If you have ever had a hair stuck in your throat, then you definitely know how annoying it is!
A hair in your throat gives that disturbing feeling as if something is stuck to the back of your throat and you can’t swallow it no matter how you try. A hair may cause an itching feeling in your throat, or lead to constant coughing. The worst that can happen is that a person starts to suffocate!
So no wonder that people want to know how to get a hair out of your throat safely and quickly without going to the hospital or the emergency room. So today we will explain what to do with a hair in your throat, how to get it out of there, and what other issues may cause the feeling if you have a hair stuck in your throat.
How to Get Long Hair Out Of Your Throat?
Usually, if you feel like you have a hair in your throat, it is really so. A hair can end up being stuck to the back of your throat for many reasons. You may swallow it by accident if it fell into your plate, for example. Or it may get into your mouth while you are asleep.
No matter the reason, it gives that annoying feeling that we want to get rid of! However, if you believe that, in order to get a hair stuck in your throat out, you will have to do something difficult, you are wrong. In fact, getting rid of it is pretty simple. You just need to know what steps to take to succeed.
So, what if it feels like there is a hair stuck in the back of my throat, you may wonder?
In this case, we recommend you make use of a well-working trick we have to offer to you.
It is very simple, but it will easily help you if you don’t know how to get a hair out of the back of your throat safely.
So basically, you need to dislodge the hair. What does it mean, you may ask? It simply means swallowing that hair! Don’t be afraid, if you swallow a hair (or even a few of them), it will not cause you any harm at all. In fact, it is the same as swallowing a bubble gum!
Dislodging that hair can be done in two different ways.
- Try to simply swallow the hair that is stuck in back of your throat
- Eat soft foods to push it further and swallow
The first method implies simply swallowing the hair. It can be used if you have a single hair in the back of a throat, or if you have a few of them being stuck there. When swallowing them, the hair or the hairs will travel through your digestive track safely just like food does. After that, your body will excrete them.
Your body will not be able to break the hair or the hairs down because our hair is made of keratin which is a dense protein that can’t be broken in the stomach.
Also, if it feels like there is a long hair stuck in the back of your throat, try to extract it out of there with your fingers. Of course, first you need to wash your hands with soap to have them clean!
The second method of extracting hair out of your throat is to eat some soft foods. Basically, its purpose is the same as the swallowing method has. Only this time, you will have to make use of food in order to push the hair through and make it get into your digestive tract.
You simply need to swallow a large mouthful of soft food that is gentle on your throat, such as soft bread or a few bites of banana. And remember:
- You should only try to swallow a bite that fits comfortably in your mouth. If you try to swallow too big of a bite, you could choke!
- The hair will travel through your digestive tract with food in case you manage to swallow it. So no worries, it will be the same safely excreted later.
Normally, these methods are enough for swallowing the hair and forgetting about it once and for all. However, in case you have tried both of these approaches and none of them worked, and you can still have that feeling like a hair is caught in the back of a throat, we recommend you make an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist to be examined.
The doctor will examine your throat and see how serious the situation is, and whether the hair can be pulled out manually.
Visiting a hospital is a must in case you have other symptoms of a sore throat, for example, painful swallowing or pus on your tonsils.
With these two simple tricks in your disposal, you will be always able to easily take a hair out of your throat without medical help. However, please keep in mind that, if you still have that annoying hair in the back of your throat feeling, don’t hesitate to visit a doctor!
How to Get a Small Hair Out Of Your Throat?
All right, what we have just described above referred to long hairs that ended up in your throat somehow. But what shall you do if you have small hairs in your mouth or in your throat?
Small hairs are way more annoying in comparison to their long “relatives”, so it might be more difficult to get them out of your throat. However, the basic method is the same as the one that we have described for the long hairs extraction.
The best way is to eat some soft food, preferably a mouthful of it. Banana, soft bread – anything that will not scratch your throat, but at the same time it is able to push those hairs through the throat to make it end up in your digestion tract.
We would not recommend you eat liquid foods (for example, soups) or drink liquids since they will not have a proper effect.
Also, too hard foods like cookies, nuts, crackers, etc are better to be avoided since they can irritate or even scratch your throat! And that is not what we want to get from using them.
In case you can feel where exactly that annoying hair (or hairs) are located in your throat, you could try to pull them out, but with short hairs, it may be rather difficult. If they are in your mouth, then this approach can work, but if they are deeper in the throat, soft food is the optimal variant.
And of course, if after all the attempts of pushing that hair further you can still feel it in your throat or mouth, we recommend you visit a doctor and get examined. You might also need to take x-ray so that the specialist could see where exactly the hair is in your throat!
What Shall I Do If I Have a Feeling Of Hair Stuck In My Mouth?
People often wonder whether it is always hair that is the reason for that annoying itching feeling in their throats. And as a resulting question, they want to know what else causes the feeling of a hair stuck in a throat.
Well, let’s start with the fact that, indeed, it is not only human hair that can cause that irritating feeling in your throat! Of course, if you are absolutely sure that you could swallow a hair, or that hair might get into your mouth somehow, this is one thing.
However, if you can’t say for sure that it is hair that causes this disturbing feeling in your throat, we would recommend you consider a few alternative options.
- You have sore throat because of cold
- Smoking might be the reason
- It can be an acid reflux
- Allergies
Now let’s take a closer look at each of these possible reasons. First of all, you might have a feeling of hair in your throat when you have cold and your throat is sore. In this case, you may also have problems with swallowing, such as pain, uncomfortable feeling, etc.
If this is the reason, try to gargle your throat with warm salt water. Fill a glass with warm water and stir in salt until it dissolves completely.
You can also add a couple of teaspoons of baking soda. If you gargle your throat with this salt-and-soda water, it will soothe the symptoms of cold.
Smoking can also be a reason for such a feeling in your throat. Toxins and particles from smoking can irritate the lining of your throat. And this irritation is exactly what makes you feel as if a hair got trapped inside of your throat. The only method of solving this issue is to cut back on how many cigarettes you smoke every day.
As for the acid reflux, when it happens, acids from your stomach move back up into your throat. This acid irritates the throat, especially up[on reaching the vocal cords. And when it happens, that acid can make you feel as if something got stuck in your throat.
Finally, if you are allergic and you ate something that caused a reaction, you may also have that annoying feeling of a hair stuck in your throat!
In this case, follow your allergy treatment and take your pills, or contact your doctor immediately.
What If a Hair Got Stuck to My Tongue?
First of all, if that really happens, don’t panic. It’s just a tiny little hair! If you do feel that it is on your tongue somewhere, do the following:
- bring a lot of saliva into your mouth and don’t swallow
- wash your hands and stick your tongue out
- with your fingers, try to pluck the stubborn hair off slightly scraping the tongue with your fingernails
If none of that help, lick your arms and try to take the hair off again. For some unknown reason, this always works better than rinsing your mouth out or trying to spit the hair out.
So, this was our brief yet very informative guide on what to do and how to do it in order to get rid of a hair that got stuck in your throat. Now you are aware of the possible reasons of this issue. Your also know how to take a long hair out of your throat, and how a short hair must be removed.
In addition, we described a mechanism of getting rid of hair in your mouth! With all this information in your disposal, you will be able to keep your mouth hair-free no matter where you are.
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