Rather than increase the water flow, have you considered a newer style shower head that is larger and also uses forces air? I have two hansgrohe with forced air that I purchased at home Depot and they are really fantastic. I sometimes feel like I am drowning and cannot believe that these are only 2.5gpm. They are the raindance series. There are other brands out there too that have air injection but the hansgrohe are reasonably priced.

Good luck!

I don't have long hair but I feel your pain! Until our remodel last year, our bathroom fixtures were 25 years old. They didn't have those restrictors. I didn't like the water flow in my new sink and asked the plumber to remove the restrictor. He said if anyone asks, I didn't do this :o Water now flows like it would coming out of a garden hose :) LOVE it. We did the same thing to the bathtub faucet but it was TOO much water. It was more important that the sink have it removed tho (I don't have a shower), but, I don't like the air in the water. Even with short hair I can tell it takes longer to rinse.

I know what you mean about low pressure and rinsing hair. We took a trip to Vegas last year to celebrate my birthday and I encountered the worst shower head ever. (and this was at the Paris hotel) The water came out in a trickle. I spent about 4 times longer in the shower trying to rinse my hair than normal. I think that my extra time in the shower negated any water saving benefits that wimpy shower head had.

We'll soon be at the point where we need to buy the shower head for our master bath remodel. Because I also have long hair and HATE low flow shower heads, I'm planning on going to a large plumbing supply store in our area to buy our shower head. I'll have the people there show to me that the restrictor can be removed before I buy the shower head. I'd hate to order one off the internet and then realize that I can't remove the restrictor. I do believe some of them may not be removable.

all the shower heads i've had were easy to get the restrictor out - i have long hair too so i understand. most of them you can see just inside the pipe end that gets screwed on to your shower head arm. they are round pieces of plastic - i've seen them in different colors. probably if you google you can see pics somewhere. some are harder than others to get out. i usually have success with a tiny flat screwdriver to catch the edge of it & get under it, then wiggle it or smoosh it a bit to get it unwedged, then use tweezers to grab that sucker if it's being stubborn.

be careful not to damage the finish or anything else inside there, and turn the water volume up slowly the first time using it - the difference is huge, so you don't want to get blasted.

hope that helps
lisa

I have a hand held Grohe Tempesta showerhead. One of the settings has a forceful water stream that, when I hold the showerhead near my hair, does an excellent job of rinsing out the shampoo. I like the fact that because it is a handheld, I can direct the water to where it's needed.

terriks

Maybe the Paris hotel in Vegas is that way on purpose to give an authentic being-in-Europe feeling to your stay. :-) I got back from a trip to Germany and France a few weeks ago and at each of the three places we stayed the shower was worse than the one before, and even the best of them was lousy.

I need this info too. Our master is teeny so I use the guest bath. But when I do shower in the master I'm so much faster b/c the water pressure is like standing outside during a hurricane.

Short-haired, water-conserving dude here, so no experience with getting all that soap out.

We have Hansgrohe showerheads that spray just fine, despite being 2.5gpm. I haven't used the Pegasus in our other bathroom, but I haven't received any complaints from guests.

I still don't think there's a good reason to remove the restrictor, though. I'd vote for a handheld shower to get closer to the spray first.

It's still a serious drought here in GA. And energy prices are still up there.

I also stayed at two different hotels in Germany last year. Their showers were fire hoses compared to the Paris Las Vegas.

Am so glad that so many of you understand my plight. I need to take a good look at the shower head and see if it can be pulled out. Maybe show it to my GC too. I just bought this one so I hate to replace it, but if worst comes to worst, it's better than spending 30 minutes fighting the conditioner bottle every day. Thank yoU!

I'm not sure that you need to remove the diverter - if you get the right shower head. We have low flow shower heads (house built in 2005) and I don't have any trouble rinsing my thick shoulder length hair. The pressure is much better than the Vegas hotel shower head.

Las Vegas is being strangled by lack of water: that's what you get when you build a city in the desert.

But a lot of us in parts of the world with plenty of water and our own wells pay the price for that sort of irresponsible developement. I've pulled the restrictors from more than one shower head, and will do so again. Heck, I even sprinkle my yard...