The Cheap Drain Fix That Actually Works

01.03.2026 00:57

Long hair is a bane to shower and bathroom sink drains. These longer hairs get hung up in drains, then serve as a trap for tooth paste, soap, saliva, creating a melange of nastiness that can quickly clog your drain. There are plenty of light duty drain snakes available online that are designed to pull these hair plugs out of your bathroom sink, but they can cost upwards of $20 or more for a pack. You can achieve the same effect with a few zip ties with this viral hack.

Materials

Zip ties: a heavy duty 12-inch long zip tie works best for this hack, but you can also use a couple of shorter zip ties attached together to make a longer one.

Go Fishing for Hair

Make diagonal cuts to the zip tie at 1-inch intervals using a pair of scissors or wire cutters. As influencer Liz & Jeff demonstrate in this video, the goal is to remove notches in the zip tie to create fishhook like barbs.
Insert the zip tie into the drain, and push it down as far as you can. Slowly, pull the zip tie out. It should bring up the hair along with any gunk that’s trapped in it.

Why it works

The key to this hack is cutting the barbs into the zip tie. These barbs function quite like the barbs on a fish hook, latching onto the hair and pulling it out. You can create a heavier duty “drain snake” by simply using longer and thicker zip ties.