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Does anyone here have to deal with hard water? I'd like to move to city that I KNOW does not have hard water problems. Thinking of Knoxville, TN or possibly Lexington, KY. Does anyone know? What about other big cities?
What's hard water?
Well, does your hair lather up pretty easy the first time? Or does it fail to even on the second or third try? That might be hard water.
Also, when it finally lathers, it probably tries to tangle up in knots.
The shampoo doesn't clean my hair very well, then it just sticks in my hair!
I have this problem here.
But I went to a relatives in a town just south of Lexington, KY, and washed my hair regular with my own regular shampoo.
MOUNTAINS of lather, first try. I don't remember if it tangled, but I don't remember any real problem.
I washed it there several times, and seemed to get consistently better results than here. I'm guessing they had a higher quality water system there.
I figure larger towns/cities might be able to afford that over rural areas.
Does anyone know about this?
Some tips that might help you deal with hard water:
Use as little hot water as possible. Don't freeze yourself, just use enough to keep the 'bite' out of the water, I guess. I think, and from what I've read, heating hard water amplifies it's bad effects on everything (hair, clothes, water heaters, radiators, etc.).
Also, if your hair does tangle, try using those big tooth 'wet' combs while letting the cool water run over it. This seems to help get that shampoo out of there.
Soft water would be simpler though!
-Slack
So put in a water softener! I think they're about $300.
-Zorba
use baking soda that stuff will soften the water believe me it works i use it once in a while
Hard water is nothing more than calcium carbonate in the water. It occurs anywhere water is drawn from the ground (rather than from lakes or rivers) and is worse where there is a lot of limestone in the ground (which is mostly calcium carbonate). Kentucky likely has some of the hardest water in the world due to its famous Karst topography (hence Mammoth Cave, etc. --- the stalagmites in the caves were formed from the calcium carbonate precipitating out of the water over thousands of years). I'm sure Tennessee isn't much better. It has nothing to do with the "quality" of the water system. The only thing you can do is to install a water softener; most people in hard water areas have them anyway -- I'm sure your relatives near Lexington do. The water softener works by replacing the calcium ions with sodium ions. Sodium does not precipitate out like calcium does and does not react with soaps and detergents. But be careful -- try not to drink too much of the water that goes through a water softener. Consuming too much sodium is bad for your health. Also, you are correct about the effects of heating hard water --- calcium salts are less soluble in hot water than cold.
For myself, I find that softened water is annoying --- you feel like you can never rinse the soap off your body and my wavy hair becomes too "puffy". Here in New Mexico the water is not very hard naturally (not very much limestone), but it does have a lot of salts (common in desert areas --- you can even taste it in Phoenix's water).