If you’ve taken a shower at a place other than your house, maybe a hotel, or a friend’s house, you may notice that your hair feels differently. Common water contaminants can affect your hair’s look, feel, and general health. Fortunately, this article discusses water quality in your home and how it affects your hair, and we also discuss how to keep your hair feeling and looking great.
What Is Water Hardness?
Identifying hard water in a home is not difficult. If you have recurring problems with mineral deposits on your faucets or showerhead, then you probably have hard water.
Hard water means water containing high levels of minerals like calcium and magnesium.
Unfortunately, hard water does more than add scum to your shower; it is also responsible for scaly white buildup in coffee makers. Also, if you have to use white vinegar to clean your coffee maker to make your coffee taste good again, you have hard water.
Effects Of Hard Water On Your Hair?
Hard water is a significant problem with water quality that affects the health of your hair. Water in homes having hard water issues contains high calcium and magnesium levels. These minerals cling to your hair after taking a shower with hard water. Hard water affects the hair in many ways, including:
Dryness
Hard water dries out your hair. After showering in hard water, your hair gets a rough feeling instead of being shiny and smooth. Furthermore, hard water dries out the scalp, increasing the amount of dandruff in the hair.
Mineral Deposits
Hard water deposits minerals in your hair, making it look like dandruff. When you shower with hard water, it can leave traces of hardness minerals in your hair, giving you an appearance of dandruff.
Hair Loss
Hard water can cause possible hair loss. For some people, the minerals in hard water clog their hair follicles after they shower. Therefore, their hair breaks off easily at the base, causing hair loss, especially for people prone to hair loss.
Dirty Hair
Hard water prevents your hair from properly cleaning because it does not lather well with soaps and shampoos like hard water. Therefore, showering with hard water can reduce the effects of your hair cleaning and moisturizing products, preventing your hair from being as clean and healthy as you want.
How pH Levels Affect The Hair
Looking back at high school chemistry, you may remember that the pH scale ranges between 0 and 14. 7 is considered to be a neutral pH. Acidic pH is below 7 while anything above 7 is alkaline or basic.
The hair has a pH of 4.5 to 5. Hard water’s pH can be 8.5 or more without considering the pH levels of your shampoo, conditioner, and other products in your hair regimen.
Hair pH greater than 10 causes makes the fibers swell, causing irreversible damage.
How Can You Save Your Hair?
Adjusting your daily routine to counter hard water effects on your body may not be easy. However, using a water softening system in your home can help keep your skin soft and elegant and your hair bouncy and shiny. You can reduce the mineral content in your water straight from the tap using a water softener.
When addressing a hard water problem in your home, the first thing to do is get an in-home water test. The test helps to check the actual level of hardness-causing minerals in your water. The next step is checking out the local guides on hard water in your region. Afterward, call Waterdrop to figure the best water softener for your household water needs.
You mustn’t take the effects of hard water on your hair and skin lightly. Having proper knowledge of the issue can help you take the right steps towards softening the water in your home.
Conclusion
Apart from adding scum to your shower and scale buildup to your coffee maker, hard water affects your skin and hair. Hard water can dry out your hair, leave mineral deposits, cause hair loss, and leave your hair looking dirty. Fortunately, Waterdrop has the best water softeners to suit your household water needs.