Have you been experiencing increased dryness on your skin? Has your hair been lacking its usual luster and moisture? Let us tell you it’s definitely because of the contents of your water supply.
It’s usually because of hard water. And hard water, if not taken care of can have quite a damaging effect on not only your skin and hair as well as your appliances, pipes, etc.
What exactly is hard water and why does it harm your skin and hair? Read ahead to find out.
What Is Hard Water?
Hard water is referred to as hard water since it has a high content of hard minerals. These include:
- Calcium,
- Magnesium
- Iron
- Other such minerals
You can measure water hardness using grains per gallon. If your result is more than 3.5 gpg, it means your water supply consists of hard minerals.
Hard water isn’t damaging or unhealthy if present in small amounts. However, the problem arises if your water supply seems cloudy indicating a large number of hard minerals.
The Effect on Hair
Your water supply depends on the region you’re living in and consequently the level of hard water contamination.
A small amount of calcium or magnesium won’t make a huge difference, but over time you’ll notice an impact on your hair and skin as well.
Hard water also means you need to use twice the products, like shampoo, detergent, or soap to get the result you usually would.
Here’s how you can deduce that your hair is being affected by hard water:
- Difficult to wash: The problem is that hard water leads to you using double the amount of shampoo you would usually.
The problem isn’t in your standard shower routine, rather the presence of hard water minerals.
These minerals create a thin film that makes it difficult to lather the product as well as extract it.
- Dry, and dull hair: Minerals like calcium and magnesium strip the moisture from your hair.
This makes them appear dull and lifeless and may eventually lead to your hair looking limp.
- Increased hair loss: You may notice increased fall out due to magnesium and calcium forming a thin layer on your scalp.
This prevents moisture from entering thus resulting in increased hair loss and damage.
- Color fading quickly: if you have colored hair, hard water tends to cause the color from your hair to fade quicker. This results in increased hair treatments and damage.
The Effect on Skin
The most prevalent effect of hard water on your skin is dryness. If you already have naturally dry skin, hard water worsens it.
After a shower, you may feel clean but are unable to recognize the building effects of hard minerals on the skin.
Here are a few ways to identify that hard water is affecting your skin:
- Increased Dryness: Like your hair, hard water also tends to extract moisture from your skin.
Minerals like calcium and magnesium strip the natural oils from your skin making it dehydrated and increasingly flaky.
- Decreases Collagen Production: Collagen is responsible for creating elasticity in our skin for the prevention of wrinkles.
The increased use of hard water slows down collagen production giving way for more wrinkles and fine lines to be produced.
- Breakouts: Washing your face with hard water may result in some minerals being left behind.
As the skin naturally absorbs these, it creates imbalances in the skin’s pH levels and causes breakouts.
- Dull Skin: Since the skin is unable to retain its hydration, it also becomes difficult to moisturize it. The result is dry dull skin that loses its softness.
What’s the Solution?
First and foremost you need to deduce the level of hard minerals present in your water supply.
The solution is to change up your routine and make several changes accordingly.
If your biggest concern is to prevent hard water effects in the shower, you could purchase a shower water filter for that!
Not only does it eliminate the effect of hard minerals but some filters come with Vitamin C and remineralization features. These help your hair and skin thrive!
There are different ways a water softener can help and be beneficial for you and are one such solution to your hard water problem.
Water softening systems are the go-to solution to prevent dryness on your hair, skin, and nails. Furthermore, they also prevent scaling on your appliances and plumbing systems!
Conclusion
The effects of hard water should be taken seriously so you can take the proper steps to prevent them!
The information above will help you identify whether hard water is an ongoing problem for you or not and what you should do to solve it!
