Chlorinated town water

[Naiadryade]

I moved out of the hills and into the valley at the beginning of this month. This is the first time in a long time--and one of the only times in my life, and certainly the first time since I joined LHC--that I've been living in a place with town water instead of private wells for each house. And this town water, like many places, is chlorinated. Ugh!

What do those of you on town water do to keep your hair from getting damaged by the chlorine?

I'm planning on buying a showerhead filter, but it may be a little while yet before I can afford one. But what about the bath? Do I need to get another filter for that faucet, doubling my cost? I'm thinking it may be more cost-effective to get a hand-held showerhead, and use that to fill the bath tub.

In the meantime, with porous damage-prone hair, how worried should I be about spending time in the shower and bath? Is it enough to do a final rinse with filtered water and a little ACV to prevent chlorine build-up? Or should I be chelating all the freaking time? Or is any time my hair is exposed to the chlorine damaging... would I be better off heating filtered water on the stove and pouring that into the bathtub??

Or maybe I'm getting too nervous over something that's not really a big deal. What are your experiences?

[Firefox7275]

Vinegar is better for minerals from hard water, EDTA is better for chlorine IIRC. If you leave water to stand the chlorine evaporates off but I have no idea how long that would take for a regular bath.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

When I lived in town with chlorinated water I never worried about what it did to my hair and never noticed any ill effects on my hair at all from it. Drinking it though - tasted SO bad! Eeewww!

[MeowScat]

Just do a Vinegar Rinse after you shampoo and condition. I saw bath faucet filters on amazon.

[YamaMaya]

I've pretty much bathed in city water my whole life without problems, but up until a few years ago, I'd never kept it longer than BSL so I wouldn't know the long term effects on hair longer than that.

[Anje]

I've been on city water all my life, can't say it seems to have damaged my hair overly. That said, my DH went from city water to a different city and found he needed a shower filter in the new place to avoid irritation.

Do you need a bath filter? Doubt it. How many baths could one possibly take?

[spidermom]

I have a hand-held filtered shower head so I can use it to fill the bath as well as take a shower. I notice a difference in my skin; it isn't as dry and itchy as it used to be.