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holysparkle
October 27th, 2018, 11:05 AM
Hello ladies! I am new here and would deeply appreciate some advice for my hair troubles. I want to start to take better care of my hair like the ladies on this forum.... but as I'm sure most newbies say, theres a ton of information and it can be hard to know where to begin. I really need a hair care prescription from someone who is knowledgable about this stuff! If anyone can give me a good idea of where to begin, or even tell me which thread to hunt for, I would be so grateful!!

thank you,
Chelsea

Here's the basic facts:

- I life on a farm in Fl and have smelly well water
- my hair is fine but I have a lot of it (or at least I used to)
- tends to be oily at the roots and dry on the ends
- my hair is breaking off near the roots, which could be from the well water
- the women in my family have thyroid issues
- I tend to be interested in "natural" solutions but with my well water I'm not sure what will work best
- my hair is shoulder length but I would like to grow it out
- I have dark hair. I did salon highlights this past year for the first time ever, which was fun for like a month, but now I regret

lapushka
October 27th, 2018, 12:41 PM
- I life on a farm in Fl and have smelly well water
- my hair is fine but I have a lot of it (or at least I used to)
- tends to be oily at the roots and dry on the ends
- my hair is breaking off near the roots, which could be from the well water
- the women in my family have thyroid issues
- I tend to be interested in "natural" solutions but with my well water I'm not sure what will work best
- my hair is shoulder length but I would like to grow it out
- I have dark hair. I did salon highlights this past year for the first time ever, which was fun for like a month, but now I regret

First of all, welcome here!

Second, can you do something about the water - at all? In case you can't I would buy a tub of demineralized water from the store and try and wash the hair with that. Heat it up a tiny bit (lukewarm). I would not use it cold, because then you run the chance of your products not rinsing out properly.

I would get your thyroid tested asap; a simple blood test should give you lots of answers on that. I fear that your hair breaking off is not just from well water.

Good luck!

MusicalSpoons
October 27th, 2018, 12:57 PM
A simple thing to try is an acidic rinse to chelate the minerals, although it doesn't work universally (some of the less-commonly found minerals don't react with the acid, though I can't remember which ones) or use a swimmer's shampoo designed to chelate followed by a deep conditioning because they can be quite drying.

Do you know the pH of your water? People with more alkaline water can see huge improvements with acidic rinses (for pH, even if it doesn't chelate) and if it did make a difference you can use miracle water for washing or rinsing. Science-y Hair Blog has some great info here: http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2016/03/hard-water-and-your-hair.html :)

ETA the water could very possibly be making any inherent dryness of your ends much worse - if you can find a remedy or improvement for your water, then you'll know what you're actually dealing with for trying to find a good routine for your hair :)

holysparkle
October 27th, 2018, 01:39 PM
First of all, welcome here!

Second, can you do something about the water - at all? In case you can't I would buy a tub of demineralized water from the store and try and wash the hair with that. Heat it up a tiny bit (lukewarm). I would not use it cold, because then you run the chance of your products not rinsing out properly.

I would get your thyroid tested asap; a simple blood test should give you lots of answers on that. I fear that your hair breaking off is not just from well water.

Good luck!

I'm new to using these kind of forums so hopefully I am replying properly! We really DO need a water softener, its just around $1000 to do around here and its not in the budget quite yet. I was considering doing the water jug thing but I didn't know if that was a bit cuckoo- I'm glad I'm not the only person who thought of that!

Thank you for the help!

holysparkle
October 27th, 2018, 01:48 PM
Thank you for the ideas! I do not know the pH but its an excellent idea to find out!

lapushka
October 27th, 2018, 01:56 PM
We have really hard water here, and my hair isn't breaking off at the roots, never has.

I really urge you to go see the doctor, and get that thyroid tested because of the history in your family. Hair just doesn't break off like that just from a different water. :flower: Please go as soon as you can!

MusicalSpoons
October 27th, 2018, 02:22 PM
We have really hard water here, and my hair isn't breaking off at the roots, never has.

I really urge you to go see the doctor, and get that thyroid tested because of the history in your family. Hair just doesn't break off like that just from a different water. :flower: Please go as soon as you can!

I agree, with a history of thyroid issues it's definitely worth getting that checked! However there can be a huge difference between very hard water and well water. It's not just the magnesium and calcium, there can be a whole slew of other minerals in there, including metals such as copper and iron. OP said it's smelly, which indicates for sure there's other stuff going on, and pH can make a huge difference too. Oily at the roots doesn't fit with typical thyroid issues - it certainly could be a factor and going to get it checked is always worthwhile, just it's unlikely to be the sole reason as OP is dealing with well water, not just plain hard water.

(Plus the water quality in European countries, as far as I know, seems to be pretty good. It seems in the US people have more issues with it, for whatever reason - whether the regulations are less strict, or it's just not possible to treat all the water people have to use, I don't know. But the first I ever heard of people having orange or green mineral deposits from their water was when I joined here, and only from members on the US or Canada. Even my searching online for different things about water quality, water hardness, etc., I've yet to read such water problems from anyone living in Europe :shrug: )

lapushka
October 27th, 2018, 02:35 PM
(Plus the water quality in European countries, as far as I know, seems to be pretty good. It seems in the US people have more issues with it, for whatever reason - whether the regulations are less strict, or it's just not possible to treat all the water people have to use, I don't know. But the first I ever heard of people having orange or green mineral deposits from their water was when I joined here, and only from members on the US or Canada. Even my searching online for different things about water quality, water hardness, etc., I've yet to read such water problems from anyone living in Europe :shrug: )

Yes I have never even heard of such bad issues with water than the info coming from the US on here.

We have calcium deposit from our hard water, but that's it.

Joules
October 27th, 2018, 02:47 PM
About chelating shampoos: you don't even need to use swimmer's shampoo, shampoos that say "clarifying for oily hair" tend to be right enough for this job. Pantene Aqua Light for example is great, it has citric acid high in the ingredients list. But yeah, I'd suggest doing something about the water itself, it's bad for everything, not just hair.

sumidha
October 28th, 2018, 12:06 AM
First off, if possible I'd get any potential thyroid issues ruled out by a doctor, since that could have more far reaching health effects than just messing with your hair...

Breakage near the roots is more likely to be caused by thyroid issues or really gnarly bleaching for highlights than by hard water, I think.

Dry, tangly ends can definitely be caused by hard water.

It might be worth it to try and get info on what exactly is in your well water, most likely at some point someone tested the water to verify whether it was safe to drink or not, and that would include a list of the minerals in it. I have really bad well water also, it's hard but also has iron and other things in it (leaves red stains on everything) and considering I already haul in drinking water from the store so the idea of bringing in yet more water just to wash my hair in sounds like an impractical pain in the butt- instead I use normal shampoo and conditioner and then at the last an acidic rinse. I use a very small pinch of citric acid in a big cup of water, dunk my ends in, and then pour the rest over my scalp. If you want to try an acidic rinse you can start with vinegar from your cupboard, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar in around four cups of water, saturate your hair and let it sit for a few minutes, and see if that makes a difference. That way you don't have to go out and buy new products and mess with your routine, just add the rinse at the end.

The TL: DR version: getting your thyroid checked and looking into acidic rinses would be a good place to start. :)

TatsuOni
October 28th, 2018, 11:40 AM
Welcome! :) Nightblooming has a product for chelating, that people seem to like https://www.etsy.com/se-en/listing/600148378/alluvial-chelating-crystal-rinse-10?ref=shop_home_active_2&bes=1 I'd like to try it some day my self, but until that, acid rinses work good enough :)