It’s a familiar household task for many of us, but nobody likes having to clean out their shower drain. Be it with an old-fashioned plunger or enlisting the help of cleaning solutions, clearing away soap scum and hair is important for both bathroom hygiene and maintenance. However, some people need to do it more regularly than others.
Enlisting the help of a trichologist, Mira Showers conducted an experiment to highlight just how much hair could be lurking in the plugholes of households around the UK. The findings were then used to create a first-of-its-kind online calculator that reveals how much hair could be clogging up your own drain right now.
What’s really lurking in your drains
The drains of eleven households were monitored over two weeks to see what was left in their plugholes after showering. In total, 3.2g of hair was collected from the drains after just 14 days. Taking this group as a sample of the UK, after just 24 hours the nation’s plugholes could be blocked with 697kg of hair – that’s equivalent to nine people, almost three grizzly bears, or 172 cats!
Mira Showers then crunched the data to create a handy tool that, based on the number of people and hair types in your household, estimates the amount of hair that will clog up your drain over the course of a month, a year, a decade and a lifetime. Depending on the answer you will then be advised on how frequently you should be clearing your drains.
An example household consisting of four people, each with different hair lengths, will find an estimated 1.2g of hair in their drain after a month, 14.3g after a year, 143g after a decade, and 1.2kg after a lifetime. Based on this, they should be clearing their drains every fortnight.
The Experiment
Key findings from the experiment include:
- Participants with red or bleached hair lose the most down the drain per hair wash, whereas natural blondes are among those who lose the least.
- When it comes to very long hair, participants with hair of a medium thickness tend to shed less.
- Participants with fine hair are twice as likely to shed their hair than those with medium coarseness.
- The more frequently participants have a shower, the less hair they lose per shower over time – however the longer they shower for, the more hair they lose (on a per wash basis).
There are several factors that can contribute to how much hair you may lose down the drain. Two study participants, both women aged 18-24 with long, fine, brunette locks, lost rather different amounts of hair throughout the two-week study:
Expert trichologist, Sally-Ann Tarver, explains why this might be the case: “The difference in these two samples was significant. As she lost a great deal more hair than others who took part in the study, Participant 1 should really consider seeing an expert to discuss the level of hair loss. Had Participant 1 washed her hair as many times as Participant 2, I would anticipate even more hair loss. She would have also lost hair throughout the days between washing.
“There are many factors that could cause this level of hair loss; recent illness, surgery, extreme stress, or even giving birth to a baby could cause acute, short-term hair loss. However, if this level of hair loss is ‘normal’ for this participant, there may be an underlying, undiagnosed medical condition such as a Thyroid condition or anaemia.”
Matt Herbert, Senior Market Analyst at Mira Showers, said: “We were astounded to find out just how much hair could be clogging up the UK’s shower drains, but it’s clear that exactly how much depends on so many individual circumstances. Soap scum can exacerbate blockages too. How often you should clean out your shower drains depends on how frequently you use it – the new calculator on our website can give you a clue as to how regularly you should get the plunger out.”
Roland Boal, Lead Industrial Designer at Mira Showers, said: “Drain blockages in showers are familiar to many of us, especially in large households or individuals with longer locks. At Mira Showers, the unique design of our Flight Level shower tray has integrated custom waste, making cleaning and maintenance faster and easier. A hair catcher retains long hairs, which can often be the cause of blockages. Located just underneath the waste cover trim, this tier of the system can also be easily removed and cleaned.”
See for yourself how much hair could be blocking your drain by using the calculator, and read about Mira Showers’ top six tips for cleaning out your shower drain at home in this guide.
