How important is soft water to your hair?

• How important is soft water to your hair?
  

  

  Chris A

  
  

  The city water where I live is considered hard (132 mg per liter as reported by the water works). For various reasons, a whole-house softener is probably not in the cards for me.

  I've noticed a difference in how my hair feels when it gets wet from rain, which is very soft water. My hair feels better and lays better. The longer it gets, the more important that is becoming to me.

  So, two questions to you guys: does softer water matter to how your hair feels? and has anyone used a shower-head filter and gotten good results from it?

  Thanks,
  Chris

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  • Re: How important is soft water to your hair?
    

    

    MarkS

    
    

    Hey Chris, soft water does a lot better for my hair too and it's better overall period than hard water. Hard water makes my hair frizzy and look like crap while soft water lays it down and feels soft. I never used a hard to soft water converter, but I heard you can buy them online...maybe check Amazon for one.

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    • Re: How important is soft water to your hair?
      

      

      Chris a

      
      

      Thanks Mark. Yeah I've been looking on Amazon but thought I'd see if anyone had real-world experience with them.

      Chris

      Hey Chris, soft water does a lot better for my hair too and it's better overall period than hard water. Hard water makes my hair frizzy and look like crap while soft water lays it down and feels soft. I never used a hard to soft water converter, but I heard you can buy them online...maybe check Amazon for one.

      reply close reply form
  • Re: How important is soft water to your hair?
    

    

    Long Hair In Albany

    
    

    The city water where I live is considered hard (132 mg per liter as reported by the water works). For various reasons, a whole-house softener is probably not in the cards for me.

    I've noticed a difference in how my hair feels when it gets wet from rain, which is very soft water.

    Is rain water really that soft? I'd have to think between
    acid rain/pollution in the air/etc. that it would not be soft
    and would be bad for hair. (Especially in summer when you have a stretch of hot humid days where the air is gets really bad with smog.)

    BTW, i've tried shampooing without conditioner, I'll never try it again. On some of my trips i've had to go without conditioner and
    it seemed to cause problems with tangles. (I've found hotel
    conditioners suck big time.)

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    • Re: How important is soft water to your hair?
      

      

      Chris A

      
      

      Yes, rainwater is virtually the same as distilled water when it comes to softness--that is, lack of dissolved minerals. As you point out, though, it can pick up other contaminants from air pollution.

      Is rain water really that soft? I'd have to think between
      acid rain/pollution in the air/etc. that it would not be soft
      and would be bad for hair. (Especially in summer when you have a stretch of hot humid days where the air is gets really bad with smog.)

      BTW, i've tried shampooing without conditioner, I'll never try it again. On some of my trips i've had to go without conditioner and
      it seemed to cause problems with tangles. (I've found hotel
      conditioners suck big time.)

      reply close reply form
  • Re: How important is soft water to your hair?
    

    

    Antinous

    
    

    I have a natural bristle nail brush which I had for 20 years in San Francisco (soft water.) The bristles were gone after two years in Palm Springs (hard water.) Clothing falls apart after far fewer washings, as well. I'm pretty sure that human hair isn't immune to the effects of hard water.

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