When popular toys hit the market, it's safe to say that parents pick up on the trends and pick them up for their own kids. Some items tend to be best-sellers for a reason — kids love them.
Behind some popular toys, however, there are parents who have some crazy accidents that leave them cautious and wanting to inform other parents to watch out when their kids are using them.
"Bunchems" are little balls that can be used to build fun animals, creatures, and items by "bunching" the pieces together. They stick together because of the material used which is similar to velcro.
Mom Lisa Tschirlig Hoelzle posted the warning on her Facebook page, urging parents to be careful and keep an eye on their kids when using the product after her daughter had a horrible mishap with them.
"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," she wrote on Facebook.
"Apparently, Noah had poured a container of 'Bunchems' on Abigail’s head being a jokester. We have had these for years but rarely play with them.
"If you google Bunchems and tangled hair you will see a ton of [posts] come up of children that this had happened [to]. Amazing, that they can still be on the market with a small warning label stating that they can get stuck in hair," she continued.
"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. It took me about 3 hours to get out 15," she wrote.
"Then Dan got home and googled it [and] we realized the severity of what we were up against. It suggested using conditioner and vegetable oil to loosen it but that made it worse and so messy. He got out about 10 more. Before you knew it, it was 1 am and Abigail could not keep her eyes open. I slept with her head on me so they wouldn’t get more tangled. Not that I really could sleep," she added.
The next day, they went to the store and bought everything they could think of to get her hair to be silky and smooth enough to get them out. And, it took over 20 hours to get them all out from her hair. The mom even shared her daughter's hair was "thinner" after the process.
Lisa also said she would be contacting the company to put in a formal complaint and consumer warning after the entire experience. She wanted to make sure other parents didn't go through the same issues.
Many parents were saying that these toys are a disaster and they could "f*** right off." Many even shared that it's traumatizing for the kids to even go through.
It seems that these toys have a fairly negative reputation in the parenting community. Many parents are already advising family and friends to avoid gifting them to kids.
While the photos from her post were shocking, many applauded the transformation of her daughter's hair. It took a lot of persistence but Lisa and her husband pulled it off.
The toy has multiple negative reviews on Amazon from parents who went through a similar experience with their own children.
"These are fun and easy to use HOWEVER if your child gets the bright idea to decorate their hair with them you both are in for HOURS of hell," one review said.
The Amazon review from this photo said it took parents 10 hours to untangle the Bunchems from their daughter's hair and that she will likely have some hair loss as a result.
"Cannot believe that this is an actual toy and that Amazon can in good conscience continue to sell it," the review said.
The painstaking process took hours, and like other parents who have encountered this problem, the parent advised others to avoid Bunchems.
If you own this toy, be sure to supervise your children when using it — especially when it comes to their hair!
