Have you ever zoned out when brushing your teeth, only to quickly zone back in and realize that the water in your sink isn’t flowing down the pipe the way it usually does? If you answered yes, then the chances are that you’re dealing with a clogged bathroom sink, and the main culprit is likely to be some hair that’s interrupting the flow of water.
If you’ve ever felt embarrassed about a clogged bathroom sink, don’t worry. Everyone’s been through it at some point, and luckily, there are several ways to unclog a bathroom sink that is clogged with hair.
In this article, we will take you through a series of ways to help you unclog your bathroom sink that has been clogged with hair. Many of the methods that we’re sharing with you are home remedies that call for products you likely already have in your kitchen or can easily find at your local supermarket.
Let’s take a closer look.
7 Ways to Unclog a Bathroom Sink
1. Use Boiling Water
If you’re about to brew a nice cup of tea or coffee for yourself, double the amount of water you would typically boil and reserve it to pour down the drain. Hair often gets stuck in bathroom sink drains because soap, dirt, grease, and other substances often collect in the drainpipe and build up over time. As a result, these substances accumulate in a thick layer inside the pipe, causing hair to get stuck to them. As time goes on, the amount of hair that collects in the drain grows, eventually causing your bathroom sink to clog.
Therefore, by simply pouring boiling water down your sink’s drain, you’re helping the grease to loosen and break down. The hot water allows regular water to flow down more easily, and it will also help you get rid of the hair clogging your drain.
2. Use a Wire Hanger
Another quick method to remove hair from a bathroom sink is to use a wire hanger. Make sure you use a hanger that is made of a flexible wire because the flexibility of the wire will make the process of removing the hair a lot easier and more efficient.
To remove the hair from the bathroom sink using a wire hanger, all you need to do is simply unwind the hanger from its standard shape and turn it into a vertical piece of wire. Make sure that the curved edge of the hanger, which is hook-shaped, is facing the drain. Slowly snake the hanger into the drain until you reach the hair that’s clogging the sink and pull it out using the hanger’s curved edge.
Also, Read – What Causes Yellow Stains in Bathtub, Sink, Toilet & Shower
Depending on the amount of hair clogging your sink, you might need to use this wire hanger technique a few times to ensure that you’ve gotten rid of all the hair or as much hair as possible.
3. Use White Vinegar and Baking Soda
It might come across as a surprise to many of you, but white vinegar works wonders when dealing with various cleaning issues at home, especially when it comes to a clogged bathroom sink.
In this case, you need to pour equal parts of baking soda and white vinegar down your drain.
First, pour about one cup of baking soda down the drain. Follow that with one cup of white vinegar.
The combination of baking soda and white vinegar causes an acidic reaction to take place, and as a result, the hair and other gunk in your sink dissolve, making it easier for water to flow down the drain.
If you want to ensure that the hair has been unclogged from your bathroom sink after trying this method, you could also pour boiling water down the drain an hour later.
4. Use a Plunger
This next tip might sound like an obvious one, but it’s definitely something to consider. If you’ve got only a small amount of hair that is clogging your bathroom sink, you can use a plunger to remove the hair. Here is how you do that:
- First, you need to take the drain stopper or cover off. Depending on what kind of sink you have, you just need to make sure that your stopper can be unscrewed and removed.
- From steps two to four, remember that you need to act quickly. Fill the basin with a bit of water.
- Acting quickly, create a seal over the drain immediately with the plunger, taking care to make sure that you have centered the plunger exactly over the drain.
- Pump the plunger continuously for about 15-30 seconds.
- Once you’re satisfied, take the plunger off, and let some water run. If the water runs normally and quickly down the drain, then you’ve successfully unclogged your bathroom sink of hair. If the water continues to run slowly, repeat steps two to four until the water in your bathroom sink runs as expected.
5. Unclog the sink using a vacuum cleaner
If all the methods we’ve recommended so far haven’t worked for you, then we’d recommend trying to unclog your bathroom sink of hair by using a vacuum cleaner. It’s important to note that you need to use a wet-dry vacuum cleaner. If you don’t, you might risk ruining a different kind of vacuum cleaner, so make sure that you proceed with caution.
Here’s a quick list of ways to make sure that this vacuum cleaning technique works as well as possible:
- First, make sure that your sink is completely dry because it will help you get to the hair much more quickly.
- Make sure that you use the vacuum’s nozzle attachment after adjusting the vacuum to the wet setting.
- Aim the nozzle directly into the uncovered drain.
- Switch the vacuum cleaner on, and let it run for about ten to twenty seconds. Depending on how thick the clog of hair is, it will either get sucked into the vacuum immediately, or it will take some time.
- If the clog takes a long time to get sucked into the vacuum cleaner immediately, switch the vacuum cleaner off for about ten seconds, then let it run a second time.
- Check the drain and make sure that you’ve gotten rid of all the hair clogging the sink. If you’re not satisfied with the amount of hair you’ve removed, repeat steps four and five until the sink is unclogged.
6. Use Salt and Baking Soda
Another great way to quickly unclog a sink clogged with hair is to use baking soda and salt. This method is a wonderful way to unclog a bathroom sink if you don’t have any white vinegar at home.
To unclog your bathroom sink of hair using this method, all you need to do is combine equal parts of salt and baking soda into a mixture, then pour the mixture down the sink. After about 25 minutes, you can pour boiling water down the drain.
The combination of baking soda and salt helps remove large chunks of hair that are clogging your sink, along with things like grease, dirt, and toothpaste.
7. Call a plumber
The last method to unclog a bathroom sink with hair is to simply call a plumber! While home remedies provide you with easy and quick solutions, you might not be able to assess how much of your bathroom sink is clogged, which is why it would be best to consult a professional.
Tips for Keeping Your Bathroom Sink Clear
Once you’ve solved the problem of unclogging the bathroom sink that’s clogged with hair, you’re going to want to make sure that the sink remains unclogged in the future.
Here are some ways to ensure that your bathroom sink remains unclogged:
- If you are someone who shaves using a bathroom sink, try to avoid washing your hair down the sink because it can accumulate and get stuck over time.
- Let the hot water run down the drain every few days so that it clears out the debris and other dirt and gunk.
- Invest in a grate for your sink. A grate will help filter hair and other chunky substances from flowing down the drain and clogging your skin.
- Take your sink’s stopper out every few days and clean it away from the sink. If you don’t clean your stopper every so often, you’re allowing hair and debris to flow into the drain and eventually cause blockages from happening.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we took you through seven different ways to unclog a bathroom sink that is clogged with hair. From using ingredients that you can easily find in your kitchen to some heavy-duty equipment, we included multiple ways to help you unclog a bathroom sink quickly and easily.
