How to shave without clogging drain

Shaving in the sink is not specific to just men. Some women rinse their razors while doing their legs, underarms, and other body hair. Shaving in the sink is a great deal simpler than in a hot shower. However, concerns arise when the sink repeatedly becomes blocked.

If you’re wondering how to shave without clogging the sink, start with prevention. Avoid filling the sink with warm water, and use a bowl or mug to rinse the blade. Cover the sink with a towel or mat to prevent hair from falling in the basin, and insert a sink insert or drain screen to stop anything that gets in. After shaving, use a drain auger to prevent any clogs from forming.

Shave at regular intervals, and clean the sink after each use, using dish detergent and hot but not boiling water. Run the hot water after each shave to dilute and dissolve residue but avoid vinegar and baking soda. They do not help eliminate clogs.

All is not doomed, however, if you follow these simple preventative steps:

To solve this dilemma, fill a small bowl or use a coffee mug to rinse your blade. If the water becomes too disgusting, dump it into the sink and refill it from the bathtub. Another way to do this is to fill two cups with hot water. Rinse your blade using the first cup to remove excess lather and use the second cup for a thorough rinse.

Shaving soap and shaving cream can plug a drain. Just as you should avoid large amounts of hair going down a drain, you should avoid excessive lather as well. When using these products, have a dedicated bowl containing hot water to rinse the razor to prevent it from going down the drain.

If you have a big mirror, invest in a beard trimming mat. These mats have suction cups that stick to the mirror.

Drain augers prevent hair from accumulating in the drain regardless of its source. While they are affordable, they can be large. Smaller alternatives would include drain snakes as they are small enough to fit behind a toilet or underneath a claw-foot tub.

Avoid using chemical drain cleaners as they may eat through the pipes. (This is good advice for your kitchen sink and garbage disposal, too.)

Related: Toilet clogged with poop! What to do?

This mixture will not eliminate grease, which is usually the reason for a clogged drain. Baking soda and vinegar are not surfactants, so they cannot remove grease and oil as effectively as detergents.

Instead, use dish detergent and hot water and pour it slowly down the drain. You can use the drain auger if necessary, and you can repeat the process if needed.

Running hot water will eliminate greasy shaving lather after you shave. It will dilute and dissolve all residue as much as possible.

This is the best way to prevent a clogged bathroom sink. Long hair can get tangled and balled up into a sink. The fewer and shorter hair shaved, the less potential there is to create a clog. Avoid going several days without shaving as this can potentially create a clog in the sink.

While these methods may be more time-consuming in an already busy morning, they can save you a great deal of aggravation over the long term. You can also implement shortcuts to your routine, which are additionally effective.

Instead of garbage bags to collect hair, you can use a large towel. It can be shaken out easily and washed for another use. This way, you are not wasting money.

Most of the ideas are relatively simple to implement. Adding a coffee mug or two to rinse the lather from the blade is a simple solution that doesn’t require time or preparation, but prevents lather from going down the drain. It may also prolong the life of the blade as it will be thoroughly clean from the lather.

The main culprits with bathroom drain clogs are long hair and shaving cream, due to its greasiness and the soap scum it leaves behind. Short hair rinses away easier, whereas long hair has a chance to collect in the plumbing.

However, no matter how regularly you shave, or the shortness of the hair, lather can still end up clogging the sink. It is best to rinse regularly and take extra precautions against using harsh chemicals, but if need be, use a clogging crusher to alleviate any plugs.

My sink in particular will clog up if I rinse the hair down.

I tried plugging the sink and then cleaning it up that way, but its pretty slow and impractical.

How can I shave without having to bother with the sink

Frequent shavers — especially those who share a bathroom with other frequent shavers — are no strangers to clogged pipes and slow-draining sinks. That daily barrage of thick whiskers and sticky lather might block even the widest of pipes given enough time, but you don’t have to keep your plumber on speed dial just because you enjoy a clean shave. Roto-Rooter’s Paul Abrams has a pipe-clearing trick that’s simple, cost-effective and environmentally friendly (unlike most drain cleaners, which use harsh chemicals and can cause old pipes to burst).

First, though, remember that preventing a clogged drain is always easier and cheaper than having to go in there yourself to blast out all that hair and muck (or worse, hire an expensive plumber to do the job for you). For that, we recommend investing in some kind of mesh sink strainer, which are incredibly cheap and generally do a good job of keeping nasty clumps of hair and syrupy products from building up in your drain. Just be sure to dump whatever the strainer catches into the trash on a regular basis, or else that kind of defeats the purpose.

Now, back to Abram’s super simple pipe-clearing trick:

Step #1: Remove the stopper (or mesh strainer) on your drain.
Step #2: Pour ½ cup baking soda down the drain.
Step #3: Pour 1 cup white vinegar down the drain.
Step #4: Wait 10 minutes (heat some water while you’re waiting).
Step #5: Carefully pour hot (but not boiling!) water down the drain.

“A monthly or even a quarterly treatment of the drain using this method should clear your pipes of soap products, shaving creams and even whiskers,” Abrams says. “Plus, it doesn’t involve caustic chemicals, and it’s easy — most people have baking soda and white vinegar laying around the house.”

If that doesn’t work — and you suspect there might be a serious clog brewing in your drain — you might have to enlist the help of what plumbers call a drain snake, which utilize long, flexible cables with special ends to bust through the source of the clog. You can find tutorials for using those on YouTube, but spoiler alert, you’re really gonna want to wear gloves.

So there you go: Now you can finally quit shaving over your toilet.