This water could ruin your hair, experts warn

Hard water is not about its temperature or feel, but about the amount of minerals dissolved in it. If the water flowing from the tap is high in calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, lime, or sodium, it is considered hard. You will hardly notice the difference in taste, but your hair and skin will react quickly. Your curls will start to look limp, dull, brittle, and the root volume will disappear, even if you have just done styling.

Ukr.Media writes about it.

To understand how this effect works, remember what happens after swimming in the sea. When salt remains on your hair and it dries naturally, the strands become hard, dry, and "crispy". Hard water acts in a similar way, only more insidiously — minerals settle imperceptibly after each wash. Over time, they accumulate in the hair and on the scalp, and then new problems appear:

• the color fades or changes, especially after dyeing;
• the scalp becomes dry, flaky, and irritated;
• hair starts to split more quickly;
• styles hold less well because the strands lose elasticity.

How to understand that you have hard water

Test strips are a quick and accurate way to do this. Dip the strip in a glass of water, wait a minute, and compare the color with the chart on the package. Also, pay attention to visible traces — if a white or yellowish coating appears on taps, tiles, or glasses after the water dries, that's a bad sign.

If the shampoo doesn't lather well and the conditioner doesn't give the desired softness, the reason may also be in the water. The condition of our hair suffers the most from bad water — it quickly tangles, becomes dry to the touch, and is difficult to comb.

Who is at risk?

In fact, hard water is bad for everyone, but porous, curly, colored, and chemically treated hair suffers the most. It absorbs minerals faster and breaks down from the inside.

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