Your physical and mental well-being along with genetics, and diet play an important role in maintaining healthy hair. However, in many cases, people face the issue of excessive hair loss despite a healthy lifestyle, “good” genes, and proper hair care. Hard water is most likely to be the culprit here. It makes your hair vulnerable to breakage and dulls the luster. Leading dermatologists have confirmed the fact that washing hair with hard water leads to the deposition of excessive minerals on the scalp and hair stands. This, in turn, reduces the quality and longevity of your hair.
What Is Hard Water?
USGS has defined hard water as high levels of dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium in the water. It takes more soap or detergent to clean things when using hard water. You can assume the water to be hard if your hands feel gritty or sticky even after washing with soap and water. This is because soap and calcium react to form soap scum. It also leads to cloudy dishes and glassware.
Hard water is graded according to the proportion of calcium carbonate in it.
- 61 to 120 mg/L calcium carbonate: Moderately hard
- 121 to 180 mg/L calcium carbonate: Hard
- More than 180 mg/L calcium carbonate: Very hard.
Effects of Hard Water on Hair
Hard water has the following effects on hair:
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Dryness of hair
One of the most prominent hard water effects on hair is dryness and coarseness. As minerals accumulate on the hair, it build a defense barrier that locks out moisture instead of locking it in. Regardless of the products you use, your hair will feel dry if you repeatedly wash it with hard water.
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Breakage and split ends
The ‘bad’ defense barrier prevents the penetration of nutrients through the hair shaft. As a result, the hair becomes brittle and prone to split ends. There’s excessive breakage that curtails the growth of hair. Even if it grows longer, the hair quality remains poor as it lacks the necessary nutrients.
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Loss of hair with thinning
Hair exposed to very hard water causes dry and flaky scalp. It results in actual hair loss in addition to breakage. A dry scalp doesn’t provide enough nourishment to the roots. Excessive calcium makes the hair shaft brittle, thereby causing the hair to break off at the base. The hair strands lose the attachment to the scalp and fall out easily. All these issues lead to hair thinning.
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Frizziness
Moisture is of paramount importance to prevent frizziness in hair. Hard water causes dryness and split ends in the hair, which in turn ends up making them frizzy.
Testing Water Hardness at home
To test water hardness at home, you would need only three things:
- Clear, clean empty bottle with a cap
- Pure liquid soap
- Tap water
Fill one-third of the bottle with water and add a few drops of pure liquid soap. Shake the bottle well for a few seconds.
- If the water appears cloudy and/or milky without any fluffy bubbles, you can conclude that the water is hard.
- Copious bubbles and clear water at the bottom of the bottle implies that the water is soft.
Note that the majority of the soaps are made with detergents. So, they lather irrespective of the type of water. To get correct results, you must use a basic soap without any dyes, perfumes, and detergents.
Solutions for Dealing with Hard Water
At the outset, get your water tested from a professional. In case the water turns out to be hard, follow these simple solutions to soften the water and improve the quality of your hair as well as your skin.
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Employ a water softener system (Recommended)
Water softeners are most extensively used to treat hard water. They work on the principle of ion exchange. These softener systems substitute calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions to treat the hard water.
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Install whole house filters at home
By setting up water filters at home, you can eliminate chemicals like chlorine from the water. It makes the water more suitable for drinking and bathing.
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Water conditioners
The main function of water conditioners is to change the minerals’ structures and make them less harmful. Although they don’t reduce the minerals content at all, they claim to be able to modify the hardness mineral’s chemical nature and properties. Additionally, they become even less effective with harder water.
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Take the help of soap alternatives
Soap alternatives like synthetic detergents curb soap scum formation. They are great to solve hard water problems but some people face the trouble of sensitivity due to these chemicals.
Benefits of washing hair with both filtered and softened water
Unfiltered water not only damages your hair but also makes it unmanageable and difficult to style. By using filtered soft water, you can avoid all these issues while making your hair easier to manage.
That being said, let’s take a look at all the benefits of washing hair with filtered soft water.
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Filtered soft water reduces dryness of hair and breakage
Unfiltered water contains minerals and chemicals that deplete your hair’s nourishment and natural properties. Chlorine is one such chemical that uses strong oxidation and eliminates protein and oils from the hair shaft. Thus, it leads to brittle hair and breakage. Washing your hair under the shower filter for hard water will keep your hair full and thick.
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Soft water makes your hair easy to handle
Water contaminants lead to knotted hair and make it a hassle to style them. Using soft water through a filter system will help save your time by making the hair easy to manage. Experts recommend using soft water rather than splurging on cosmetic hair care products to make them more manageable.
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A Shower filter or Whole House Filter helps uplift the scalp's health
Dandruff in the hair can be a result of too much exposure to chlorine. Hard water causes mineral accumulation on the scalp that leads to excess oil production. It aggravates the problem of chronic dandruff. Washing your hair in the evening will spoil your hair even further as harsh chemicals like chlorine will stay on your hair and scalp throughout the night. A shower filter or whole house filter restores the scalp's health by reducing excess chemical accretion.
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Washing your hair with soft water will make the hair care products more effective
Unfiltered water doesn’t allow the hair products to permeate through the hair shaft. Besides, as the minerals dry out the hair, your hair is deprived of all the moisture from the conditioner. By investing in a filter system for your shower, your products will become all the more effective and give you the expected results.
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Showering in soft water protects your hair color
The principle of hair color is the penetration of the color into the hair cuticle and adhesion to the hair cortex. If you use hard water for washing your hair, minerals like chlorine accumulate on your hair. They create a barrier between the coloring product and the hair cortex that reduces the efficacy of touch-ups. Moreover, hard water leads to faster fading of the hair color. It makes the hair look brassy and dull as the hardness, which is white/grey in color, forms deposits on top of the colored hair.
Using filtered and softened water prevents the chemical buildup on the hair strands, thereby ensuring complete penetration of the products and protecting the hair color. Also, it maintains the effectiveness of color protection products so that the color remains intact for a longer time. -
It makes the hair products more cost-effective
Filtered and softened water enhances the efficacy of your hair products. This implies that you get the same effect with a lesser amount of products, thereby saving your money. As your hair color stays in place for a longer period of time, it spares you the trouble of multiple salon visits. Water treatment equipment not only saves your hair but your wallet too.
Conclusion
As hard water contains strong concentrations of calcium and magnesium, it has several adverse effects on the hair. So, you ought to address the issue of hard water to maintain optimal hair health. The use of water softeners, chelating shampoos, and deep conditioning treatments has shown promise in mitigating the negative consequences of hard water exposure. Municipal tap water containing chlorine or chloramines can irritate the skin and scalp leading to dry flakey conditions throughout. Using a shower filter or whole house filter resolves the issue leading to softer skin and hair in about 10 days. If your domicile does not use municipal water, and instead you have a private well on your land, then you’ll first need to test the water to identify which contaminants are present and in what amounts. The contaminant levels in municipal water will be contained in an annual water report municipalities are required by law to produce, and can often be found by searching for the name of the provider found on your water bill, the year, and water report.