Hard water waxiness - how to get rid of it

[rosenester]

For what it's worth, some people do just fine in hard water. I am one of those unlucky ones where no amount of hard water shampoo or acid rinses would help. Citric acid for the rinse out came the closest but it still wasn't enough. My hair kept breaking off, scalp and face continually broke out. I eventually bought a Showerstick water softener and it helped immensely. It's somewhat expensive but if all else fails, it is a good last resort.

Thanks! The rent is very affordable, so I may be willing to get a softener if necessary. I’ll be waiting the first 2 washes to see how it goes before changing my routine. I experimented for an entire year to find shampoo and conditioner bars that worked for me, and stocked up on them… I really just want to be able to keep using them & my bleach damage is finally under control and my hair isn’t breaking off from that anymore so trying to avoid unnecessary damage

[Nox_Inber]

Thanks! The rent is very affordable, so I may be willing to get a softener if necessary. I’ll be waiting the first 2 washes to see how it goes before changing my routine. I experimented for an entire year to find shampoo and conditioner bars that worked for me, and stocked up on them… I really just want to be able to keep using them & my bleach damage is finally under control and my hair isn’t breaking off from that anymore so trying to avoid unnecessary damage

https://watersticks.com/product/showerstick/
There's the link if you need it It says on sale but I think it's one of those infinitely on sale items, I paid around $270 with tax and shipping I believe. Certainly not over $300 and that was probably a year ago! I never tried shampoo bars again once I got the softener but my normal routine started working (as compared to my boyfriend's house with phenomenally soft water) so I'm pretty sure shampoo bars will work well with that too

[Desdemona]

Hi there, it's me, Desdemona, the originator of Miracle Water. I came back to see if anyone was still using it and wanted to clear up a few things that have come up in the thread as to the original intent of Miracle Water. Some of you have successfully changed the recipe and adapted it for your own use which is awesome, though!

First of all, the very small amount of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid, not food-based Vitamin C like Acerola) is not to soften water, it is there to deactivate chlorine or chloramines, both of which were big problems in the water where I lived at the time. There is no reason to increase the amount of Vitamin C in the recipe and doing so could damage your hair. If you don't have chlorine/chloramine in your water, skip the Vitamin C.

It is the Citric Acid in the recipe that softens water. It is not strong enough to remove existing hard water build-up in the hair by itself. It is not supposed to be an "acid rinse" even though it is acidic. It's for wetting and rinsing the hair. I don't recommend increasing the amount of Citric Acid either.

Miracle Water is fine to use with things that remove minerals, such as chelating shampoos. Really, it's just a way to get your water softer and remove the chlorine, that's it.

I take little containers of Vitamin C and citric acid with me when we travel. It has worked in all locales which is not a scientific study but I haven't seen any reason to change the recipe. There could be places in the world that have water so hard that it just won't work as designed.

Hope you are all doing well, I do see a few remaining familiar heads of gorgeous hair here!

[Sea_Otter spins]

White vinegar rinses helped me when I stayed in a hard water area. I did use shampoo in addition, however.

Same here. I did one weekly when I lived in a house that had a well and hard water.

[KapoorAradhana]

Once I relocated to the new city and the water was hard. Soon My hair started falling and due to the hardness I was a very dry scalp and it started causing dandruff. So what I did do to fight this situation?


I started washing my hair weekly two times by drinking filtered water and I find some homemade remedies fir dandruff and hair thinning. These two things helped me a lot.
Hope it will help in your concern as well.

[SnailFarts]

Hi there, it's me, Desdemona, the originator of Miracle Water.

Hello! It's nice to "meet" the inventor of such a famous recipe! I was wondering what you think about people doing diluted vinegar rinses instead of miracle water. Does vinegar even do anything against hard water? And how does citric acid counteract hard water?

Thanks!

[Desdemona]

Hello! It's nice to "meet" the inventor of such a famous recipe! I was wondering what you think about people doing diluted vinegar rinses instead of miracle water. Does vinegar even do anything against hard water? And how does citric acid counteract hard water?

Thanks!

Hi there, sorry I haven't been back here for a while and didn't see your question, I hope you see the answer! I have never had any luck with vinegar rinses, they irritated my scalp which made it produce excess oil. The acid in vinegar, acetic acid, is chemically different from citric acid so even though they are both acids and chelate minerals they work differently. From what I read, citric acid is a lot less corrosive than vinegar. It's used to descale coffee and washing machines and is recommended for hair. Here is an article that compares the two, not specific to hair though: https://thegreenboutique.co.uk/blogs...cid-vs-vinegar.

[spidermom]

My hair has responded favorably to diluted white vinegar rinses, but I usually forget to do them.

[stardust lady]

Hi there, sorry I haven't been back here for a while and didn't see your question, I hope you see the answer! I have never had any luck with vinegar rinses, they irritated my scalp which made it produce excess oil. The acid in vinegar, acetic acid, is chemically different from citric acid so even though they are both acids and chelate minerals they work differently. From what I read, citric acid is a lot less corrosive than vinegar. It's used to descale coffee and washing machines and is recommended for hair. Here is an article that compares the two, not specific to hair though: https://thegreenboutique.co.uk/blogs...cid-vs-vinegar.

This is so interesting. Anecdotally I had better luck with citric acid rinses but I never understood why. I kind of forgot about citric acid and tried vinegar rinsing in recent years but it didn't seem to do as much (and also smelled bad), so I stopped all acid rinses. Unfortunately since I have hard water (280ppm) I've noticed a lot of stiffness and had to begin using hard water shampoos that don't agree with my hair and scalp. Perhaps I'll try citric acid again.

I did a bit of Googling regarding the differences between citric acid and acetic acid and found that citric acid has three carboxylic acid groups, whereas acetic acid only has one carboxylic acid group. For reference, EDTA apparently has four carboxylate groups, and that is the ingredient that I often see used in hard water shampoos. I'm not sure what the difference between "carboxylic acid groups" and "carboxylate groups" is though. Perhaps someone with more chemistry understanding can explain.

[foreveryours]

It's all the state of ionization. EDTA has 4 carboxyllic acid groups each able to lose a proton becoming a carboxylate group. The state of ionization depends upon the pH. The 4 pka values of EDTA are 0, 1.5, 2.2 and 2.7 so at neutral pH they are all ionized (i.e. -ate groups) and are able to provide a lone electron pair to participate in the chelation of a metal ion