What can cause my shower to stop delivering water to the shower head?

When you turn on the shower, more water comes out of the main faucet than the shower head itself. Even though you turn on the shower completely, the faucet continues to run full blast. So when you are taking a shower the bathtub is filling up as well. Which means you rapidly run out of hot water. Not to mention the amount of water that is being wasted. What can possible be the cause of this problem?

Sounds like the diverter is broken and needs to be replaced. (The lever that switches your tub water to shower)Call a plumber. The work should take less than an hour if you explain the problem before they come.That way they will know what part to bring prier to arriving.

Good luck

First off water can't be wasted, that is a farce. You need a new faucet, the divert-er is bad.

Your shower head is probably clogged with hard water junk; If you can take it off, soak it in CLR if you cannot get it off, put some CLR in a baggie and tie it onto the shower head with a stout piece of twine and leave overnite. Should fix it .

It could be that your shower head is clogged. Try taking the head off and see if it will run with full force out of the pipe.
Otherwise your shower diverter may be faulty

It sounds like you have a 3 handle valve. The center diverter valve is not working properly. Its a pretty easy fix if you know who made the valve.
If you know the valve type, remove the center diverter valve stem and take it to a good store and match it. Its a good idea to put some plumbers grease on it.
Another way if you have a lot of problems replacing the diverter is to use a tub spout with a diverter on it. The kind you pull up on and it goes to shower.
Let us know how it turns out.
Oldguy

Check the shower head for lime deposits,or flouride buildup. Some CLR or Limeaway will do the trick.

You may need to replace the bathtub filler spout if its the type with the pull up for the shower, also check or replace your shower head as any restriction may be causing back pressure. I assume it worked well at sometime so these remedies should be done first before total faucet replacement.

How old is the faucet? Does it have three or two or one handle? If it has three handles, you must turn the one in the middle to redirect the water up to the shower head. If so, there are two washers inside of that handle that can be replaced. They used to go bad quite often. This center valve is called a diverter. Some of the newer one handle model use an internal divererter that may or may not be able to be fixed. Check with a plumber.

If you have hard water with lots of minerals, your shower head could be clogged. Remove the shower head and soak in white vinegar, or CLR. This should remove the hard water build up. The water should flow right through the shower head if that is the problem.

Sound's like the lever that changes from faucet water to shower head water is broken.

You have received some good answers as to what could be causing your problem, but there is one thing that was not mentioned. If you take the shower head off you will find a screen in the head that may be stopped up. Take the screen out and clean it and it is possible that by doing that your problem may be solved. It will not cost you anything and will not take more than a few minutes.