Do any of you wash with bottled/non hard water?

**Thumper** · November 24th, 2011, 03:39 PM

We are on a well, and we treat the water so our water has a high deposit of chlorine in it. Today when I went for my usual color and trim she noted that my hair has allot more breakage on it. *sigh* We have several bottles from when we used to purchase spring water, and my husband takes them to work and fills them up with the city tap water so we don't pay for it. I want to start washing with this so I'm looking for suggestions on how to do this. Do I just get a jug and constantly pour it over my head? I can't picture being able to rinse it very well doing this? Does anyone else do this?

Thanks!

**MJheals** · November 24th, 2011, 03:59 PM

I feel you here, I'm on well water too, and it's the hardest water I've ever encountered! It's possible your breakage is from a mineral buildup on your hair, do you do any kind of acidic rinses or chelation?
I only use water treated with lemon juice to wash my hair (in gallon jugs) and I've noticed a huge improvement in how my hair looks and feels. Lemon juice is acidic and it chelates the minerals in my well water (I add about 1 TBSP to each gallon jug). I only need two gallons to COwash (I wash with conditioner, and then I use another heavier condish on the ends, so I'm wetting/rinsing my hair three times) and it works just fine for me. It does take some getting used to, and learning to handle the gallon jugs takes a few tries, but it's worth it!

I don't know how lemon juice affects chlorine, though. If you fill your bottles with well water and let them sit uncovered for 24hrs the chlorine will evaporate out.

HTH

**WaterMusic** · November 24th, 2011, 04:31 PM

The way that I used to clean my paintbrushes when I worked as a painter was designed to use a minimum amount of water, so this might help. Use three containers, just enough to fully submerge your hair in. One is the dirty water, one is the medium, and one should stay clean. Use the dirty one to get your hair wet. Then add whatever you wash your hair with (shampoo, conditioner, herbs, whatever), and go about your usual routine. When it comes time to rinse, dunk your hair into the dirty water and swish around until you think it isn't possible to remove any more shampoo or conditioner with that water (this will take longer than you think). You may also want to pour the water over your hair with a cup. Then do the same in the medium water. You should not go to the clean water until your hair is almost completely clean, the clean water is just for a final rinse. You should be able to re-use these containers, as long as the clean water stays clean. If the clean water gets dirty, then you aren't rinsing thoroughly enough in the first two containers.

This might not work, but it might be worth a try! Good luck.

**DoubleCrowned** · November 24th, 2011, 08:45 PM

I have had some luck by wetting my hair throughly in soft water before washing it in hard water. After it is washed, I blot the hard water out of it and then rinse it throughly with soft water. Actually, When I am short on soft water (rainwater for me), I use the three-bucket method described by WaterMusic for the rinse. In that case, the pre-wash wetting is water that is being retired from the rotation, when the clean bucket is filled with new water, and the second bucket becomes the gray water (3rd bucket).

**PaganPriestess** · November 25th, 2011, 04:06 AM

I have incredibly hard water here in Las Vegas.. I have just recently switched to shampoo bars with a vinegar rinse after. I have been using cold bottled water for the vinegar rinse. I shampoo with normal hot water in the shower, then do a final rinse with cold water in the shower, then do the vinegar rinse with the bottled water.