SoCal water? Shampoo?

[DeadlyUnicorn]

I've lived in southern California for just 2 years but the water seems to be extremely hard(worse than anywhere I've lived before).. It even busted our kitchen sink from the build up, twice. I never considered there might be a build up on my hair as well? So I'm wondering what some good shampoos would be for getting that off? :) And do I need to use it a few times? (I'm moving somewhere with soft water soon so it shouldn't really be a big deal then)

Thanks! :o

[Larki]

I've lived in SoCal for college the last three years and I use Malibu C's chelating shampoo (I believe it's called hard water wellness) every few weeks. It keeps my hair from darkening and turning orange from the minerals in the water. It's very gentle and sulfate free, and I believe actually vegan as well as a bonus. :) Smells like orange creamsicle.

Ah, here's a link: http://www.malibuc.com/products/cn/2110/Malibu-C-Hard-Water-Wellness-Shampoo

It also lasts forever, I've been using it since September and I've only used like a fourth of the nine ounce bottle, since it doesn't need to be used frequently.

[Vivalagina]

Joico makes a wonderful clarifying and chelating shampoo, I think I got my bottle at Sally's.

[DeadlyUnicorn]

I've lived in SoCal for college the last three years and I use Malibu C's chelating shampoo (I believe it's called hard water wellness) every few weeks. It keeps my hair from darkening and turning orange from the minerals in the water. It's very gentle and sulfate free, and I believe actually vegan as well as a bonus. :) Smells like orange creamsicle.

Ah, here's a link: http://www.malibuc.com/products/cn/2110/Malibu-C-Hard-Water-Wellness-Shampoo

It also lasts forever, I've been using it since September and I've only used like a fourth of the nine ounce bottle, since it doesn't need to be used frequently.

Thanks I'll check it out! :)

Hmm.. Could hard water make dark hair lighter? I see yours is blonde but well.. I feel like my hair has gotten a LOT lighter lately but I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination?

And thanks Vivalagina I'll check that one out too! :o

[Larki]

Thanks I'll check it out! :)

Hmm.. Could hard water make dark hair lighter? I see yours is blonde but well.. I feel like my hair has gotten a LOT lighter lately but I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination?

And thanks Vivalagina I'll check that one out too! :o
I don't know, but I imagine maybe it could depending on the particular minerals in your water. In my case, I think the main culprits are iron and copper, because they're both supposed to make hair darker and orangey. Find a chelating shampoo and see if the color has changed after a use or two!

[Ferngear]

I've never found my hair turning orange.... at least I don't think so, and I don't know about darker since my longer ends -- which have had more repeated exposures to washing water -- are lighter than my darker roots. I use an apple cider vinegar rinse weekly to take the hard water off, and it seems to have made a difference in the softness since I started doing it six months ago. I've lived in So Cal all my life, in the same county in fact. I also pour baking soda and white vinegar down the drains to break up the hard water build up and soap residue (from all that conditioner), but it still messes with things from time to time. Depends on where you are, I guess. We have a lot of agriculture where I live, are right by the beach to there's a lot of salt, and a big storm might drop half an inch of rain in one day. By this time, hard water seems normal, and if I stay out of state in a hotel somewhere with a softener (we don't have them because the salt kills the pipes) the water feels weird somehow, like it's full of bubbles.

Thanks for the link Larki -- I'll check it out too!

[Ferngear]

I just checked my city's Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report (each county is supposed to file one with the state every year) that gives the tested measurements of impurities, minerals, and so forth for all their water sources. Ours come from a local river, lake, and groundwater wells. The report, which I imagine is fairly consistent with most of the coastal area of Southern California, indicates that the highest mineral content by far is calcium, followed by sodium, magnesium, chloride, zinc, and potasium. Iron was not detectible. However, I don know that a lot of the old piping is copper, so maybe the corrosion is a factor in orange color for some people? We've just recently had to replace all the pipes in our attic because of pin-hole leaks.

Anyway, I think vinegar is really the best in my experience, but lemon/lime juice is also really good, and so is a citrus clarifying shampoo. But make sure you condition and oil after you use it, because the dry air here really sucks the moisture out of the follicles. Here's an informative like I found on a google search: http://www.hairbuddha.net/save-your-hair-from-hard-water/

[DeadlyUnicorn]

Thanks Ferngear! I'm in Riverside, I looked online for the water report but couldn't find it. We've been having trouble with some old pipes here too. It was outside and water was just coming up from the ground basically and there were a bunch of little gold looking flakes, I think it was copper from the pipe. So I definitely think that's a reason peoples hair might change color.

[divinedobbie]

I just checked my city's Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report (each county is supposed to file one with the state every year) that gives the tested measurements of impurities, minerals, and so forth for all their water sources. Ours come from a local river, lake, and groundwater wells. The report, which I imagine is fairly consistent with most of the coastal area of Southern California, indicates that the highest mineral content by far is calcium, followed by sodium, magnesium, chloride, zinc, and potasium. Iron was not detectible. However, I don know that a lot of the old piping is copper, so maybe the corrosion is a factor in orange color for some people? We've just recently had to replace all the pipes in our attic because of pin-hole leaks.

Anyway, I think vinegar is really the best in my experience, but lemon/lime juice is also really good, and so is a citrus clarifying shampoo. But make sure you condition and oil after you use it, because the dry air here really sucks the moisture out of the follicles. Here's an informative like I found on a google search: http://www.hairbuddha.net/save-your-hair-from-hard-water/

Thought this might be interesting for you:

Water hardness is caused by calcium and magnesium in the ground and surface water. If either of these minerals are present in your drinking water in high concentrations, the water is considered hard. These minerals come from rock such as limestone that dissolves in our river system. The result of hard water is difficulty making lather or suds for washing and a build-up of minerals on taps and other fixtures.
Water containing low concentrations of calcium or magnesium is called soft water. Municipalities with soft drinking water often have higher incidences of water pipe corrosion (low pH). The degree of hardness in drinking water is commonly classified in terms of its concentration of calcium carbonate:"

Seems like your pipes shouldn't be corroding easily if your water is hard.

[ovalgal]

I live in an area with extremely hard water and I use a white vinegar rinse after every shower (because I hear that ACV can cause "warm" tones). It makes my hair slippy and shiny!

[Alex Lou]

Orange County uses a lot of recycled water. It's very well filtered, so well filtered that they add minerals back into it so it doesn't leach minerals out of pipes and ruin the pipes. I heard something about it on the radio and went to look for the story online so I could listen to the whole thing but couldn't find it. I don't know how much recycled water Riverside does or doesn't use.

[Ferngear]

Orange County uses a lot of recycled water. It's very well filtered, so well filtered that they add minerals back into it so it doesn't leach minerals out of pipes and ruin the pipes. I heard something about it on the radio and went to look for the story online so I could listen to the whole thing but couldn't find it. I don't know how much recycled water Riverside does or doesn't use.

Ventura County uses reclaimed water as well, but that's more for agricultural use. Oxnard is the largest producer of strawberries in the country!


Seems like your pipes shouldn't be corroding easily if your water is hard.

Yes and no. The hard water wasn't corroding the pipes, actually, sorry that was unclear. We have copper piping, which was laid down when our neighborhood was built in the 1960's. The way they installed it was to put copper pipes in for carrying the water, but they used galvanized steel to anchor them to the cross beams. The contact between the galvanized steel and the copper causes electrolysis in the hot water pipes (cold ones too, but mostly hot), attracting the salts in the hard water, causing "galvanic corrosion." (That's what the plumber told us). Then you get pin-hole leaks or worse, and the condition continues through the pipes inevitably leading to full pipe replacement. Many of my neighbors have had their pipes replaced already. The use of galvanized steel with copper pipes used to be quite common, still can be. Once the pipes were out, I looked down the inside length of them in the driveway and was surprised at how many tiny pinpoints of light I could see through the copper! There were at least a dozen, all of them almost ready to leak (we'd had four leaks in the attic in six months, which is why the plumbers had been up there). This galvanic corrosion may or may not occur, depending on the water and the construction and a lot of other things, but it's pretty common in older houses here. :mad:

And that's how you get copper in your hair rinsing water, in addition to all the other minerals.... Sometimes I wonder if I ought to rinse with CLR or Simple Green.

[DeadlyUnicorn]

Ferngear, our neighborhood is old too. I bet that's the same problem we're having but, my family likes to fix things themselves so.. :p

[Ferngear]

So do we.... problem was the water leaks were starting to damage the wallboard, bubble paint, and lots of other things and we didn't have any choice but to replace it all. I got tired of replacing the wallboard. Boo on hard water!

Hey, does anyone know of or tried one of those filters that attaches to the shower head? I swear I've seen one advertised somewhere, like a mini softener.

[Remi]

That would be nice- a shower water filter! :)
So do we.... problem was the water leaks were starting to damage the wallboard, bubble paint, and lots of other things and we didn't have any choice but to replace it all. I got tired of replacing the wallboard. Boo on hard water!

Hey, does anyone know of or tried one of those filters that attaches to the shower head? I swear I've seen one advertised somewhere, like a mini softener.

[gthlvrmx]

So do we.... problem was the water leaks were starting to damage the wallboard, bubble paint, and lots of other things and we didn't have any choice but to replace it all. I got tired of replacing the wallboard. Boo on hard water!

Hey, does anyone know of or tried one of those filters that attaches to the shower head? I swear I've seen one advertised somewhere, like a mini softener.
You can get shower filters from Home Depot. Well at least I think they were shower filters! I tried them and I didn't see much difference in my hair...maybe I needed to chelate to see a difference.