plumber that can get it repaired pretty quickly.
Hair is a major culprit for causing clogged shower drains. Keep up the great work! Thank you so much for sharing great posts.
Thanks for explaining that homes with hard water are even more likely to become clogged from hair. According to my knowledge, any homeowner dealing with a severely clogged drain should hire a hydro-jetting service to get it cleared as easily as possible. It’s a good idea to deal with clogs as soon as they appear to avoid causes larger issues for your home’s plumbing system.
That’s cool that hydro jetting will help remove soap and grease. I could see how that would help to prevent things from getting caught in the drain. I’ll have to consider getting someone to help me do that.