Brush your hair before showering or bathing. This removes loose hairs that would otherwise end up in your drain. If a few stray hairs (or yikes! A handful) come loose while shampooing, place them on the edge of the tub to dispose of them later, instead of letting them wash down the drain.
Flush, flush, flush! Avoiding a hair clog in your drain can be as simple as flushing your drain with hot water after each shower. You can include baking soda and vinegar as an extra precaution.
After a couple days between shampoos, that adds up to a lot of hair falling into your drain. The best way to keep hair out of your shower drains is to keep as much loose hair out of your shower in the first place by brushing before you shampoo.
Use Baking Soda and Vinegar
Baking soda and vinegar is a very powerful combination that can help clear nasty hair clogs. Besides helping dissolve hair in your drain, baking soda also has disinfectant qualities that can fight fungi and bacteria.
Hair is the top culprit that prevents water from freely going down the pipes and eventually forming severe clogs. Most people find it impossible to keep their hair from making way down the drain during the shower, and using chemical drain cleaners to clear clogs only makes the situation worse.
Soap and Shampoo
Besides the chunks of soap, sticky films from shampoo and scum from the soap can build up along the sides of the pipes, narrow the opening and making it more difficult for the shower to drain itself.
Drano Max Gel may break up small hair clogs in 7 minutes, but leave it for at least 30 minutes for better results. Although it's composed of corrosive chemicals, it should be safe for most pipes and to leave in pipes overnight.
When you are using a baking soda and vinegar solution to clean out your drain, you are actually causing the rubber and plastic that are used for the drain's pipes to be eaten away by the mixture. Over time, this rubber and plastic will break down, causing the drain to become even more blocked.
If your drain is clogged with hair, baking soda can dissolve hair in a drain. To try this safe and easy method at home - first, pour a cup of baking soda down the drain. Then pour a cup of vinegar (white vinegar) down. Allow the mixture to sit for several minutes.
You may be surprised to learn that pouring soda down the drain does work for some clogs. To be specific, you need a dark-colored cola (such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi). This type of carbonated beverage usually contains a good amount of phosphoric acid, which given enough time, can eat away at some types of clogs.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average person naturally loses between 50 to 100 hairs a day, depending on the length and thickness of your hair. It's important to note that this type of hair loss really isn't considered hair loss at all — it's hair shedding.
The scum and buildup from your soap, shampoo, and conditioner can end up contributing to a clogged shower drain.
Baking Soda And Vinegar Is A Potent Mixture That Dissolves Hair. Allow five minutes for this mixture to undergo a chemical reaction, where it formulates and fizzes. After this, pour a cup of hot water down the sink. (If you are sure you don't have plastic drains, you can use boiling water, but proceed with caution.)
With time, baking soda and vinegar may work as a natural drain cleaner on weaker drain clogs, and the benefits of regular drain cleaning can help keep your drains free of clogs. But for tough drain clogs that need to be dissolved right away, you may want to use a stronger drain cleaner, like Liquid-Plumr.
Can Hydrogen Peroxide Dissolve Hair In A Drain? Another method that people sometimes use is hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is a very effective way to unclog a drain that is clogged with hair. It is a great chemical to use because it breaks down the hair very easily and it doesn't produce any harmful fumes.
Preventative Maintenance
Pouring bleach into the drain when the unit is not operating can leave residual bleach, which will damage the drain pan and line. Using vinegar for preventative maintenance throughout the year will keep your drain clean and clear and will not damage your line.
While hot water can help loosen up debris, coarse salt actually scours the inside of your pipes, removing more material than hot water alone. After removing standing water from the sink, pour about half a cup of table salt down the drain before you pour in the hot water.
It is safe to leave baking soda (and vinegar) to work overnight to unclog a drain. Always flush this mixture down with boiling water—no matter how long you leave it sitting in the drain.
It is Extremely Corrosive For Your Drains
This can put a great deal of stress on your drains as the heat can cause PVC pipes to soften and even break or collapse. While it is dissolving your clog, Drano can also quickly eat away at the glue holding your pipes together, leading to a potentially costly leak.
The highly effective formula of Green Gobbler clears clogged drains and dissolves hair, toilet paper, flushable personal care wipes, soap scum and other organic matter that may be causing clogs within your pipes.
Human hair is biodegradable and decomposes, but it takes about two years. So, if you have a drain or pipes clogged with hair, you'll need a faster fix than that. Tools, natural products, chemicals and some ideas dating back a generation or two are all options.
The issue may not be with your actual drain, but rather a case of a blockage deep within the pipes. This happens over time from regular use, since hair, dirt, grease, and soap tend to bind together. Sometimes, the underlying problem is from minerals building up or tree roots growing through your underground pipes.
Clear the drain with boiling water once a month.
As another preventative measure to minimize drain clogs, try pouring boiling water down your drain monthly or bimonthly. The hot water helps loosen any hair or gunk that is caught in the pipes, before the problem becomes bigger.
You may want to rethink brushing your teeth in the shower. Toothpaste can harden within your drain, leading to serious clogs. The same can be said for your bathroom sink, but this drainage point is often flushed more regularly, causing a lesser likelihood of developing clogs caused by toothpaste.