01 July 2017

Hard Water Hair

The hardness or softness of your home’s water can impact your hair. That’s because the mineral buildup in hard water can make it difficult to build a lather when shampooing your hair. If you notice that you aren’t building up a lot of soap suds when you mix soap and water, it’s likely that you have hard water.

If you have seen a buildup of soap scum in your shower, imagine a version of that in your hair.  It isn’t exactly the same but excess minerals from hard water are mixing with shampoo and preventing it from forming a good lather. In fact, less water ends up reaching your hair strands so your hair ends up somewhat coarse.    

If you have seen a microscopic view of a hair strand, you can see that each is made up of little scales, like shingles on a roof. Hard water tends to make the scales stand up, which makes your hair feel rough. If your hair is tangled and rough, it is more difficult to rinse out all of the soap.

You may think that you should shampoo your hair more to combat hard water hair but that only results in more of the same.  Frequent washing may also cause the color to fade quicker as well – if you color your hair.

If you struggle with hard water hair, the good news is that water softeners can help fix hard water hair. Water softeners work to remove calcium and magnesium in your home’s water supply, leaving you with soft water and that enables smooth, manageable hair. Soft water requires less soap and fewer rinses to achieve optimal results.