Hard water or soft water?

[Luna12345]

Which is better for hair and skin, Hard water or soft water?
So I did a little at home expirement and I think I have soft water. Does anyone know which is better for skin and hair if either one is?:)
Just curious.

Is soft water and distilled water the same?

[Luna12345]

I read that if water has less than 160-ppm it's considered soft water and if it has over 160-ppm it's considered hard water.
So I definately have soft water since in montreal it's 116-ppm.
I use to live in Regina, saskatchewan and according to wikipedia the water has 202-ppm. When i lived there i had severly dry skin which was itchy!....maybe that had to do with the water, I had no idea!

[christine1989]

Its a general consensus that soft water is better because it has fewer minerals hence, less buildup and for chemical color folks, less discoloration and fading. I know that where I live the water is soft but I'm not sure about Montreal. According to google it looks like most of Montreal has the softest type of water :).

[PraiseCheeses]

Wow. I just looked up some information about Boston water (http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/04water/html/qual4concerns.htm)...

Hardness is 16 mg per liter (1 ppm = 1 mg per liter) so VERY soft water. As I thought. Yay!

However, farther down the page (I'm a sucker for data, so I kept reading):


What is the pH of MWRA drinking water?

MWRA treats its drinking water so that it has a pH of approximately 9.3, a slightly alkaline measurement. This pH level helps prevent water from picking up any metal particles that might be in your household plumbing.

Untreated, "raw" water in MWRA's Quabbin Reservoir has a pH of approximately 6.8, close to neutral.

pH measures the amount of hydrogen ion activity in a substance. The pH scale is relative and runs from 0 to 14. 0 is the lowest, and most acidic, pH level. 7 is neutral. 14 is the highest, and most alkaline, pH level.


A pH of approximately 9.3??? "Slightly" alkaline?? Holy carp.

Guess I'm not washing out my acid rinses anymore.

(Apologies for the slight hijack, but I'm shocked!)

[Luna12345]

Wow, that is shocking!

[krissykins]

Bahaha. Utah = hard water. Especially the Greater Salt Lake City area.

My hair never had a chance. Now, where is that chelating shampoo?

[Taur5684]

I read somewhere that hard water was better for hair, but that didn't make any sense to me so I'm not sure if it's true or not. I know that after a couple hard-water showers my hair starts to misbehave and just generally feel gross. But that's what water softeners are for! :-D

Since we're more-or-less on the subject: people that always wash with hard water - what do you do to off-set the build-up and just generally keep hair clean? Do you have to use certain shampoos or does your hair just get used to it after a while? I ask because this summer I'll be spending a lot of time in a place where I will have no access to soft water so I want to prepare myself! lol

[Luna12345]

I read somewhere that hard water was better for hair, but that didn't make any sense to me so I'm not sure if it's true or not. I know that after a couple hard-water showers my hair starts to misbehave and just generally feel gross. But that's what water softeners are for! :-D

Since we're more-or-less on the subject: people that always wash with hard water - what do you do to off-set the build-up and just generally keep hair clean? Do you have to use certain shampoos or does your hair just get used to it after a while? I ask because this summer I'll be spending a lot of time in a place where I will have no access to soft water so I want to prepare myself! lol

Well in my experience, I used to live in Regina and had hard water, My hair was almost always healthy there but my skin was terribly dry and itchy.
Now I have soft water and actually feel like I have more trouble with my hair but not as much with my skin.....I don't know:confused: I'm so confused now....which is better...lol
but if you're going to be using hard water, I'd say always have a good moisturizer!

[sakuraemily]

Soft water is good for hair. Hard water can coat the hair making it less shiny than it should be, though it is not always noticeable.

[lingxi]

The water seems to differ over parts of Oz, but down here in Melbourne the water is very soft with very low amounts of calcium and magnesium salts. Hence it is very gentle on our hair and skin in general and lets all the products lather up nicely :)