A mother was beside herself when 150 toys became stuck in her daughter’s hair — taking a grand total of 20 hours to remove.
Just last month, Lisa Hoelzle of Pennslyvania posted a now-viral Facebook post sharing how her kids, Noah and Abigail, both 6, were playing downstairs when they got themselves into Lisa’s “worst Mom nightmare.”
The two had just wrapped up virtual school when they went to the basement to play with Bunchems, tiny Velcro-like balls that easily get stuck together. Noah thought it would be funny to dump an entire container of the Bunchems on his sister’s head — which led to creating Lisa’s aforementioned nightmare scenario.
“I think I had an out-of-body experience,” Lisa on seeing her daughter’s hair. “She had about 150 of these things layered and matted in her hair. They made it worse trying to remove them themselves because they connect together kinda like Velcro.”
The mom of two said it took her three hours just to get 15 of the Bunchem balls out of Abigail’s hair.
When her husband Dan got home, they immediately began to research how to detangle the toys from their daughter’s hair and quickly “realized the severity” of the situation.
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“It suggested using conditioner and vegetable oil to loosen it but that made it worse and so messy,” she said.
After Dan removed 10 additional balls from Abigail’s head — it was almost 1 a.m. and the family decided to go to bed. Lisa had Abigail sleep with her head on her mother’s stomach to prevent any further tangling.
The next day, Lisa went out to purchase mineral oil and a detangling comb to arm herself before jumping back into toy removal mode.
After “a lot of tears” and 20 hours of “pulling and working them out of her head and lots of hair loss,” the Bunchems were finally removed from Abigail’s head. Lisa followed up the painful experience with “an hour or more in the bath tub with conditioner.”
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“I feel like we had a miracle with all of our prayers. We saved her hair and although it is thinner it wasn’t as damaged and ruined as I thought so Thank you God !!!” she wrote.
The mom of two said her fingers are “literally swollen” from the ordeal but very thankful the situation is behind them.
Lisa now sharing her experience in an attempt to warn other parents through going the same thing. According to the New York Post, Bunchems have been discontinued but are still available to purchase online.
“This will be something we will never forget very traumatic experience in the Hoelzle house hold this weekend,” she said.
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