Unless you have been living underneath a rock, you know that coconut oil is the big ‘cure all’ for all things beauty right now. I, for one, love coconut oil for moisturizing my skin and feet. After educating my daughter about the uses of coconut oil, she decided to try it as a moisturizer on her hair. She did it 2-3 times and discovered that it helped in softening her hair. Little did we know that there was one harmful effect of using coconut oil.
A few days ago my daughter called me to tell me of her stresses of her toilet and shower being messed up. Her shower took 30 minutes to drain and her toilet kept backing up. Since she rents her home she had to call the land lord instead of a plumber. The land lord came out and asked the standard questions such as have you tried to plunger it and have you flushed anything unusual down it. Of course her and her husband tried to plunge it and nothing unusual was flushed down it. The land lord proceeded to put an acid chemical in the toilet and said it could not be used for 24 hours.
Since there was no improvement, he came back within a few days (not the best land lord to have) and decided to ‘snake’ out the shower drain. Well, of course, a ton of hair was removed, but the pipes were still clogged. It was at that point that my daughter had an epiphany; it’s the coconut oil! Of course she has to keep hush because the land lord may not understand her need for silky smooth hair.
My daughter and I both live in older homes and we have both vowed that if we do the coconut oil hair conditioning treatment we will rinse our hair outside with a water hose. Or if we shave our legs with a coconut oil and sugar rub mix we will shave and rinse in a bucket. The harmful effects of using coconut oil is not worth the cost of a plumber.
Wow thank you for the heads up. It makes sense but I never would have thought of that as a side effect. Thanks so much for sharing.
Eeeek I love my coconut oil and sugar scrubs and I legit put coconut oil on everything. I will make sure to keep it out of my pipes for sure. wow
Yes, keep in mind- tho.. My daughter’s house was built in the 50’s and mine in the 70’s.. I’m def keeping it out of my pipes!
Yikes! I will have to look out for this if my sinks start to get clogged. I don’t use the sugar scrub, but definitely use coconut oil.
Any oil down the drain is a bad thing, so this makes sense. I had to explain to my 19yo the other day why he couldn’t just pour the bacon fat down the sink. I use coconut oil in my smoothies but haven’t tried it as a beauty product. Now I’ll be sure to be careful if I do!
I oil pull but when I’m done I spit into a dixie cup and throw it in the garbage
I use a lot of coconut oil for cooking, for skin repair and for teeth cleaning. Since this oil, and like lard and other animal oils, tend to turn solid at room temperature, it is ill advised to dispose of in the drain. It will turn solid. Maybe not in your pipes directly, but somewhere down the drain system. It could be on the outlet between the house and the main pipe at the road. Or it can be in the main pipe. Then everyone on your street is affected.
If the problem is just in a small portion of the drain dumping a big pot of boiling water down the shower may melt a path through and improve the draining a bit. Adding dish soap, which is suppose to bind with the grease in your dishes to wash the oils away, to the boiling water might help even more
Ooooh good tip! I make a coconut oil/sugar scrub and this thought never crossed my mind!
Ladies,
My wife had mentioned to me that she had seen a post on Facebook about this issue. You are very misinformed about your perceptions of coconut oil clogging drains. I am a licensed master plumber and own Lagniappe Plumbing LLC. Simply running water, cold or hot will be more than sufficient to have it run its course through your sewer system. The only way possible coconut would clog a drain would be to stuff chunks of it down the disposal or maybe even leaving coconut milk in the sink to curdle without running water. This women’s mishap with her main sewer clogging was completely unrelated. Drains are like arteries. They slowly get build up and tub drains catch tons of hair. DO NOT ever use an acid based chemical to try to unclogg a drain!! I’ve seen it crack toilets and eat straight through pipes before. For god sakes, keep your showering in the privacy of your own bathroom lol.. Sorry for the long post, just want everyone to be well informed. I may post some informative YouTube videos on clearing hair cloggs or simple do it yourself things to save everyone a few bucks for the simple stuff.
Best regards,
Randy S Lagniappe Plumbing
found your site because I became concerned about my drains & how much I have used coconut oil over the years. I find your article very misleading and quite frankly odd that ONLY 2-3 uses could clog your daughter’s drain?!? HOT water melts coc oil immediately and unless your daughter showers in cold water, this build up would not happen for years, if at all. thankfully the plumber above has given his professional opinion and facts. I would hate to see your article discourage another from healthier alternatives. Coconut oil is AWESOME!