How to Remove Hair From a Clogged Bathtub Drain

Is your tub draining slowly? Find out how to remove hair from a clogged bathtub drain to keep everything moving. A blocked drain is something nobody wants to deal with. Slow drainage, standing water, and floods are all consequences of an obstruction in your bathtub’s drain pipe.

As we bathe or shower, hair washes down the drain where it collects inside the line. Over time, this hair creates a network for grime, shampoo residue, and more hair to adhere to and become a clog. A partial blockage causes water to drain slower, and a complete one leaves standing water in your tub as nothing passes.

Learning how to get hair out of your bathtub drain isn’t complicated. Explore our tried and tested ideas for removing hair from a clogged bathtub drain to make this unpleasant process a breeze. Save a trip to the store and forgo dangerous chemical cleaners by opening your drain with everyday items.

How to Get Hair Out of Your Bathtub Drain Easily

Discover how to remove hair from a clogged bathtub drain and save yourself from expensive plumbing bills. Hair blocking the bathtub or shower drain is a common problem; fortunately, it’s easily solved.

Follow straightforward directions for removing hair from a clogged bathtub drain with boiling water, pliers, a drain snake, a drain claw, dish soap, baking soda, a combined cleaner, lemon juice, boric acid powder, and chemical drain cleaner.

What Causes a Blocked Drain?

Blocked drains happen in most bathrooms. The plug hole at the bottom of your bathtub, shower, or sink leads to a drain pipe. This drain pipe carries water out into the wastewater or septic system.

Foreign material goes down the drain pipe as a part of regular use. This includes organic substances, like hair and skin cells, grime we wash off our bodies, and soap, scum, and scale from our bathing products. Over time, this foreign material clumps together in the narrow drain line, eventually forming a clog.

Signs of a Clogged Drain

The first sign of an impending blockage is usually your bathtub draining slower than usual. The slower draining rate is due to the narrowing of the tub drain pipe, thanks to the growing clog. Persistent odor is another indicator of an issue inside your drain pipe.

When the clog completely blocks the drain pipe, you’ll encounter standing water, and although you remove the drain stopper, the water from your bath will not go down. It’s prudent to unclog your drain at the first sign of an issue rather than waiting for a total obstruction.

Removing Hair From a Clogged Bathtub Drain

Distilled white vinegar contains acetic acid. Vinegar’s natural acidity makes it a fantastic natural cleaning technique to eradicate the buildup in your tub drain. The acetic acid dissolves hair and residue to reopen your drain without using toxic substances.

Pour four cups of undiluted distilled white vinegar down your drain and wait for 20 minutes. Run hot water into the plug hole to remove the softened clog, and ensure your drain is open. If your bathtub is still draining slowly, use more vinegar.

Try Boiling Water on a Clogged Drain

It’s distressing to realize you have a blockage in your bathtub drain, yet there is no need to rush into using elaborate solutions. Sometimes, boiling water is the only thing required to unstop a drain. The heat of the water disintegrates soap and scale, loosening the blockage and allowing the hair to pass through the pipe to reopen it.

Boil the kettle and slowly pour the hot water down your plug hole. Be aware the boiling water could spill or splash back on your hands, and wear gloves if necessary. Test your drain pipe and use another kettle full of water if it’s not open, or try an alternate technique.

How to Remove Hair From a Clogged Bathtub Drain

A handy pair of needle nose pliers helps to resolve shallow clogs. If you look into your plug hole and see visible clumps of hair, the right tool assists you in removing it. Try using small needle nose pliers to reach into the drain, grasp the hair, and remove the bathtub clog.

The blockage often has a foul odor and is unpleasant to touch. It pays to plan and prepare a plastic sack to collect any material you recover for easy disposal.

Getting Hair Out of Your Bathtub Drain – Drain Snake

A drain snake is a standard plumbing tool professionals and homeowners use to clear blockages. The snake consists of a rotating handle and a long coil of wire, which goes down the clogged drain.

Insert the end of the snake into your bathtub, plug and unwind it so it travels down the drain pipe. When you feel resistance, you have reached the clog. Unwind the snake slightly to skewer the blockage and reel it in. With the clog out of the drain, run some hot water to clean the pipe.

A Drain Claw Can Unclog Bathtub Drain Pipes

A drain claw is another widely available and straightforward tool for lifting hair clogs from your tub drain. Drain claws come in various shapes and sizes, but they are all inserted into the drain, where they hook and grab shallow blockages so you can pull them out.

Choose a drain claw that fits down your plug hole and use it following the maker’s instructions. If you clear the visible blockages with a drain claw and still experience issues with water flow, you may have a deeper blockage. Try an alternate method.

Dish Soap for Rinsing Hair Blocking a Drain

Most of us keep dish soap in the kitchen to wash our dirty dishes and greasy cookware. Liquid dish detergent is a fantastic dish cleaner, and its usefulness doesn’t end there. Dish soap dissolves scum and grease and breaks down organic matter like food.

These properties are excellent for softening hair, skin cells, and grime inside your drain pipe to clear a clog. Mix a cup of liquid dish detergent with two cups of hot water and pour it down your blocked bathtub drain.

Give the dish soap half an hour to work on the blockage and rinse with hot water. If your tub is still draining slowly, repeat the dish soap cleaning.

Baking Soda for Cleaning Hair Out of a Tub

Baking soda is recognized for its cleaning capabilities, yet fewer people realize it’s also an affordable and natural drain opener. Baking soda is mildly abrasive and dissolves stubborn residue. Use baking soda to eliminate the hair clog in your drain.

Pour the entire box down the plug hole and add two cups of water. Let the baking soda rest on the clog for at least an hour before testing to see if your drain is open by running the hot faucet. If your bathtub is still draining slowly, try the procedure again or use the combined cleaner to oust the trickiest clogs.

Combined Drain Cleaner

Baking soda and distilled white vinegar are famous as kitchen ingredients and cleaning staples. Separately, these two powerful products have drain cleaning potential, but together, they create a heavy-duty fizzing drain opener.

Baking soda and white vinegar react in a fizzing, foaming chemical reaction, which loosens the block inside your drain line. Skip industrial cleaners and use this natural solution for hair in your bathtub drain.

Wearing the gloves, insert the funnel into the plug hole and pour the entire box of baking soda down, followed by four cups of vinegar. Allow the vinegar and baking soda ten minutes to react before running hot water down the drain.

Lemon Juice for Drain Cleaning

Lemon juice is a common natural cleaning fix, and it’s no surprise it can help with a backed-up bathtub drain. Citrus fruits like lemons are packed with all-natural citric acid. This acid disintegrates the organic matter like hair and skin cells, as well as the soap scale clogging your drain.

Pour two cups of fresh or pre-squeezed lemon juice down your drain, followed by one cup of warm water. Leave the lemon juice in place for half an hour to loosen the blockage. Run warm water from your faucet or shower head to rinse out the pipe and check it’s open. Repeat the lemon juice treatment if required.

Boric Acid Eliminates a Hair Clog

Boric acid occurs naturally and is found in everything from soil to plants. If you have a box of boric acid or Borax lying around from another cleaning or pest control project, it offers a convenient way to deal with a drain blockage.

The acid breaks down hair and soap scum to destroy the clog and reopen your drains. Try this quick drain opening technique with boric acid and hot water.

Wear gloves to protect your skin, and insert the funnel into your shower or tub drain. Pour half a cup of boric acid powder into the funnel to transfer it into the drain, and add two cups of hot water. Leave the boric acid and hot water to work on the clog for 15 minutes, and flush the pipe with hot water to wash out residue.

Chemical Drain Cleaners Clean Hair Trapped in a Tub Drain

If you prefer store-bought drain cleaners to get rid of the hair in your bathroom drain, visit your local hardware or cleaning store. Knowing if your house has a septic system or central drainage is important before purchasing.

Some chemical drain cleaners are inappropriate for use with a septic tank as they dissolve the clog but destroy the beneficial bacteria responsible for breaking down waste. Choose a cleaner suitable for your system, and read the directions carefully.

Chemical drain cleaners are hazardous and are usually full of heavy-duty caustic chemicals that dissolve the blockage. Use personal safety equipment and dispose of any leftover cleaner with care.

Preventing a Clogged Shower Drain

If you’re tired of clearing hair from your tub drain, consider investing in a hair-catching drain cover. The cover sits on top of your drain opening like a drain stopper and is usually made of fine mesh.

The mesh catches hair, lint, and anything else at risk of blocking your drain pipe. Lift the cover after you bathe, empty the hair, and replace it. Hair-catching drain covers are affordable, quick to install, and a clever way to save time by not having to unclog your bathtub drain constantly.

Consider a Plumbing Service

If you don’t have time or don’t feel comfortable addressing the hair clog in your tub or shower drain, it might be time to call a plumbing company. Plumbers have experience dealing with blockages and subsequent issues with your water heater.

Make this decision when you notice a slow drain to allow plenty of time to get an appointment and avoid costly emergency plumbing visits. Contact local plumbers for a quote for removing the hair from your drain.

Did this article provide some helpful ideas for how to get hair out of your bathtub drain? Life is busy enough without an issue popping up in your bathroom. Fortunately, a hair clog is a minor plumbing challenge and is simple to resolve with DIY hacks.

Avoid dangerous chemical drain openers and save money by tackling the blockage yourself. If your shower drains slowly, don’t wait. Follow our step-by-step directions to remove the hair clog before your drain is completely blocked to reduce flooding risk.

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