Parents across the US taking to social media to share warnings over the popular children's activity toy Bunchems, after multiple kids have gotten them stuck in their hair "for hours".
According to the official Bunchems website, the creative toy consists of "colorful little balls that stick to each other and build like no other."
When used for building and art activities, there's no doubt that Bunchems look a lot of fun - but several parents are sharing their "nightmare" experience after their kids' hair became matted and tangled by the toy.
One mom, Lisa Tschirlig Hoelzle, took to Facebook to share what she described as her "worst Mom nightmare to date".
Hoelzle writes: "Friday at 4pm until Saturday at 10pm was my worst Mom nightmare to date!!!
"Abigail and Noah got done virtual school and went in the basement to play, about 10 minutes later Noah comes running up to tell me that Abigail had something stuck in her hair .... then she came up! I think I had an out of body experience.
"Apparently, Noah had poured a container of 'Bunchems' on Abigail's head being a jokester."
The mom writes that it took "20 hours total" in order to pull the Bunchems out, which sadly resulted in "lots of hair loss".
This was "followed by an hour or more in the bathtub with conditioner and combing out the knots".
Another parent to take to social media to share their hair-raising experience with the toy was Greg Difani II, who wrote on Facebook:
"Beware of Bunchems!!! Ashley is a saint she has been working on this for close to 5 hours. Piper claims she fell into some Bunchems and they got stuck in her hair like this."
Greg then included several images of his daughter, Piper, sat patiently as her parents attempted to untangle her hair.
Additionally, one hairdresser by the name of Kay took to Facebook to share her thoughts on the popular toy.
Kay writes: "Bunchems are apparently great fun and a very popular toy, but as soon as it touches hair it grips to it like very strong Velcro and matts up in the hair.
"There is no trick to get these out other than sheer patience and going through with a pintail comb hair by hair and releasing it."
She added: "I really feel these should be banned. But I don’t have the power to do this. So the only thing I can do is put this information out there. If your child has these please please get rid of them immediately. Or put them up for supervised play only. I hope this helped someone."
And there are plenty more stories of the exact same scenario floating around the internet:
There's no doubt Bunchems can be a lot of fun and inspire creativity - just make sure they're going nowhere near your kids' hair!
