Bunchems and Clingabeez Toys Are Wreaking Havoc on Kids’ Hair

Did you hear about the hot new toys this holiday season? They’re colorful plastic, Velcro-like balls that are meant to be used to build three-dimensional creations, but they’re eating kids’ hair instead. Tons of kids are getting their hair tangled in Bunchems and the unrelated Clingabeez thanks to their spiky design — and, ultimately, having to have large chunks of their locks cut out.

Just Thursday, the Daily Mail reported that a 7-year-old girl, Orla Gleeson, who received Clingabeez from her grandmother for Christmas, said the toys got all caught up in her hair when she lay back on them in her bed. Her mother, Fiona, was forced to remove the entangled balls using scissors and was relatively cool about the whole ordeal. “I had to do a bit of hacking,” she told the Daily Mail. “She panicked more than anything else about how we were going to get them out. I think she thought she was going to get into trouble.”

Clingabeez and Bunchems are marketed toward kids ages 4 and older, but as any parent knows, even the least mischievous kids can get themselves into a mess, so toys that can so easily mangle children’s hair probably shouldn’t be in their possession. Some irate parents who were baffled as to how such a toy could be sold for children were not as diplomatic as Fiona Gleeson. According to Refinery29, plenty of moms and dads shared pictures to social media of their little ones with the toys wrapped up in their strands — and a whole slew of frustrated, negative reviews about the toys.

One mom posted a series of photos of her daughter with the neon objects tangled in her hair, with the caption, “me: Breegan they probably aren’t able to stick in your hair. Breegan: Lemme try! *puts like 40 bunchems in her hair*.” The result was not pretty (though the little girl appeared to be taking it all in stride).

Another mom posted a picture of the extracted Bunchems with rogue hairs woven through. She included the caption, “Bunchems. 5 minutes of fun and 5 hours of clean up. Hair not included. #warningshouldbeasbigasbox.”

“Here is a great example of why Bunchems do not go in your hair,” a third parent posted along with a picture of a willful (and adorable) girl wearing the toys in her hair like a crown.

Bunchems toys do advertise the warning “Keep away from hair. May become entangled,” according to a listing on Amazon, but that’s not enough for many infuriated parents who have spent hours trying to remove the toys from their kids’ locks.

Some reviews captured by Refinery29 are quite damning; these parents held nothing back. One wrote, “Don’t! Just don’t! Unless you were planning on getting your kid a pixie cut or shaving their head already, don’t buy these!” Another lamented, “A Toy Spawned From the Darkest Depths of Hell: Horrible, horrible, horrible toy for kids. I just spent the last TWO AND A HALF hours (absolutely, 100 percent not an exaggeration) attempting to remove 14 of these b*****d balls out of my daughter’s hair. Buy this toy for someone if you hate them or their child.”

And it’s not just little girls who are suffering the side effects of these hair-eating objects. Parents are reporting that boys — including one with a head of dreadlocks — are getting caught up in the mess, as are long-haired dogs. “Stuck in the carpet, in the dogs hair and don’t even get me started on the kids hair at least I do have boys…. They are now bald thanks to these b*****s,” a fed-up parent wrote.

Consider yourselves warned, parents and caretakers of children and animals. These are not your average craft balls. Bunchems and Clingabeez are out to get your little ones’ hair! As cute as some of these kids are, we don’t think you really want to walk into a room and discover this:

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