Wait, it's copper? That's a bit different. Copper doesn't corrode the way galvanized pipes do, so you don't have these blockages normally.

Was there any work done on the plumbing to your building? This can cause something to get in the pipes to clog them, but it's rare to cause a complete blockage this way. Plus, it would affect all of your plumbing a little, unless it's one big piece that just landed at the shower. Very strange.

This sounds a bit more like the work of a professional.

If you completely remove the valves, do you get any water flow?

I'll be Kevy (NSFW).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0t2YVRHAZY

I misspoke: they are galvanized. I deleted too much of your message, but I suspect there is a blockage between the valves and the head.

Yes, full flow.

Link didn't work for me :(

I getting concerned about how long it's been since Kevy has had a shower.

One of the few perks from renting is not doing any of the trickier home repairs. Have you learned your lesson, then? ;)

Since buying our own place we've jumped at the chances to do stuff ourselves...often with not-so-great results. These days I'm much more likely to pay someone who knows what they're doing.

Hope your landlord does well by you.

And then, there's copper. It costs money. It costs money because it saves money.

Yeah, but it is the biggest, coolest perk of them all. When a tornado plows through our complex destroying everything I can shrug and say "oh well, it was time to move anyway" and immediately get on with life. If the ice maker in the fridge springs a leak and I don't feel like digging the tools out of the closet I can just email a work request to management and it'll probably be fixed by the time I get home from work the next day. If really loud neighbors move in and it becomse unbearable I can say "**** it, we'll just move."

Far outweighs any theoretical benefit of home ownership.

Rented forever and now owning - I'm with Alex.

Only real upside has been painting the walls the colors we liked. Which having rented almost all my life I had never been able to do, even as a kid in my bedroom.

I wonder if when you soaked the valves in CLR, some of the hard water deposit stuff got flushed up into the pipe that goes to the showerhead. You could pull off the shower head and try sticking a coathanger down the pipe, or if you've got a compressor, you could try blowing it out.