I never knew there were different types of water until we moved into our first home, we are on the other side of town from where we were renting. After the first week of being here I noticed my hair was being so difficult to mange, it was fluffier than normal at the ends and around my roots felt like there was still a mass of shampoo there. At first I thought it was the water pressure maybe not being strong enough to wash everything out properly, so I demanded a new shower head, that didn't help. I bought millions of different shampoos thinking that maybe my hormones had changed again being so close to the end of my pregnancy, they didn't work. Finally I took to Google, of course the best way to find out anything, and learnt it was most likely due to us having Hard water.
Hard water means there is more minerals in the water, mainly Calcium, Magnesium and Manganese. These cause all sorts of issues with not letting things foam as well and leave unsightly stains in your bath room. They also reek havoc on your hair and skin.
The easiest way to manage hard water is to change to non hard water by means of a shower head filter, yes that's a real thing. Easier said than done however since they only fit certain shower heads and of course ours is not one of them. In my Google research I did find some easier ways to manage hard water and its effects on your skin and hair.
- Use filtered water to pre soak your hair and to do the final rinse. Easy enough if you have a water filter in your kitchen but not an option for most people. You can collect rain water if you are that way inclined. I tried this once and it didn't cross my mind that rain water would be cold, I'll blame that on baby brain. I never did it again.
- Add vodka to your shampoo. Yes, you read that right. This is what I am currently doing and so far it has been working well. I added a shot of vodka to a full 200ml shampoo and gave it a good shake. I'm not 100% sure why this works but I have found that it helps the shampoo to lather, which is something that hard water prevents. The down side is that it can make your scalp dry which leads to dandruff, so if you can try to reduce how often you wash your hair.
- Dry shampoo is your new best friend. I used to wash my hair every second day but now because of my vodka mix shampoo causing a bit of dry scalp I wash it maybe twice a week. The other days I use Batiste dry shampoo. This product is brilliant! It gets rid of all the excess oils and at the same time gives my hair a bit of volume back. They have a wide range of scents and a coloured one for brown hair.
- Apple cider vinegar rinse. There is a never ending list of ways to use Apple cider vinegar and hard water is one of them. I mixed a capful into a cup of filter water and used it as a final rinse over my hair. It does smell pretty interesting to start with so I don't recommend washing your hair with this before heading out. I am a night time hair washer and the smell had completely gone by the time I woke up the morning. While it didn't leave my hair as clean feeling as I'd like it did add a lot of shine.
- Use a finishing oil since the ends of your hair tend to get dry thanks to the water. While my hair is still damp I run a small amount of Argon oil through the ends, no higher than my ears as that tends to be where it starts gets oily. Batitse also do a spray on conditioner which I am yet to try but could also work.
- I also found that chucking my hair up in a bun after lathering the shampoo in and letting it down in small sections helps to ensure all the shampoo is washed out. I have pretty thick hair so it takes a while but I notice the difference if I don't do it.
Here are some of the sites I found most useful
- http://www.hairbuddha.net/save-your-hair-from-hard-water/
- http://www.xovain.com/how-to/how-to-care-for-your-hair-and-skin-in-hard-or-soft-water
Do you have any tricks that work for you?
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