Lilo and Stitch capture a hair-eating experiment, and Mertle mocks Lilo's supposedly "unruly" hair. Lilo tries to get revenge on her rival by using the newly-captured experiment, but the experiment flees and starts eating hair all around Kokaua Town.
Lilo takes Stitch to the Birds of Paradise Hotel's salon and spa were she tries to teach him about how people on Earth are obsessed with their appearance, but they get into a mud fight that leads them to getting kicked out after being forced to clean up their mess. Shortly thereafter, they find a mutant hairball experiment eating all the hotelgoers' hair. After chasing it down, Stitch captures the experiment in a hatbox, and Lilo decides to name the hairy hair-eating hairball, Clip. Gantu saw the capture close by and curses "Blitznak!" for not getting the experiment himself. Hämsterviel yells at him over his communicator for failing to retrieve the experiment and commands him to get it.
Jumba's dismayed to see Experiment 177 again, since she ate his once-abundant hair when he made her, leaving him with the three hairs he presently has. She was supposed to eat an intergalactic fuel called "uburnium" to caue a fuel crisis, but in the language of Kweltikwan it roughly means "hair"; this causes 177 to eat hair instead of the fuel. Pleakley says that Jumba should relax if he wants to grow hair. Jumba wants to dismantle Clip, but Lilo refuses to let him do so.
Lilo and Stitch take Clip over to the salon to take care of its hair problem, but then Mertle Edmonds, Elena, Teresa, and Yuki show up just leaving the place. Mertle mocks Lilo's hairstyle and gives her hair conditioner "for taming wild, unruly hair", angering Lilo. She decides to get revenge on Mertle for the insult, so our duo later sneak into the Edmonds' residence where they leave Clip under Mertle's pillow in her bedroom. However, Mertle's mother comes in and sees them, prompting Lilo to lie saying that she was just leaving Mertle an early birthday present.
Overnight, Clip eats the hair of one of Mertle's dolls, but spits it out as she's disgusted by the artificial hair. Suddenly, Gantu opens the window and tries to grab Clip. They cause so much noise that Mrs. Edmonds comes in the bedroom to see what's going on. She is frightened by the sight of Gantu and faints after Clip eats her hair. The experiment then escapes on a bus to the Birds of Paradise Hotel, eating its riders' hair.
Lilo is disappointed when she arrives at the halau hula and sees Mertle with all her hair still on her head. Mertle said that she was sleeping over at Teresa's last night and that her mother had such a scare that her hair fell off. Lilo realizes from Mertle's story that Gantu went after Clip that night. When Lilo and Stitch return home, where they find Pleakley trying to help Jumba with his hair problem, the latter alien agrees to help them. They bust into the Edmonds' house, scaring Mrs. Edmonds, who scares Jumba into firing a net onto her.
After sorting out the misunderstanding, Mrs. Edmonds exclaims that she is actually happy with her haircut, saying "Remember a haircut doesn't make you who you are, you make a haircut what it is." Jumba is still not pleased with his lack of hair, but Mrs. Edmonds compliments the shape of his head, which relieves him of so much stress that it his hair suddenly grows back into an afro.
The trio hunt down Clip when a furless squirrel and Gantu pass by, running away scared from a giant hairball. Stitch saves Lilo and Jumba from losing their hair, but gets his tail shaved when Clip runs him over. Gantu falls down a cliff into a luau, where he ends up performing a hula for the people attending.
Lilo says that she will never sic any hair-eating creatures on anyone again, while Jumba starts to get split ends out of stress. Lilo offers him the hair conditioner that Mertle gave her earlier, then realizes that the hair care product is what she needs to tame Clip. Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba then find Clip causing chaos at the salon. Stitch sprays Clip with loads of shampoo and conditioner, causing her to shrink back down to normal. After having calmed down, she overhears a surfer wanting a haircut and gives him one that satisfies him. It's then established that Clip's one true place is giving people haircuts at the salon.
Jumba decides that the afro doesn't suit him and has Clip bring it back to just three hairs, and Lilo apologizes to the salon's owner for earlier. Lilo turns down the owner's offer of a free haircut, saying that she likes her hair just the way it is. Meanwhile, Gantu is continuing to enjoy hula dancing when Hämsterviel calls him, but Gantu ignores the call and continues dancing.
The experiment of the episode:
- Clip (X-177): A yellow hairball-like experiment with scissor-like claws and a pink bow. She was designed to eat a kind of fuel called uburnium to create a fuel crisis, but in Jumba's native language, the word "uburnium" closely resembles the word "hair", so she eats hair instead.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- An Aesop: It doesn't matter what you look like; it's who you are that counts.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It's shown that when Clip eats enough hair, she will grow into a giant hairball.
- Badass Boast: Gantu makes a surprisingly effective one, then his dramatic moment gets a bit deflated in the end.Gantu (to Clip, who is fleeing on a bus): Hairball! I am Gantu, Captain... former... of the Galactic Alliance! Conqueror of the Postiverous Militia! And Vanguard Commander of Black Hole Ops! (Dramatic Thunder) YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME! (notices a pair of terrified kids watching him) I mean I... uh... missed my bus...
- Bait-and-Switch: When Lilo names 177, she makes several implications that leads to Stitch (and the audience) thinking that she would name the experiment "Hairy", but then she denies that and names the experiment "Clip".
- Chekhov's Gun: The hair conditioner Mertle gives Lilo. This causes her to realize that the wild and unruly Clip can be tamed with hair care products.
- Code Names: When sneaking into Mertle's house, Lilo calls herself "Black Cat" and Stitch "Mutant Dog".
- Epic Fail: Clip was supposed to eat an energy source called uburnium, not hair, but her programming translated the word in Jumba's native language to mean "hair".
- Failed a Spot Check: At the beginning of the episode, Gantu, a bulky, twenty-foot-tall alien, hides behind a bush right next to the main characters. How nobody spotted him is anyone's guess.
- First Appearance: Of Mertle's mother.
- Funny Afro: Pleakley gives Jumba a rainbow afro wig, which causes him to say that he looks like "a large, furry lollipop." Later on, his natural black hair grows back into a puffy afro.
- Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: This episode reveals that Jumba had long, luxurious black hair before Clip almost completely devoured it immediately after her creation.
- Hating on Monday: When Clip eats the hair of three hotel employees carting laundry, and Lilo and Stitch run into them with their cart, one of the employees simply responds, "I hate Mondays, brudda."
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Played for Laughs when Lilo and Stitch try sneak into Mertle Edmonds's house wearing all black clothes of sweatshirts, sweatpants, beanies, sneakers, and (for Lilo) eye black (yes, in hot, tropical Kauai during the daytime) to have Clip eat all of Mertle's hair.
- Misplaced Wildlife: A furless squirrel passes by Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba as they try to find Clip. Squirrels do not live on Hawaii.
- Nice Girl: Mrs. Edmonds is a rather kind and easygoing person.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently before the owner of the hair salon, Lilo and Stitch's antics managed to anger two other people.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Gantu admits he finds Lilo's habit of naming the experiments to be "pretty cute." Unfortunately, he says this while Hämsterviel happens to be listening.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Upon Jumba having a curly Afro on his head again, he screams "I. HAVE. HAIR!!!!!" before Lilo has to state, "Inside voice, Uncle Jumba."
- Rapid Hair Growth: Somehow, Jumba losing his stress over his lack of hair after getting complimented for the shape of his head causes his hair to instantaneously grow back as a full-on Afro.
- Those Two Guys: Regarding this trope, the three girls in Mertle's posse finally get named Yuki, Teresa and Elena in this episode.
- Unobtainium: Uburnium, a powerful and economical fuel used throughout the universe that 177 was supposed to eat instead of hair.
- Walkie-Talkie Static: When Lilo and Stitch try to sneak into Mertle's house, Lilo does the radio click thing with Stitch as though they're talking on walkie talkies (they weren't actually using them, just pretending they were).
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Jumba often yearns to have his hair again, which he lost thanks to Clip. He's pretty overjoyed at first when his hair grows back. But later, he admits that having his hair back isn't what he thought it would be, as it doesn't make him feel like an evil genius. So he has Clip cut his hair to its previous near-bald style.
- X-Ray Vision: Stitch uses this ability to scan the inside of the Edmonds' residence.
