However, in modern cities, running tap water is almost always hard. It contains many salts, heavy metal ions, chlorine and other chemicals that are used to clean and filter the liquid.
It is these elements that affect the curls and scalp in the most destructive way. Nevertheless, even if you live in the most adverse conditions, and your region is famous for particularly hard water, you can soften it yourself at home.
You will have to do this before every shampooing so that your hair always remains alive, shining and healthy.
How to soften the water at home?
To do this, it is enough to add some simple and affordable components that can be found in any store. However, it is important to know the level of current water hardness in order to choose the right proportions.
A sure sign that minerals such as iron, magnesium, and calcium are concentrated in it is the presence of white stains from drops on the washbasin. And the more intense they are, the stronger the hardness of the water in your city, district or region. You must take all necessary measures to soften the liquid that you wash your head with. Otherwise, you risk getting serious and irreversible health problems and general condition of the hair.
Why is it so important to soften the water?
Some women prefer to wash and rinse their locks exclusively with drinking, distilled water. Others prefer to use mineral water without gas. Both are right.
By doing so, they preserve the original obedience and silkiness of their strands, without destroying their structure with heavy chemicals. However, for a certain category of the population, such methods can be expensive, energy-consuming and expensive. And people often wonder about how to soften the water for washing hair through the products at hand.
The fact is that the minerals and chemicals that are contained in it in high concentration, extremely detrimental effect on the state of hair. Accumulating in the cortex, they make the curls dry, dull and naughty.
Over time, if a woman constantly rinses her head with a tough flowing liquid, her curls lose their luster, become wire-like and visually and tactile, stop lying beautifully with any styling.
Such a state of hair justly depresses the lion’s share of the fair sex.
They begin to look for expensive cosmetic and cosmeceuticals that can restore hair and nourish it from the inside. But, alas, this is not always effective, since regular care is provided by the same hard water.
If the water in your region is especially aggressive, you should not be surprised that the curls can change their color at all. For example, it may become rusty-red or greenish-bluish, depending on the original color. This is especially true for girls with colored locks - by reacting, minerals and chemicals can change the tone.
In addition, hard water is extremely negative for the scalp. It disrupts sebum secretion in its glands, provokes the appearance of itching, dries out the epidermis, causing itching, inflammation and irritation.
How to check water hardness?
Do you have suspicions that hard water is flowing from your tap?
You can check it in three ways:
- Call the district housing office and ask a direct question about this,
- Take the liquid for analysis to the laboratory,
- See whether pale mineral solutions remain on metal shells and other objects (very hard water can be identified visually, by a turbid pale stream).
The most common problem among those who constantly wash their heads with hard water is the formation of a specific sediment on the hair. It gradually destroys the scales of the hair shaft, makes the hair porous and extremely naughty.
In this case, women are trying in vain to solve the problem by changing the shampoo, mask or conditioner, but they encounter it again and again. The procedure for demineralization of excess salts and metal ions in running water can be performed by you yourself - for this you will not need the help of a specially trained professional.
And you do not spend a lot of money on such a move. But your curls are guaranteed to be obedient and smooth, stop falling out and begin to look more healthy and shiny.
So how do you make soft water for washing your hair?
Tough Tap Water Mitigation Instructions
How to soften hard water at home?
The easiest and most affordable way is to freeze it. Just pour the running liquid into the container and place it in the freezer (or on the open balcony if it happens during the cold winter season). Wait until it hardens and turns into ice (about two centimeters on the surface of its thickness). Pour the rest of the water that did not have time to freeze. Then set the container with ice to the place where the optimum room temperature prevails. It is highly desirable that the containers are transparent and come under direct sunlight (then the melt will not only become soft, but also very useful).
This can be done by ordinary boiling. In fact, every person who does not have a home
special filtration equipment, uses this method to create drinking water from running water. True, it is not always effective in this regard. To soften the water for washing the head, it is important to boil it for one hour and then let it stand for the same period of time. The precipitate is desirable to remove.
And what can soften hard water quickly at home, when there is no time for its freezing and boiling?
Try neutralizing excess minerals with lemon juice. It is important to add only natural, freshly pressed product to the liquid (packaged juices with added sugar in this case are definitely not suitable). Do not forget to respect the proportions - you need to add one teaspoon per liter of water.
In addition to lemon juice, broths can be used to soften tap water:
- Flax seed,
- Oak bark,
- Burdock leaves,
- Chamomile flowers,
- Lemongrass Herbs
Another interesting method is the addition of vinegar to the liquid. This option will not only soften your running water, but also give your hair an unprecedented shine. Do not worry about the presence of an unpleasant smell after rinsing - it will almost instantly disappear when the curls dry out. Add vinegar per tablespoon per liter of liquid. For this purpose, it is recommended to use a quality product - for example, wine or apple, and not simple table vinegar.
Pay attention to the concentration, and in no case do not use acetic acid in its pure form - so you can mercilessly burn the hair, for the health and beauty of which you are so desperately fighting!
To neutralize slightly hard water, try to rinse your hair every time with decoction or infusion of herbs suitable for your type and structure of curls. Do not forget that the correct choice of shampoo and balsam-rinse also plays a significant role in the health, beauty and strength of your hair.
Do not skimp on quality tools, even if they turn out to be much more expensive than mass-market products.
Remember that in hair care every nuance is important, and the proverb “a fly in the ointment spoils a barrel of honey” is just right here. Let your curls glow health!
What does “hard water” mean?
Water hardness means that it contains a large amount of chemicals, chlorine, salts and heavy metals. All this adversely affects the health of the hair and scalp. Have you noticed that white stains remain from drops of water near the sink? In the kettle from the tap water there is a precipitate and a whitish bloom? This is a sure sign that the content of calcium, iron and magnesium is very high.
Do I need to soften the water?
Hard water, if you constantly wash your hair with it, can cause it to look damaged and lifeless. Even with the careful care of curls - without regular thermocoupling and without the use of styling products.
Note! Health and beauty of hair depend not only on the quality of shampoo, foam, high cost of curling, but also on ordinary water for washing the head.
In fact, the main means of washing hair - water, not shampoo. With its great rigidity, even professional hair cosmetics and vitamin intake will not give the desired effect. Only one conclusion - the water should be softened.
His Majesty Lemon
The excess of minerals in water can be partially neutralized using regular lemon. Squeeze the juice from fresh lemon. This is an important point - packaged juice from the supermarket is not suitable for our purpose.
We collect water in the tank, which we will wash our hair and wash off the shampoo. Now add lemon juice to water: 1 tsp. on 1 liter of water.
Note! Broths of some medicinal plants: camomile flowers, burdock, lemon balm, flax seeds have a lesser effect for water softening.
Hard water: boiling
This is not a difficult way to soften the water, but you should have a couple of hours left. It is necessary to boil water and continue to boil it for about an hour. The same time it will take for it to settle.
Tip! After that, the water must be poured into another container so that the precipitate formed does not get on the hair.
Freezing
This method takes some time:
1. Pour ordinary water into the tank and put them in the freezer of the refrigerator. If it is winter outside, then you can arrange freezing on the balcony.
2. Wait until the water hardens a few centimeters from the surface, forming ice.
3. Drain non-frozen water.
4. Transfer containers with frozen water to a room with room temperature.
5. After complete defrosting, the water is ready for use.
Adding vinegar to ordinary running water not only neutralizes a significant part of the minerals, but also gives the hair a shine. The peculiar smell will evaporate very quickly without a trace.
Add vinegar to the water follows from the proportion: 1 tbsp. l per liter of water. It is important not to exceed the dosage, so as not to harm the hair.
Tip!For greater effect, you can use apple or wine vinegar.
Soft water - the key to success
The word “stiffness” is always associated with a certain inconvenience, be it a hard seat or water that we use daily. Such water is not suitable for washing, and even more so for washing the hair. What is the reason? The fact is that the composition of hard water contains an increased amount of salts of calcium, iron and magnesium sulfate. It is the cations of these salts that are responsible for the rigidity.
Consider the process of shampooing in terms of chemical reactions:
- While washing the shampoo, the hardness salts react to the anions of fatty acids that form part of the cleansing agent for the hair, as a result of which poorly soluble cohesive components are formed.
- This type of sediment contributes to the clogging of the pores of the scalp, and also makes the strands coarse and inelastic.
- In addition, the frequent use of such water weakens the hair structure.
- Under the influence of the sun's rays, the harmful effect increases: the air oxidizes even more, which leads to the slow destruction of the hair cuticle.
From this it is necessary to conclude that the composition of water with hardness salts must be softened. How to soften hard water to wash your hair? The easiest way to get rid of such an additive as calcium bicarbonate - its boiling, another method - adding baking soda. Alkaline reagents, when exposed to acid salt, precipitate it, boiling destroys it completely. Proportions, here following on 1 l of water you need to pour ¼ tsp. baking soda.
Another way to help answer the question of how to soften water at home is to add edible salt (sodium tripolyphosphate). Salt is completely dissolved in water and leaves no precipitation.
A few tricks to soften the water for washing hair:
- Ammonia: 1 tsp. on 1 l of water. Ammonia softens the water, and reduces the effects of magnesium salts, which are due to which the hair becomes dull and lifeless.
- Boric acid: ½ tsp. on 1 l of water.
- Glycerin: 1 tbsp. on 1 l of water. The method is suitable for oily hair type.
- Creating an acidic environment: you can choose any acidifier - vinegar 1 tbsp. on 2 l of water, citric acid 1 tsp, fresh juice from one lemon. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes before use.
- You can also soften the water brown or prepare an infusion of nettle leaves or birch. To achieve a visible effect, rinsing the curls in this way is necessary regularly.
What water can wash your hair
Doctors trichologists often have to hear the question whether you can wash your hair with cold water. The answer is definitely negative - sudden changes in temperature affecting the hair lead to thermal shock, no matter if it is hot water or cold. If in the process of washing to reduce the water temperature by 1-2 degrees daily, but not reaching the mark below body temperature, this leads to acclimatization of the hair follicles and in this case, a decrease in temperature is not critical. You can also try out this method: the hair is washed with warm water, and washing off of hair care products is carried out with cooler water.
Our grandmothers also used rain and melt water (snow) to wash their heads. It turns out that this fluid has a biostimulating effect, which has a positive effect not only on the overall structure of the hair, but also on the scalp. It does not contain salts, minerals and various chemical impurities. Melt thaw is twice as rich in oxygen, which permeates the hair shaft and its bulb.
What water to wash your hair: ancient recipes
Let's look at the history of those times where there were no shampoos yet, and the curls were all healthy and beautiful. What did our ancestors use and how did they preserve the naturally shiny strands?
Caustic soda (lye) is an ancient recipe for beauty. This method is quite troublesome, but the result is worth it. It is necessary to collect rainwater. If you can not use distilled. Collect branches or small logs from fruit trees. It is worth remembering that lye is better to do from hardwood. There will be inappropriate use of evergreen conifers.
Branches must be burned to the formation of ash. After the ash has completely cooled down, it must be soaked in prepared water and covered with a lid. The leaching process will take place within 3 days. To check whether the solution is ready, you need to put an egg into the water and if it has sunk only a quarter, the consistency is ready for use.
This composition is stored for no more than 3 days in a glass container. It is necessary to wash the head as it is contaminated, using massage. Acidified water can be used as a conditioner.
What shampoo is better to wash your hair
Sour milk or sour milk is also ideal for cleansing curls from contamination. This is a great alternative to shampoos, which in its composition have many harmful chemical components.
Leaves are shampoo number one.The only drawback of this method is the difficulty in getting rid of bread crumbs. For easier washing off, you can add 1 tsp to the composition. burdock oil.
How to wash your hair with shampoo and how to do it correctly
It would seem that a simple daily procedure of washing the head should be performed correctly. The correct algorithm of the cleansing procedure and the use of a healthy shampoo is a guarantee of strong and healthy curls.
Washing of the head should be done as far as pollution. As numerous studies by trichologists have shown, it is the skin on the head and the strands that are most affected by pollution, which accumulate at the root system, but cannot be removed in time. The secret secreted by the sebaceous glands attracts dust and dirt, which creates a favorable environment for the reproduction of various bacteria that clog the pores of the skin, as a result of which the hair follicles do not receive the required amount of useful substances - the stable functions of the epidermal integument are disturbed, which in turn significantly slows the growth of strands.
Watch out for shampoos
It is a responsible approach to the choice of shampoo. Its composition should be as close to natural as possible. The best remedy is cooked on your own. Wash with shampoo, whether it is a self-made composition or purchased, it is necessary only at the time of contamination.
How to soften the water at home
1 The easiest and cheapest way is to boil water.
As a result of boiling all the salts will settle, and the water will become softer. Just be sure to let it cool. Hot water dries the scalp and hair, which can cause dandruff. At the same time, too cold water contributes to the narrowing of the capillaries, which adversely affects hair growth. Therefore, it is better to choose a middle ground. The optimal water temperature for washing hair is 35−45 ° C (just above body temperature).
2 Put the filter on the water
You can put the filter in the water. Now such devices are not only in the form of a tap for a set of water, but also in the form of a shower watering can in order to filter water for a shower. True, there is a minus - the filters need to be constantly changed, and it costs money.
3 Wash your head with bottled water
Also not a cheap pleasure. It wouldn't even occur to our mom and grandmothers. In the old days everything was much simpler. In the summer, they collected rainwater, which was very mild in composition. They washed their heads with melt water, which, after melting ice, changes its molecular structure and turns into a biostimulator. In winter, snow was melted (clean, of course), which does not contain impurities harmful to hair, but is saturated with oxygen, which promotes better cleansing and healing of hair. Unfortunately, in the conditions of the ecology of the city, all these methods do not work, so it remains to use bottled water.
4 Add softener to hard water
Say, 1 teaspoon of ammonia per 1 liter of water. Other options: ½ tsp of boric acid powder or ¼ tsp of soda per liter of water. If you have oily hair, you can soften the water by adding 1 tablespoon of glycerin to 1 liter of water. All funds are cheap, and easy to find.
5 Use table vinegar to rinse
It can significantly soften tap water by lowering its PH and making it closer to the PH of the hair. In addition, this method will help remove the remnants of minerals, which eventually accumulate and deposit on the hair, and a slightly acidic solution will also slightly cover the cuticle scales, making the hair structure smoother. Vinegar has a number of beneficial properties for the scalp - antibacterial and antifungal, which means that you can fight dandruff.
To prepare the solution, you need to add about 50-100 ml of table vinegar (apple, grape, etc.) per liter of water, plus a few drops of rosemary oil that is very good for your hair. You can mix by eye, strict proportions are not important here. Dip dry hair into this water so that they soak from root to tip, and then apply shampoo, balm, mask and rinse as usual. Upon completion of all procedures, once again rinse your hair with a new portion of acetic water. Do not be afraid of the smell of vinegar, it will disappear as soon as the hair is completely dry.
! Take care of your eyes, acetic water can cause severe irritation of the mucous.
6 Use folk remedies instead of shampoos and balms
Infusion of birch or nettle well washes hair. Our grandmothers also used lye (a consistency of ash infused with water). Perfectly cope with impurities of sour milk or yogurt, make hair soft and elastic.
Mask for maintaining and restoring strands
Quite often, without observing the effect of the use of masks, we increase the number of procedures, which significantly worsens the results. Masks designed to care for damaged hair should not be used more than every other day. After 10 procedures, a good effect may already be observed. The visible result is a reason to reduce the frequency of use.
The mask for the prevention of various problems with hair, it is enough to use 1 time per week.
Finishing stage: application of balm
Balm must be applied after shampooing. This tool helps to stabilize the pH of the skin, gives the curls delicate shine, makes them obedient, because active components that make up the balm are reflective elements. With the help of a balm, you can smooth out the outer layer of hair, as well as their cuticle, which begins to open when alkali in it is contained in hard water.
It is also worth recalling that the balm can be distributed over the entire length of the hair, bypassing the root zone. Leave to act for 5-10 minutes, then rinse with softened water, the recipes of which are described above.
Important actions following shampooing
Based on the type of hair is to apply a special oil for strands or thermal spray.
Here it is necessary to follow the instructions from the instructions. A small amount of oil should be applied to the fingers and spread on wet or dry hair. Too much oil will make the hair unkempt and greasy, so it is better to buy the oil with a dispenser.
It is worth remembering that the action of essential oils will be more effective if applied to wet strands.
But do not forget about the basic rule, what water to wash your hair. This factor is quite influential and all the efforts that we make to restore the hair will be in vain if we use ordinary hard water. Of course, the solution to this problem is time consuming, but there are a lot of ways available, it remains only to choose the appropriate one!
The concept of hard water. Her effect on curls
Water that contains too many minerals, especially calcium, magnesium and iron, as well as oxidizing agents, is called "hard". It is this kind of water that flows from our water taps. When boiling it, bicarbonates remain on the walls of the kettle or pans in the form of scale. The problem is especially urgent for urban dwellers, because in villages they often use melt water or spring water for bathing.
If you wash your head with "raw" water, then the metal salts settle directly on each hair as a mineral layer, disrupt the acid-base balance, load the follicles with excess ballast. All this immediately affects the hair, causing a number of serious problems:
- hair begins to fall out intensively
- become thin, dry and brittle, even if you use air conditioning,
- look dull and lifeless,
- split ends and dandruff appear
- the hair is quickly washed off the paint,
- curls are very confused.
If every time hard water is poured from the shower onto the head, then neither professional nor folk remedies will help the hair to return shine, strength and beauty. Masks, balms, conditioners and decoctions of medicinal herbs will be powerless.
What to do: advice from an experienced cosmetologist
First go through the simple and painless process of demineralization in the cabin. With its help, it will be possible to remove already formed plaque from the hair. This can be done at home with the help of a special tool that is sold in almost every professional store.
You need to get rid of the popular sulfate-free shampoo for a couple of months, as it acts too gently and does not cleanse the head enough while washing with hard water. It is better to buy sulphate shampoo and additionally conditioner to mitigate the effects of using an aggressive agent.
The main thing - to minimize the rate of hardness of water. And only after that you can go to recovery procedures that will help to return the head of hair to its former beauty.
How to turn hard water into soft water at home
Make it very easy. There are several public ways. The easiest is to boil (boil) water, which you plan to wash your hair for at least 10 minutes.
If for some reason this cannot be done, then it is worth adding natural vinegar (preferably apple) to the font at the rate of 2 tablespoons per 5 liters of water (or squeeze half a lemon for the same amount). It is clear that the purpose of these manipulations is to change the reaction of water to a more acidic one.
Paying enough attention to this issue, you will soon forget about such problems as split ends, baldness and dandruff. Your hair will once again become shiny, no longer confused and broken.
