Moved states, now my hair hates me. Help?

[Cainwen]

Hi all! I'm new to LHC, though I have been lurking a while and despite all my lurking, I don't seem to be able to find a thread that answers my questions, so here goes. Sorry if I am accidentally duplicating.

I've been growing my hair out for 4 years, and have on the whole been kind to it. I almost never use heat on it (my wedding last month was an exception ), I found shampoo and conditioner that made it soft and silky, as it got longer I added some leave in conditioner and added extra strengther to the length/ends. I'd been using the same routine for about a year when I moved. About a week after living in my new local, I noticed my hair was getting duller in appearance, and felt dryer. The only things that have changed are the ambient temp (near 100s instead of 80s, but I'm inside AC almost all day), tons more sunshine, and the mineral content of the water. I tried switching to a CWC routine, which helped a little with the dryness, but not nearly enough to solve the problem.

Has anyone encountered this before? I really want my hair to get back to being nice and healthy, but I'm at a loss what to do. Thank you for any advice you can give!

[ElusiveMuse]

Apple cider vinegar rinse for your hard water, and oiling for your dryness.

[Aerin]

I've moved a lot growing up, and my hair care routine totally changes depending on the humidity and temperature and stuff. I just end up experimenting for a while to find out what works again. Sorry, not much help otherwise.

[Anje]

Almost certainly blame the water. It's probably harder than at your old location. Diluted vinegar rinses are good for dealing with that, as are water softeners and shower filters.

All the same, you probably should make sure you don't totally bake your hair in the sun. It can eventually get UV damage, and that's cumulative for the life of the exposed hair.

[FluffSpider]

I have oily skin, and when I went to sit my CPE in a town 150 kms from my own, I had to apply a thick layer of body butter-the harsh water dried it up really really bad, despire it being the same-ish region.
Perhaps buy some chelating shampoo to use at times? Also, as someone mentioned before, ACV helps with hard water. Try investing in some hair sunscreen-I hear henna is the best hair sunscreen one can find-perhaps cassia has the same effect without the colour change?

[MeganE]

If you've been showering with hard water for a while, you might also need to chelate to remove mineral build-up from you hair. Look for shampoos with EDTA in the ingredients. I've been using Paul Mitchel's shampoo for swimmers, called Shampoo Three. But there's lots of other brands.

I have hard water too, and I always follow my vinegar rinses with distilled water rinses. Definitely has improved the condition of my hair quite a lot!

[Cainwen]

Thanks for the advice. How often should one use ACV rinses? Unfortunately I'm in an apartment on a tight budget, so water filters are out for the time being. I wasn't expecting the hard water to be a problem (until it was), since the water I had before was pretty hard, but it does taste different here, so obviously the minerals are different.

Look for shampoos with EDTA in the ingredients.

The shampoo I have (Pantene Smooth Vitality) has disodium EDTA in it. Should that be enough, or should I find one that is more intentional about chemical removal?

Is there any specific type of oil? I know coconut oil and EVOO get mentioned around here alot. One of the leave in conditioners I use is already coconut oil based. Would it be ok to use more coconut oil, or other oils that might work better/should be avoided?

All the same, you probably should make sure you don't totally bake your hair in the sun.

I dont spend a lot of time in the sun (Scots-Irish skin= burn on contact ), but just walking to get the mail, running errands in a couple days is about equal to all the sun I saw last year.

I've never heard of hair sunscreens before. How do they work?

[Anje]

You could to vinegar rinses every wash. Just dilute them a lot (so the final mix is maybe 5%-10% vinegar). I tend to opt for white vinegar because I'm cheap. Experiment with it.

I'm guessing the EDTA in your current shampoo isn't sufficient to deal with the minerals in your water, since your hair is currently unhappy. What might be a good alternative is to get a swimmer's shampoo or a chelating shampoo for occasional use when your hair starts getting weird.

Oils... The one to use is ultimately the one that works best for you. In general, you'll want to go with something edible, though, so get it from the oils section at the market, not mixed in with hair products. EVOO and Coconut are favorites because they've actually been shown scientifically to penetrate hair fully, and coconut is known to reduce protein loss. Both have also been used on hair for centuries. Avocado is another one that's known to soak in and is gaining popularity.

If you want to use oil as a leave-in, start with a tiny dab (seriously, like a single drop or fingernail scraping if your coconut oil is solid) rubbed between the hands, then run your hands over the length of your hair. Less is more, and overdoing it will leave you with an oily mess. "Heavy oiling" (aka making an oily mess) is best reserved for the period between coming home and washing your hair.

[faithsdaisy421]

I have terribly hard water. ACV rinses help SO MUCH! I do a rinse and then use cool distilled water for one final rinse.

[Merewen]

I had this problem when I moved to where I am now. I think it's the water. I moved from a place with pretty hard water to a place with REALLY hard water.

All I can say is experiment. I went from CO to CWC when I moved because all of a sudden, my hair would NOT be clean. I see a few good suggestions here too.

I know "experiment" is pretty vague, but I know I found myself back at square one trying to figure out what worked for my hair after I moved.