Hard water, yikes!

[Rivanariko]

I just relocated to North Dakota, so I'm working on adjusting to the different culture and climate in general, but the water here is SO much harder than where I'm from! I did my usual WO rinse (I usually CWC once a week and then do 2-3 WO rinses in between to stay "fresh) when I got here and it felt like someone had spilled glue in my hair when it dried. It's easier to manage when I make sure I CWC whenever I get it wet, but it feels so much rougher and is splitting like crazy. I have a Brita filter in my fridge, but even after it's filtered the water still tastes hard. Besides getting a shower head filter (which I'm working on) is there anything that anyone can recommend for dealing with hard water? My hair is very fine and about 1a/b. It likes cones and catnip tea, and is virgin of any sort of dye. In the past I used to use heat 2-3 times a year for special occasions, but haven't in the last year since I joined LHC.

TIA! :cheese:

[pinklemonade]

I would really like to any other solutions too! I heard about AVC rinses (?). My hair feels rough and I can't explain why I have so many splits, it seriously could be the hard water. Have you tried doing a final rinse in distilled water?

[Anje]

Vinegar rinses are good for helping to prevent buildup on your hair, but can be a bit drying for some folks. Usually a drop or two of conditioner in the cup with the vinegar and water can help combat that.

Straight vinegar's also really good for getting soap scum out of the shower. If you really want to deal with the hard water, though, get a water softener. Your pipes and hot water heater will thank you.

[teela1978]

Kinda depends on your hair. Vinegar rinses help mine (a glurg of vinegar in a large cup of water). They seem to help solubilize the minerals a bit and get them off the hair. ALS shampoos also seem to do a good job of getting my hair to rinse clean (compared to other sulfates and non-sulfate shampoo). Hair is definitely easier to deal with in water that isn't as hard :)

[Rivanariko]

hm, I tried ACV when I was experimenting with WO, and it didn't seem to make a difference at the time. Maybe I'll give it another try now and see if it can cut the water-related grime. Thanks :)

[teela1978]

Straight vinegar's also really good for getting soap scum out of the shower. If you really want to deal with the hard water, though, get a water softener. Your pipes and hot water heater will thank you.

Seriously. Vinegar is amazing at getting rid of hard water buildup. I was renting a place with a black toilet and black sink for a while. When I moved in the toilet had an impermeable white ring at the water line (scrubbing with cleansers did nothing). The sink was a mess of white spots too. A good dousing of vinegar left overnight dissolved it all away. My housemate who had lived there for years was amazed.

[Tabihito]

Well you can buy a water softener, but they're not cheap at all. Other than that, there aren't many options to deal with the water itself, so you're best off altering how you take care of your hair (and household appliances!). As others have mentioned, vinegar is quite good at dealing with the deposits left by hard water, and as an added benefit, ACV doesn't smell half bad, either. Or at least I don't think it does, others might disagree.

[Rivanariko]

Seriously. Vinegar is amazing at getting rid of hard water buildup. I was renting a place with a black toilet and black sink for a while. When I moved in the toilet had an impermeable white ring at the water line (scrubbing with cleansers did nothing). The sink was a mess of white spots too. A good dousing of vinegar left overnight dissolved it all away. My housemate who had lived there for years was amazed.
Off topic... but do you ever use vinegar for doing dishes? The spots on my silverware are driving me CRAZY. I'm not normally an obsessively clean person, but I like my dishes to look clean when I finish washing them! The glasses are all foggy and spotty, as is anything metal and shiny. It's driving me crazy. I'm now wondering what vinegar could do for them...

[Rivanariko]

Well you can buy a water softener, but they're not cheap at all. Other than that, there aren't many options to deal with the water itself, so you're best off altering how you take care of your hair (and household appliances!). As others have mentioned, vinegar is quite good at dealing with the deposits left by hard water, and as an added benefit, ACV doesn't smell half bad, either. Or at least I don't think it does, others might disagree.
That's mostly what I'm looking for, are ways that I can tweak my routine to handle the hard water. Thanks for the tips!

[HikerTrash]

I've recently started trying the ACV. I have really super hard water and 1b hair. The ACV makes my hair feel slippery, not rough like the water will leave it. I get no tangle at all after I use it. I have to make sure I don't rinse it too much. I can't say it gives me much shine, though. I tried the ACV and then conditioner after that and was pretty happy with the results, too.

[teela1978]

Off topic... but do you ever use vinegar for doing dishes? The spots on my silverware are driving me CRAZY. I'm not normally an obsessively clean person, but I like my dishes to look clean when I finish washing them! The glasses are all foggy and spotty, as is anything metal and shiny. It's driving me crazy. I'm now wondering what vinegar could do for them...
I never have... but I'm sure a dilute vinegar rinse couldn't hurt.

[BombaySapphire]

I had to google it to find out what ACV rinse was, but that looks like a really good idea. I am dealing with hard water problems too.

Did anyone notice a difference in their hair color after using hard water after a while and ACV rinses?

[Fiferstone]

I'm going to chime in and say that ACV rinses work immensely well for me. I'm a finey with water so hard it kills hot water heaters within their stated warranty period. Sears hates me. Just experiment with the dilution until you find the weakest solution that still does the job. Good luck.

[irisheyes]

I have hard water too, and as I explained in another post, I didn't know what was wrong with my hair until I found LHC. I cope by using Suave clarifying shampoo every 6 weeks. In between, I follow my usual shampoo and conditioner with a 32 oz. rinse of filtered water from the filter on my kitchen sink. Now that its summer, I discovered Ion swimmers shampoo at Sally's Beauty Supply. It takes off the minerals and is sulfate free.

[missfortune9335]

I know I've read in another post here somewhere, that a member with hard water bought a special shower head with a filter in it. I think they said the shower head wasn't that spendy and they replace the filter every month or so, also I know malibu wellness makes hair products specifically designed for people with hard water

[Rivanariko]

The house that we're hoping to move into next month has lots of filter systems in it, and we're looking into getting a shower head with a filter in general. Thanks! I'll also have to see if I can find a Sally's around here, the swimmers shampoo sounds like it would probably do the trick.

[Marjolein]

I just moved out of a hard water area. I did white vinegar rinses every other day there for over a year, and my hair's still intact :)

[kristymarie87]

Can anyone explain how the ACV/vinegar rinses work? I have hard water but i also have coloued hair...would it strip the colour?

[Marjolein]

Not sure about regular dye, but my henna hasn't budged a bit. What I did was: Take an old 1 1/2 litre cola bottle and squirt some vinegar in it. Add water and shake. Then turn bottle upside down over head and rinse.

[Beatrice]

I'm moving to a new city, and my roommates asked if I could bring along a filter pitcher, so I did some research. Turns out they have hard water in my new town.

But guess what other city has hard water? Yes, I've lived my whole life in one of the worst cities for this problem. They always teased me for making faces when I took a drink, but I knew something wasn't right about that taste. Now I wonder what my hair would be like if I weren't drenching it in minerals a few times every week.

[ohiofritty]

I was talking to a friend of mine here, and he said that a good alternative to buying a water softener is to rent one! Apparently they have one in their home that costs them 13 a month...that gets you an industrial strength softener and maintenance and installation...and if it turns out hard water wasn't really as much of an issue as you thought it was, hey, you didn't waste a whole lot of money. I was thinking about going that route, but haven't investigated more yet.

[Ivy~Rose]

Off topic... but do you ever use vinegar for doing dishes? The spots on my silverware are driving me CRAZY. I'm not normally an obsessively clean person, but I like my dishes to look clean when I finish washing them! The glasses are all foggy and spotty, as is anything metal and shiny. It's driving me crazy. I'm now wondering what vinegar could do for them...

We have hard water here... If we leave water in a glass overnight, there's a sandy residue that I can't scrub off with hot water, soap, or any kind of scrubbing. So I pour white vinegar in the cup up past the sandy point, let it sit 5 min, and I come back and it's perfectly smooth :cheese: Haven't gotten the motivation to do that with my hair, but I'd expect the same results.

[Rivanariko]

We have hard water here... If we leave water in a glass overnight, there's a sandy residue that I can't scrub off with hot water, soap, or any kind of scrubbing. So I pour white vinegar in the cup up past the sandy point, let it sit 5 min, and I come back and it's perfectly smooth :cheese: Haven't gotten the motivation to do that with my hair, but I'd expect the same results.
Awesome! Vinegar is amazing.

ACV rinses seem to be helping so far. My hair still isn't nearly as happy as it was back in Portland, but I think I'll be able to figure something out.

[heidi1990]

you could get a shower head filter