Does rust water affect hair?

[catabear]

So, I'm moving to a horse farm in June, and I'm concerned about the water hurting my hair. It's typical country water, hard and rusty to the point where the bathtub is stained orange-red. What will this do to my hair and/or the quality of my hair? I only wash twice a week, but still, my hair is my baby and I don't want to harm it!! :P

Does anyone have experience with rust water, and are there products I can use?

Thank you in advance!

[lapushka]

Yikes... I'm not sure it will hurt the hair. Maybe use an ACV rinse just to be sure? Even though I'm not sure that ACV does something for rust at all. I have no clue, I'm sorry.

Is there perhaps a filter you can use?

[meteor]

Are they using well water? Well water can be pretty hard. I'd use a chelating (swimmers') shampoo/pack or citric acid rinses while there.

[hobbitlocks]

I don't know about rust specifically, but hard water can make it harder to shampoo your hair effectively and the minerals can build up on your hair. I would look into getting a chelating shampoo (I like the joico one), which helps remove the mineral buildup, and vinegar rinses, which help you not get as much buildup. I don't think it will permanently hurt your hair though. If you're coming from somewhere with soft water it make take some time and experiment to adjust your routine though.

[sumidha]

Heeey, I have this kind of water as well! ...See my pun there? :D

We have a ton of iron and sulfur in our water, and I've often wondered if it still qualifies as "hard" water or is something else. Traditional hard water has a lot of calcium and magnesium in it, which causes the whitish gunk build up you see on teakettles and such. Like you, we get reddish orange build up instead. Just to be on the safe side, I do citric acid rinses, since my hair likes them anyways. I'd love to hear what some of the science-y types have to say on the matter though, because I've often wondered if you'd get the same kind of build up from iron and sulfur. I do swear my hair has gotten more reddish since I've moved up here, but that might be in my head, lol.

[Arctic]

Yes it can hurt your hair, rust means iron = metal which will need chelating.

Here's a link that makes few points about iron and other minerals : https://www.malibuc.com/content/Cn_Hiding_In_The_Water_Effects.aspx (it's a chelating shampoo manufacture's page, so they have an interest to get you to buy their products, just to be aware.) I believe vinerar doesn't work on iron, but citric or ascorbic acid would. Don't quote me though. Your best friend would be a proper chelating shampoo, I recommend Redken Hair Cleansing Cream shampoo, the Malibu shampoos aren't bad either from what I've read. You might need to look into trying to minimise the iron/mineral water contact with your hair as a longer term solution.

[renia22]

My well water gets rusty and my hair feels nasty if the filter needs to be changed. I've tried all of them, and my favorite clarifying and chelating shampoo is Paul Mitchell shampoo 3. Also I really like this stuff called Beautiful Nutrition Clarifying lemon rinse. Citric acid is cheaper, but doesn't make my hair as nice as this stuff does. Also I've read threads on here where people have said they avoid humectants in their products with certain types of water, but I haven't experimented enough with that to see if that helps or not..a filter and using certain types of products does help, though.

[littlestarface]

Heeey, I have this kind of water as well! ...See my pun there? :D

We have a ton of iron and sulfur in our water, and I've often wondered if it still qualifies as "hard" water or is something else. Traditional hard water has a lot of calcium and magnesium in it, which causes the whitish gunk build up you see on teakettles and such. Like you, we get reddish orange build up instead. Just to be on the safe side, I do citric acid rinses, since my hair likes them anyways. I'd love to hear what some of the science-y types have to say on the matter though, because I've often wondered if you'd get the same kind of build up from iron and sulfur. I do swear my hair has gotten more reddish since I've moved up here, but that might be in my head, lol.
You live around here you need a chelator lol trust me this is why your hair is changing color, get you some chelator and some vingar or citric acid. In this town we have iron hard orange sulfur smells like rotten eggs tastes like metal water blech.