Hard Water : How your Water Affects your Hair
Have you ever experienced a film forming on your hands after washing them? Or noticed your shower head looking like this…
If your shower head looks like this, imagine what it’s doing to your hair - the answer is a lot of damage!
This happens because hard water contains a buildup of minerals such as calcium & magnesium. When this happens, it produces a film on your hair, making it difficult for moisture to penetrate and can cause havoc for your colour!
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF HARD WATER?
While hard water isn’t harmful for your health, there are downsides when it comes to your hair.
A study involving 15 women found that they had hair that was damaged by hard water. This was found after washing hair in both hard water & distilled water for 30 days.
After the study they found that hair from the hard water samples had decreased in thickness and had a ruffled appearance.
Other effects include:
- Breakage
- Thinning
- Tangling
- Dry Scalp
- Dullness
- Brassiness & Discolouration
- Frizziness
HOW TO REPAIR HAIR THAT HAS BEEN DAMAGED FROM HARD WATER?
Install a water softener shower head
Soft water is essentially the opposite of hard water, and while it contains some minerals - the concentration is nowhere near as high and plays a lot less havoc on your hair.
Ionic Shower heads are a cost-effective way of purifying your hair, removing minerals and keeping your hair looking and feeling healthy.
You can check out all the amazing features of the Ionic Shower Head here.
Use a clarifying shampoo
There are so many benefits to Clarifying shampoos and you will see results almost immediately!
Many people don’t know how to effectively deal with hard water when it comes to washing hair. Imagine the amount of minerals that deposit on your scalp if you’re washing your hair everyday. A clarifying shampoo will get rid of mineral build up as well as build up from:
- Chlorine
- Styling products
- Conditioner & Wax buildup
- Dead skin on your scalp
- Air Pollutants
By removing this build up from your hair, it brings dull hair back to life as well as keeping colour looking fresh and preventing blonde hair from turning brassy!
Malibu C Hard Water Wellness Collection is the perfect vegan & organic solution for clearing your hair of unwanted minerals.
Or why not go one step further and add Un Do Goo, a gentle & more effective treatment that is ideal for curly & textured hair clients and well as those who use products regularly in their hair! This product is the cream of the crop for us, and it does exactly what it says on the tin! It’s non damaging, 100% vegan wellness formula blends an exclusive sulphate-free cleansing system puls moisture-boosting vitamins to immediately remove product build up & restore
Apply a treatment
Go one step further than clarifying shampoo and restore moisture and shine to your locks with a mask at least once a week.
A hair treatment once a week will help keep your hair soft and shiny, as well as adding moisture to your hair that may be lost due to hard water. We suggest Malibu C Miracle Repair - it works to immediately repair damaged/dry hair. It’s a quick weekly at home fix to leave your hair feeling like you’ve just been to the salon!
HOW CAN I TELL IF I HAVE HARD WATER?
You normally can’t tell by looking at water if it’s hard or not but there are a few giveaways, the biggest one being if your water pressure at home is quite low! Mineral deposits can form in the pipes, essentially shrinking the interior diameter of the pipes and reducing water flow.
An easy way to test is by using a Water Test Kit. Once you have the kit testing kit it’s so quick and easy and all you have to do is
- Open the Water Hardness Test Strip package & remove the test strip. Keep the package to refer to the key indicating levels of hardness.
- Insert the greyish-green coloured end of the water hardness test strip into the flow of water for a few seconds then remove from the water. It’s best you test the water you use to shampoo & bathe (shower or tub)
- After 12 seconds, compare water hardness test strip to key on side of test strip package indicating the levels of hardness.
KEY
< Green = Soft
< Brown = Hard Water
< Orange = Very Hard Water
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