Bunchems have been all the rage with kids lately, but parents have warned against unsupervised play with the toy.
The small, colourful balls stick together with ease, allowing children to connect them to construct countless shapes, objects, and even animals.
Bunchems tiny spikes make it simple to create bunches in seconds, but this is not always a good thing.
Beauty blogger makeupmonster.ie had decided to help create a fantastic headpiece for her son Oscar when things began to go disastrously wrong.
The toy’s small plastic hooks gripped into her son’s hair, making it nearly impossible to remove them from his long locks.
Overwhelmed with frustration, the mum called the mini building balls “the DEVIL” when trying to untangle them from his hair.
It took three adults - Oscar’s mum, auntie, and grandmother - to free his newly formed headpiece from his curls.
And this is not the first time a child has suffered through major toy tangles.
Reviews of Bunchems reveal that many other parents have encountered the same issue.
One comment read: “The instructions should read something like this: step one: lather your kids head with shaving cream. Step 2: shave your child's head! Step 3: remove bunchems from bag. It is now safe for your child to play with bunchems!”
Another mother said, “This is a cool toy and fun for kids to build and design with, BUT we got seven of these stuck in my daughter's hair and it took the better part of the day and a trip to the hairdresser's to get these out. I thought for sure we were going to have to cut her hair to get them out. Gum is easier to get out of hair than these things.”
Many parents have posted instructional videos on Youtube explaining how to remove Bunchems from your child's hair.
So, while these fun toys can engage your little one’s mind and inspire them to creatively engineer, we advise that parents use extreme caution when using them near hair.
Pull hair back into a hair tie before beginning to play with Bunchems and especially keep them away from the pets.
