Dharwad water and hair: what to do about it

You wash your hair in far more water than shampoo. If that water carries a high dissolved mineral load, the water is the dominant variable in the outcome, and switching brands changes very little.

This is why people cycle through products without improvement, and why moving house sometimes fixes hair problems that no purchase did.

1. 01Look at your taps, shower head and kettle. White crusty scale is the same mineral that is depositing on your hair.
2. 02Fill a clear bottle a third full, add a few drops of liquid soap, cap and shake hard. Abundant stable foam means soft water. Thin foam with cloudy scum means hard.
3. 03Notice whether shampoo lathers worse than it does elsewhere.
4. 04Use a hardness test strip if you want an actual figure. They are inexpensive.

• Hair dulls, because a rough film scatters light.
• It feels coated, and rougher toward the ends.
• Shampoo lathers poorly, so people use more and leave more residue.
• Conditioner appears to stop working.
• Tangling increases, and with it breakage.
• Colour fades faster and can shift tone.

None of this is damage in the structural sense. It is a layer, and layers can be removed.

The distinction matters and most people do not know it. Clarifying shampoo uses stronger surfactants to remove oil and product residue. It does relatively little to mineral deposits.

Chelating shampoo contains agents that bind metal ions, such as EDTA or similar, and carry them away in the rinse. That is what mineral buildup needs.

1. 01Chelate once, properly, and see how different your hair feels. This diagnoses the problem.
2. 02If the difference is dramatic, chelate every week or two going forward.
3. 03Add a dilute vinegar rinse, roughly one part to four parts water, between chelating washes.
4. 04Oil before washing so the hard water sits on oil rather than directly on your cuticle.
5. 05Consider a shower filter if hardness is marked. Replace it on schedule or it stops working.
6. 06Stop buying new shampoos hoping one will fix it. The variable is the water.