Best shower drain hair catchers

The ShowerShroom Ultra is my pick for most walk-in showers. Its maker, Juka Innovations, sells it on tubshroom.com as the stall version of the TubShroom. It’s stainless steel and fits standard 4 in. stall drain openings. Instead of sitting on top of the grate, it goes in place of your drain cover.

That swap is the whole idea. Hair flows down and wraps around the ShowerShroom inside the drain, where you don’t see it. A flat cover keeps hair on the shower floor instead. The listing says cleanup is a matter of wiping it off, with no tangle to pick out of a grate.

The maker says it fits most round or square shower grate drains. Square grates are common on tiled showers, and plenty of catchers only come round. Measure before you buy. The fit chart below lists all six picks by drain type, so you can check yours in one row.

There’s one conflict to know about. The maker’s page says it fits most tub drains too. The Amazon listing says it’s not for bathtub drains. I go with the stricter line. My call: use it in a stall shower, and get the TubShroom Ultra for a tub.

Your old grate comes off to make room for it. Some stall grates are held by one or two screws, and some snap in. Keep the original grate in a drawer with its screws. You’ll want it back if you stop using the catcher or sell the house.

Anything that sits in a wet drain all day wears out eventually. Juka sells a replacement mini mushroom 2-pack, part 2PKSHSSHRMMN, for the ShowerShroom. My call: buy it for a walk-in shower with a standard 4 in. drain. It was new, in stock and sold by Amazon.com when I checked.

The TubShroom Ultra is the tub version of the same idea. TubShroom says it fits inside any standard tub drain, and hair wraps around its body instead of going down the pipe. The Ultra is the stainless steel model. TubShroom also sells a chrome TSCE325, which I use in the fit chart because its listing spells out stopper types.

The adapters are what make it fit. The maker says the box holds the strainer plus three adapters: one for 1½ to 1¾ in. drains, a 1¼ in. one for smaller drains and a 2 in. one for larger drains. The Amazon listing says two of the middle size. I went with the maker’s count.

To use it, the stopper comes out. TubShroom’s listing says its catcher works with stoppers you can remove: pop-up, lift-and-turn and toe-touch. It doesn’t work with built-in stoppers that stay put. If yours is stuck, our tub drain removal tool guide covers the tools for the job.

With the stopper out, the tub won’t hold water. If you take baths, that matters. TubShroom sells the Ultra in a combo with its StopShroom plug as model TSULT455. My call: if anyone in the house soaks in the tub, buy the combo or keep a plug by the tub.

Cleaning is why people like it. You pull it up, and the hair comes with it, wrapped around the body. The maker says you wipe it off and put it back, with no chemicals. Adapters do wear, and TubShroom sells a spare pack, ADAPPK37, with three medium, one large and one small.

My call: this is the pick for a tub-shower combo where the stopper comes out. It isn’t for a flat 4 in. stall drain, and TubShroom’s own listing says so. It was new, in stock and sold by Amazon.com when I checked.

Some stoppers don’t come out. Some pop-ups are built into the drain, and others are stuck in place with scale. An in-drain catcher like the TubShroom can’t go in those. The OXO Good Grips Silicone Shower and Tub Drain Protector sits on top instead, and its tall dome clears a raised stopper.

OXO says the dome fits both flat and pop-up drains. It measures 4.5 in. across and 1.75 in. tall. Water drains through the holes in the dome, and the hair stays on the outside. OXO says the silicone edges hug the tub, so hair can’t slip underneath.

A stainless steel accent on top adds weight. OXO says that stops it from sliding while you shower. That matters on a slick tub floor, because a cover that drifts off the drain lets hair go straight past it. The weight is also the part you grab to lift it.

The trade-off is where the hair ends up. With any top cover, it collects on the outside of the dome, in plain sight. You pick it off after a shower or rinse the dome in the sink. My call: that’s a fair trade for a tub with a stopper you can’t remove.

Check your flange before you buy. The dome is 4.5 in. across, so the drain’s chrome ring has to sit inside that circle for the edge to seal on the tub floor. While the dome is on, you can’t reach the stopper, so lift it off before you run a bath.

OXO says it resists rust, since the body is silicone and the weight is stainless. My call: buy it for a tub-shower where the stopper stays in, or for a renter who can’t take the drain apart. It was new, in stock and sold by Amazon.com when I checked.

If you’d rather not touch the drain at all, a flat cover on the grate is the simplest fix. OXO’s Shower Stall Drain Protector is a thin stainless steel plate with a pattern of holes and a silicone rim. It sits flat on a stall drain, and the 2-pack, model 12429000, covers two showers.

OXO lists it at 4.75 by 4.75 in. and 0.2 in. thick, at 0.245 lb. It barely rises off the floor, so there’s little to stub a toe on. The silicone rim grips the tile and holds the plate over the grate, so water running across the floor doesn’t push it aside.

Hair stays on top of the plate, not in your pipe. That’s the trade-off with any flat cover. You see the hair, but you can reach it in two seconds with a tissue. In-drain catchers hide hair better, but you have to pull them up to clean them.

Size is the thing to check. A grate wider than 4.75 in. won’t be fully covered. ShowerShroom calls 4 in. the standard stall drain opening, and the 2021 International Plumbing Code asks for a shower strainer of at least 3 in. Both sizes fit under this plate.

The Amazon listing says it also works on some utility sink drains, and calls it a cover for any standing shower or tub. OXO’s own description says shower stall drains. My call: use it in a stall, where it can lie flat, not over a raised tub stopper.

The Amazon title reads “XO Good Grips”, a typo, but the brand field is OXO and the model is 12429000. I skipped the single-pack model 1288100 on Oct 19 because it was back-ordered from a third-party seller. This 2-pack was new, in stock and sold by Amazon.com when I checked.

The Danco 10306 is a tub strainer and cover in one. Danco says it sits on top of the bathtub drain, with a flower-shaped top and tiny pegs on its petals that catch hair. It’s made of flexible PVC, in white, and fits tub drains up to 4.5 in. wide.

Under the flower is a small basket. The Amazon listing gives it a 1.8 in. inside diameter and 1 in. depth, and says it inserts into the drain. The basket catches what gets past the pegs. The whole piece is 5 in. across and 1.48 in. tall, per Danco.

The handle is the reason to pick it. Danco calls it a basket handle that works as a finger lift. You pull the strainer straight up, and the hair on the pegs and in the basket comes with it. The listing says you don’t have to reach into standing water to do it.

Because the basket drops into the drain opening, the stopper has to come out first. Danco doesn’t list which stopper types it suits, so I mark them “Not listed” in the fit chart. My call: it’s for an open tub drain, not one with a pop-up that stays in.

It’s plastic, not stainless, so it won’t match a chrome drain ring, and it shows as a white flower on the tub floor. The listing says it holds its shape in daily use. Hair collects on top where you see it, and in the basket where you don’t, so check both when water starts to pool around it.

Danco also sells it as a 3-pack, model 10876, if you have more than one tub. My call: buy it if you want a handle to lift the hair out and your stopper comes out. It was new, in stock and sold by Amazon.com when I checked.

The OXO Stainless Hair Catch is a two-piece in-drain catcher. OXO says the base sits in the drain and a topper inserts into it. Hair collects on a flexible silicone catching cone, and OXO says it does that without blocking water flow.

Cleaning is where the two pieces pay off. You lift the topper out, and the base stays seated in the drain. OXO says the topper removes for easy cleaning. That means you don’t have to reseat the whole thing each time, the way you do with a one-piece catcher. The base only comes out if you swap catchers.

Size is the limit. OXO lists it for standard bath drains from 1¼ to 1.8 in. across, or 3.2 to 4.57 cm. There are no adapters in the box. If your opening is 2 in., the TubShroom Ultra’s large adapter is the better fit. Measure with the stopper out.

Like any in-drain catcher, it needs the stopper out of the way. OXO doesn’t list which stopper types it suits, so I mark those “Not listed” in the fit chart. If your stopper is stuck, our tub drain removal tool guide covers how to get it out.

The body is stainless steel and silicone, the same mix OXO uses on its silicone dome. With the stopper out, the tub won’t hold water. My call: if anyone in the house takes baths, keep a plug by the tub.

My call: buy it when your tub opening is between 1¼ and 1.8 in. and you like the idea of a base that never moves. If you’re not sure of the size, the TubShroom Ultra’s adapters cover more drains. It was new, in stock and sold by Amazon.com when I checked.