A Guide to How Hard Water Affects Your Skin and Hair
Posted: January 1, 2019 to Drinking Water
If you have hard water in your house, chances are that you see how the hard water is affecting your sinks. But you probably haven’t considered the way that it’s affecting your skin and hair. Let’s look at the ways that your hair and skin are being affected by hard water.
How Hard Water Affects Your Skin
Hard water can be very hard on your skin. Let’s look at the four ways that it can affect your skin.
Damage to Cells
The biggest thing that hard water causes is damage to the cells of the skin. Elements like lead, zinc, calcium, and magnesium which you can find undissolved inside hard water will break down the skin’s collagen and elastin. When this occurs, your skin is much more vulnerable to damage from the sun through the harmful UV rays.
Acne
Because hard water’s made of minerals that haven’t dissolved, acne can happen more frequently. The hard water will dry out your skin, which deprives it of its natural oils. This will cause irritation in the skin and make it break out.
Dry Skin
Those minerals that are in your hard water will settle on the skin’s surface and lead to dryness and itchiness. In the most severe cases, your skin can become inflamed, then crack and eventually bleed.
It’s Not Effective on Germs
When you have hard water, your skin is much more germ-prone because it will coat your skin with film, because of those minerals that are in the water. When this occurs, the natural oils in the body can’t reach your skin’s epidermis. This leads to your skin’s antimicrobial properties failing.
How Hard Water Affects Your Hair
Like it does on the skin, hard water can also be very hard on your hair. There are two ways that hard water can affect your hair.
Makes It Hard to Manage
The most immediate effect that hard water has on your hair that it’s going to make your hair much harder to manage. A lot of people who have hard water discover that their hair’s tangling a lot easier and it’s hard to brush or comb out.
These knots and tangles make it a lot harder for you to wash your hair too. Little amounts of shampoo and soap likely stay in your hair. This will cause film and grease to keep building up on your hair and scalp, which can cause your hair to look very lifeless and dull. As the buildup keeps increasing, it will make the problem even worse.
It’s Harsh on Hair the Scalp
Another way that hard water affects your hair is that it’s very hard on your hair. People who perm, color or treat their hair might find the treatments are washing out much faster. This may mean that they are having these treatments done more often, which means that their hair is going to dry out and become damaged more quickly. Some people have discovered that their hair is becoming thinner and breaking more. Another thing that can happen is that their scalp becomes itchy and they have dandruff.
As you can see, your hair and skin are being adversely affected by hard water in your home. So you want to get a water softener for your home to help with keeping your skin and hair healthy and looking its best!