Problem Water Hair?  You Should Care.

Have you ever noticed your hair feeling different after staying at a hotel?  Water quality… Yep, you heard it here first, water quality is the difference.  Your home’s water could be sabotaging your hair goals. Understanding the water quality coming from your showerhead is the first step to healthier hair strands and a happier you. 

Hard Water and Hair Problems

Hard water and your hair?  A rocky relationship. Quit being hard on your hair. Hardness in water means hard to lather, hard to clean and just simply… Hard to enjoy.  

Where Hardness in Water Comes From

Hard water is dissolved rock from calcium and magnesium. Not only can it be found in well supplies, but it also can come from municipal (city water) supplies.  Municipalities do an amazing job of getting their customers safe, sanitized water, but softening isn’t a priority.  They transport that water from A to B with the expectation that customers will take care of the hardness once it reaches their home.  

Effects of Washing Your Hair with Hard Water

Reduced Shampoo Lather-  Good shampoo isn’t cheap and using too much isn’t efficient.  Hard water in layman’s terms is the inability to get a lather causing people with hard water to want to use more soap.   Hard water showers use up to three times more soap than those with treated water.  Calcium and magnesium create an unwelcome chemical reaction with your shampoo and soap.  The hardness reacts with the fatty acids within the soap and shampoo creating an insoluble lime soap which is an absolute dud when it comes to cleaning. 

Dryness and Brittleness-  The build up of hard water on hair strands blocks moisture from entering into the hair causing brittle, dry hair. Split ends and breakage are the usual suspects of dry and brittle hair. Hard water residue acts as a barrier to the hair shaft causing the above mentioned effects.  

Scalp Issues-  Inflammation, irritation and potential dandruff because of hard water residue blocking hair follicle health.

Color Fading-  You wouldn’t wash your hair with pebbles of rock, but with hardness, for every grain per gallon (gpg), five grains would be equivalent to one aspirin sized piece of rock.  (Hard water is considered hard at 6 grains of hardness.)  That dissolved rock is essentially working toward “sand blasting” your hair to a matte finish.  Hard water will cause hair color to appear less vibrant and fade faster.   

Dull Frizz- Hardness within your home’s water can disrupt hair cuticles, making it almost unmanageable.  Hard water residue also coats hair strands leaving a film that dulls the natural shine of your hair.  

Other Than Hard Water, What Causes Hair Problems?

Bad Hair and Iron

It’s frustrating when expensive highlights from hours in foils and intricate balayage just don’t last as long as they should.  If your home’s water source is a well, one culprit of color fade could be iron in the water.  You should be pumping iron at the gym, not washing your fresh salon hair with it. 

Where Iron Comes From

Iron finds its way into your showerhead from surface water that begins to percolate from rain or melted snow that seeps through soil and rock dissolving iron along the way. Iron can also stem from older corroded plumbing. There are several different types of iron that may be in your well’s water supply. 

Two Common Types of Iron

Ferric Iron, also known as Red Iron, can be visible with the naked eye and looks rusty or has an orange hue. This form of iron is oxidized in the water and will cause staining as well as other issues.  (Cough.. Cough.. Unhealthy hair.)  Ferrous Iron, also known as Clear Water Iron, is practically invisible (at least at first), but once it oxidizes, it begins to settle out.  This is where staining and build up can take place with faucets, fixtures and… your hair.  

Other Forms of Iron 

In some cases iron tag teams with other materials within the ground as it percolates to a home’s water supply. This is called Organically Bound Iron, but is also known as Tannins.  Positively charged ions are attracted to the negative charge (You know, “opposites attract”) of decomposed organic matter, such as leaves, tree roots and other types of decaying vegetation.  The water supply (looks like or resembles) tea and has the same effects as its iron colleagues when it comes to staining, a musty odor and discoloration.

Last, but certainly not least, Iron Bacteria is number one with a bullet in terms of disgusting attributes of iron and your home’s water. This really isn’t from iron, but is an effect of having iron within your home’s water.  There are certain forms of bacteria that will actually feed off of iron.  The result is a brown, Jello slime created from oxidized Ferrous Iron that can leave hair feeling less than ideal. 

Effects of Iron and Your Hair

Discoloration-  Washing your hair with iron water can cause a hue of orange or red, especially with lighter colored hair such as blonde, silver or grey. 

Brittleness- Iron can draw moisture from healthy hair causing it to become dry, brittle and prone to breakage. 

Difficult to Style- Having iron in your water supply can make hair feel rough and stiff. 

Interferes with Professional Hair Care-  Washing your hair with iron water can prevent hair care chemical treatments such as dyes and perms from reaching their full potential. 

No Razzle Dazzle-  Mineral buildup from iron in your home’s water supply can cause hair to look dull and just plain lifeless. 

Scalp Irritation- Iron buildup on your scalp can cause irritation and inflammation.

Bad Hair and Chlorine

Save the chlorine for the pool.  It’s great for sanitizing water, but not so great for your hair’s glow up.  Chlorine doesn’t just affect swimmers, but daily showers with chlorinated water can really take a toll on the health of your hair.    

Why Chlorine in Water?

The use of chlorine for sanitizing community water has saved more lives than Penicillin in the last one hundred years.  The first example of chlorine in municipal water was in 1909 when Jersey City, New Jersey spearheaded the first use of chlorine on American soil.  The charge was led by Dr. John L. Leal and over the next decade thousands of other community water systems followed suit.  An almost immediate drop in waterborne diseases such as typhoid fever and dysentery occurred.

Chlorine in your home’s water is used as a disinfectant to kill bacteria and microbes.  This is done by water treatment plants to safely transport your home’s water from the source to your faucet.  It’s done with the expectation that you’ll do something about it before using it.  

Like Eating a Banana with the Peel Still On  

Using your home’s water with chlorine still in it is like eating a banana with the peel still on or eating a slice of cheese before removing the wrapper.  Chlorine in municipal water is a means to an end, but does have some small, but potential health risks.  When the chemical reacts with organic compounds in the water, the byproducts of that reaction is what causes the health risk.  

Chlorine in Shower Water Hair Effects

Dryness and Brittleness- Chlorine is an excellent oxidizing agent that strips away the healthy, natural oils (also known as sebum) from your hair and scalp.  That loss of moisture dehydrates your hair making it dry, weak and more prone to split ends and breakage.  It also makes it susceptible to other damage from heat, styling or even environmental factors.  

Color Changes- The chlorine water from your showerhead reacts with the pigments that are in your hair, commonly chemically altered hair, causing it to fade or in severe cases… turn green.  

Scalp Irritation-  As mentioned above chlorine is an oxidizing agent that takes away the sebum from not only your hair, but your scalp.  Using chlorine water for hair washes could irritate and dry out your scalp.  This is going to cause itchiness and dandruff.  

Shower Time Shouldn’t Be Hair Harming Time: What Can You as a Homeowner Do About It?

The first step would be to understand your home’s water. You can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s wrong.   At NEGLEY’S WATER we have a team of water consultants who are educated and dedicated to help you understand your home’s water.  A free water consultation is available Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm.  Our consultants can test directly from your kitchen tap and address any concerns or questions you may have about your home’s water as well as its influence on your hair. 

The consultations typically take about forty minutes, but at the end of that analysis, your consultant will be able to offer you a transparent understanding of your home’s water.  If water treatment equipment is recommended, they’ll be able to customize a system based on your water, your home and of course your preferences (and your hair’s).

Invest in your hair.  Invest in you.  Friends don’t let friends wash their hair with untreated water.  Schedule an appointment today to Feel Better About Your Water.