After receiving a text from a friend who just moved to Galway permanently, it made me think of how unaware we are of the affects our water in different areas affects our hair and so it has prompted me to write this 💕

Have you ever wondered how hard water affects our hair? 💕

So let’s break it down..
Hard water is water that has been passed through deposits of limestone and chalk. These are largely made up of calcium, Lime and magnesium. While this is not harmful to have these minerals in our drinking water, in fact they are beneficial. They do cause problems with our hair and skin. Especially when chlorine is added to our water. Which is necessary to protect public health by killing bacteria in our drinking water. Our water then passes through copper pipes adding copper to the mix. When we mix the above minerals with chlorine they bond together to form a film that stick to the proteins in each strand of a Hair. Causing a greenish tinge(in some cases) and also dry and brittleness.

How do I know I have hard water?
Your hair feels dry and brittle and tangled very easily. In some cases if you have blonde, chemically lightened, Grey or white hair it can have a green hue.

Does it affect all hair colours?
Yes it does but only people with lighter bases will see the greenish hue. The green hue is often only noticed by a trained eye or in certain lighting. Because this process happens so gradually the client often doesn’t notice the discolouration for quite some time.

How to prevent or this from happening?
Some people try to wash there hair less or install a water filter. I’ve also had clients wash there hair in bottled or rain water in extreme cases. But thankfully there is amazing products available now that have eliminated a lot of this. Belle hair also provide a lime scale remover service where we gently remove the lime scale residue from the hair, tone your hair to restore the Ph balance and use a in salon treatment to restore condition.

What’s products help?
The number one Necessity is a good cleansing shampoo we highly recommend the Eleven Australia Deep Clean Shampoo. This will remove any unwanted build up of minerals and deposits on the hair and scalp. While this shampoo will leave you hair feeling fresh and hydrated we also recommend only using it once/twice a week. I would also recommend Olaplex no4 shampoo, conditioner and no 6 Bond Smoother as a added leave in. The Belle Brush will also make a massive difference to your hair for detangling and blow drying causing less damage to already brittle hair.

If you have just moved to a hard water area or are finding your hair hard to manage due to condition, please don’t be afraid to pop in for a chat with our friendly helpful team. A problem shared, is a problem halved!