By Audrey Sivasothy, author of The Science of Black Hair: A Comprehensive Guide to Textured Hair Care
Are you having chronic hair breakage? Your hard water could be to blame. While black hair needs water to thrive, hard water can be a total hair breakage nightmare. The very thing that we depend on to take care of our hair and fight breakage can also be the very thing that slowly destroys it. Unfortunately, hard water is a common problem. Nearly 85% of homes have hard water coming through the taps.
Hard water is water that is full of dissolved minerals and metals like calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, silica, lead, and manganese, scientists at Malibu Wellness Solutions say. But you’re thinking, ” . . . wait, minerals are good, right?”Well, yes and no. Minerals are excellent INSIDE the body as part of a healthy, well balanced diet. Inside, they are able to travel through the blood stream and nourish hair follicles for new hair cell regeneration. But minerals deposited on the exterior of the hair shaft can cause breakage and dryness problems in black hair care.
Minerals like calcium and magnesium can collect in water and bind to the hair shaft during normal washing and conditioning. Our hair naturally has a negative electrical charge, Malibu Wellness Solutions scientists say. Minerals like calcium and magnesium carry a positive charge and when they encounter hair, they attach to it. The chlorine that is often added to hard water also has negative effects on black hair. These minerals have a drying effect on the outer hair cuticle because they prevent moisture from entering the hair. The result? Hard, dry, tangly, puffy, strange-colored black hair. The deposits can also build up on the scalp and cause a dandruff-like condition to form.
The minerals in hard water also react with shampoo detergents and make them less likely to produce a big, foamy lather. Those with no-lye relaxers are also no strangers to mineral buildup on the hair shaft. Like hard water, no-lye relaxers also leave calcium deposits behind on the hair shaft which can dry out black hair if not treated promptly. Interestingly, the hard water mineral deposits left on black hair can also interfere with the success of future chemical services including relaxers and colors.
60 Responses
Shower filters cannot soften hard water. Anyone who claims and uses “magnetic”, “ionic” is using woo and pseudo science.
My wife was always complaining about her dry frizzy hair but we rent so I couldn’t buy her a whole house water softener but then i found one just for the shower and she LOVES it! It removes the hard water minerals by using ion exchange like the whole house softeners but it’s just for the shower and it’s a LOT less money and if we move we can bring it with us. Hope this helps some of you! https:www.watersticks.com
I love my ShowerStick shower water softener and can’t live without it. It removes hard water minerals and it comes with a filter to get rid of chlorine and other junk in the water. https://www.watersticks.com
I know this thread is old but I stumbled upon it after looking for remedies. I have blond very fine hair and I have the same issue. Since moving to Germany my hair looks horrible and given I dont have a lot of hair to begin with, it is not good. Women in Germany tend to suffer from hair loss a lot more than where I am from and I am guessing it is the water. I just spent a week in Madrid and it was heaven. My hair looked so good!!! I have tried asking German hairdressers and they dont seem to know anything about this or even acknowledge the fact that the water fucks up everyone’s hair. Im going to try coconut oil but I am close to giving up having nice hair altogether…
When I go abroad to the caribbean or florida the positive effects of their soft water there on my hair is very noticeable. As soon as I return to the UK my hair and skin shrivel back up!
Ive just purchased a water softener which was installed at home today. I have opted for a payment plan. £30 a month. The company offer a 3 month free trial.
I’m heading straight home after work to wash my hair!
I’m hoping it will work- will keep you posted!
I moved to London almost three months ago and my hair has been shedding non stop since I got here. It is really depressing. At first I didn’t know why my hair was shedding so much and after doing some research I’ve come to the conclusion it is the water here. And after reading this post I realize it is even worse because I have a perm. I can’t afford to purchase bottled water every time I want to wash my hair so I am going to start boiling water. I also plan to start taking hairfinity pills and using natural oils. I’ll update my progress in a month or so.
How has your progress been since boiling water? When I first heard about it, I thought the same way you did ie to boil water instead of purchasing bottled water but I have been reading that boiling does not help. How has it been thus far for you?
Boiling won’t help sadly. The minerals are still in the water.
I started doing tea rinses and using bottled purified water. I see a difference already and it’s been 3 weeks.
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I live in Michigan and I have hard water with a water softener. I still have problems and cannot for the life of my fix it. I am dealing with breakage and I can’t keep my hair moisturized. I do not know what to do. I need help, any advice?
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Im in spain and definetly have hard water here. It is absolutely horrible. I have lost about 6″ of length from breakage. I have very tight naturally curly hair and it has just become impossible. I have to much short little broken hairs. I have to get a water filter system
If you live in a region where water is very contaminated, it would be wise to consider another solution such as differing
filters that you can fit around your home (shower filter, faucet filter or even a whole house filtration system which would ensure all of your
water is as a good as getting it direct from one of natures springs.
Stay on top as regularly clean help to avoid repairs and more efficient use of filter.
Especially when used in times of a disaster, such
as the flooding going on currently in Pakistan, solar water distillation ought to be
used to give people some access to clean water.
I live in an apartment where the manager never conduct pipe maintainence, therefore the water is extremely hard due to build-up. The water takes my hair out in huge amounts. Now, I just wash (or cowash) my hair using a solar shower bag that I fill with distilled water.
I typically moisturize my hair twice a day (maybe every other day): once before styling in the morning and again before going to bed at night. My hair has been thriving and looking very healthy.
I normally add moisture to my hair by using Shea Moisture’s yucca & aloe thickening growth milk and then I seal my ends with distilled water and Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil. Actually, distilled water and any naturally oil like EVOO, coconut, etc will do a great job at adding moisture after I wash my hair.
Baka Beautiful’s Natural-Laxer Hair Spa System IS THE ONLY REAL PENETRATING NATURAL HAIR SPA TREATMENT that responds
to the hard water problem to manage the hair & stop breakage, because it is not a temporary surface styling aid or conditioner. It is a deep penetrating Natural
hair spa system that effectively manages the hair stopping breakage immediately with lasting results. It is a holistic regimen.
The pure Natural-Laxer Rose Water is one of the system components which keeps the Natural-Laxer Mix consistent, regardless of the water.
Hi to everyone,
This is mostly for all the naturals living in Germany. I also live in Germany and as I couldn’t find any good product for my hair,I searched until I found this page where i bought the shea butter. 1kg normal shea butter for 14€, its a lot. The best is to buy it with friends. Die Kalt Gepresste Shea Butter is the best in the market, but price is also higher.http://www.afrikahandel.de/de/Sheabutter—1.html?&sid=0bb660e8db29b74368c4c380569e8ce3
My hair care regimen is: I wash my hair every week with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration (blue bottle) and then in a glass of warm water i mix 2 spoon of baking soda, a drop of olive oil, a drop of jojoba oil and my Pantene Deep Conditioner for dry hair (or any other I have at hand) I mix everything good together and put it in my hair for 10mins or less and then I rinse it out with warm water. Once I dried my hair, I separate it in 4 or 6 sections and apply a leaving conditioner, then the Shea butter ( I take the amount of a lentil and rub it in my hands until it melt) and then into 1 of the sections and so with each section and at last I put in a little bit jojoba oil mixed with Castor oil or on its own (but not too much) and twist or plait each section (or any hairstyle of choice, sometimes I use flexirods). The next day my hair feel like its in heaven. And each night before bed, I spray my hair with a mixture of filtered water, leave in conditioner, jojoba oil (I love it), Castor oil and olive oil. Once a month I do a intensive deep conditioner treatment. And I take twice a day Omega3 capsules. When am home I cover my hair with the silk cap. That’s how my hair is surviving the hard water.
Am sorry the post turned out so long.
Bless
LG an alle.
PD: I love Blackgirllonghair. Keep on with the good work.
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hi pls i need good suggestions on what to do now my hair has gone so bad that people ask me if i cut my hair,cos here in ukraine their water is very bad,permanent hard water am gonna be staying here for acouple of years so need some good hair remedy to gain back my former long hair back.plsssssssssss thanks
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Wow i answered yes to all of those questions! I’ve heard the tern before but never considered it. I wish this post mentioned more ways on how to combat it
I moved from a soft water area to a hard water area and the difference in my hair and skin was overwhelming. To make matters worse, the air is dry here. Even after using superb products to condition, moisturize and seal my hair; it gets dry, dull and lifeless again within 12 – 24 hours. I tried shampooing away the build-up as a remedy, but that just made my hair feel more rough and dry. What works for me is just constantly repeating the process that brings my hair back to life- spray with filtered water, add a leave-in conditioner, moisturize, and seal (with olive and sweet almond oils). It may only last a day, but at least I don’t get breakage.
I live in the PA/NJ area and the water here is hard. It’s a pain on my and my daughter’s locs. I was using a acv on my hair but then switched to a baking soda/ lemon juice rinse. It works better on my hair. I haven’t tried it on my daughter’s hair yet. I also use our Brita water filter for our hair. I just always seem to forget to buy distilled water, lol. It’s a pain to constantly refill. The lemon juice is drying so i use a combo of EVOO and Coconut oil.
The hard water is so bad that we had to stop using regular soap on our body. We now use Dr. Bronner’s soap. I like the peppermint smell but it comes in a variety of scents. It works good as a shampoo also, at least for us.
I always crack up at the stock photo of the girl with the relaxer washing her hair… 😉
I live in a hard water area and I am so glad you posted this article. We have a water softener and my hair has gotten better but it’s still a work in progress. I used to have long, healthy natural hair and when I moved to Pebble Beach, CA it messed my hair up so bad that I wanted to just chop it off. Im only here temporarily and cant wait to leave. B4 getting the water softener, I started using bottled water to wash my hair. I was already starting to experience breakage because a bad press left my hair badly singed and breaking where it was singed. Then I move here and added hard water to hair that was already breaking and my hair was a mess. In addition to the bottled water I conditioned my hair w/by adding an egg to my regular conditioner and using a moisturizing conditioner. I also use Infusium leave in conditioner when I do my two strand twists. I did that for weeks to help stop the breakage and extreme shedding. Now my hair doesnt shed or break anymore. But I’m definitely going to look into some of the suggestions above. Thanks for the article!
Website to find out if your water is hard (in US):
http://www.mortonsalt.com/products/watersoftner/link2.html
I chopped off my hair 3 times after my big chop because nothing was working on my hair and I was frustrated. I have a TWA to show for a year of being natural and it’s not on purpose! LOL… It really wasn’t until I bought a shower head filter that everything changed. It was hard water that was jacking my hair up. I was upset but happy I found an answer. A shower head filter turned my hair woes around and I just used distilled water or bottled water in my spray bottle. I got a filter from home depot but I’m looking into more sturdier filters that take out more chlorine on amazon.
This one is decently priced and has really awesome reviews: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MVYRWE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
THANK YOU so much for this article. I was thinking about writing to you about this. Ever since during the summer my hair has been going through MAJOR BREAKAGE. I just moved to Florida last year and my hair was doing great til now. Did some research, and seems hard water is a huge problem here. I used water in Jersey in my hair so often that I never thought that water could have so much damage! Learned my lesson, I just use water from gallons I get in Walmart and shampoo my hair every two weeks, co wash every week. 🙂 Wayyy less breakage.
Is water in Maryland hard? Because I’ve no idea?
I lived in MD/DC area before moving to CA and I never had breakage or dryness. I used MissJessies on my hair. I had natural hair for 10 yrs now and started going natural in DC back in 2001. The culligan guy who installed my h2o softener stated that water is dc/md/va area had the lowest hard water levels. Here in pebble beach, ca had the hardest water level in US.
Thank uuu!! I didn’t notice anything bad on my hair either, but it’s good to know!
After moving from Chicago, to Florida I found my hair was just giving me random issues. Products I had used for years seemed to not work after getting settled in. I started trying new products, to find none of them really worked. I finally got clued into the hard water issue, but only because I had to get a repair to my dishwasher. The repairman clued me into the fact about the damage hardwater can cause not only to your dishes, clothes and bath water but how it affects hair.
My immediate fix, instead of installing a new hardwater softening system (expensive) I looked for a clarifying and chelating shampoo. I settled on Quantum
, which can found at http://www.sallybeauty.com. It’s inexpensive, has little or no scent which means my guy can use it also and you can have it shipped right to your doorstep.
I also started using heavier leave-in conditioners and setting products from Avlon Keracare Line. My favorite is the Overnight Conditioner, but I also use the Butter Cream and Twist and Define Cream.
After figuring out the why my mainstream products were not working I was also able to resume use of my fave (been using it over fifteen years) EcoStyle Gel, and Pantene Pro-V Restore Beautiful Lengths Replenishing Mask, which is what I use whenever I wash my hair.
Next step is choosing a hard water softening shower attachment!
Glenyse, does the Quantum works for kinky curly hair?
It works on mine!
It was created for use with any hair type.
the hard water in germany is just ridiclous.my hair is dry and i cant find any good natural shampoo to buy.i tried apple cider but it is drying to my hair.all the goos stuff is in america..its making going natural in germany very hard.we need to order anything good from online.hmmm
I’ve been in Germany (and Belgium) for two years now and the water here is terrible. I had to stop doing wash-n-gos because I didn’t want to subject my hair to the water here so often. I get by because I have some products from the US, which I get every time I’m back home. But yes, it’s horrible here. I don’t even use commercial conditioner because NOTHING works on my hair. I just rely on pre-poos, mayonnaise/oil conditioners, and a heavy dose of shea butter and oils. Also, I find my hair hates coconut oil in this climate. Because of its properties, it freezes up my hair in the winter. I think I’ll save my coconut oil for the warmer months (which are rare here).
my sister i am glad i am not the only one in this.where in germany do you live?i am in berlin the capital.maybe you need to buy more products from the us and sell them to us.i am in a need of a good shampoo and conditioner plus a good leave in.my hair is terribly dry.
I’m actually moving to the south of France in February and the water isn’t any better there…I actually think it may be worse. For now, I am thinking of finding a good chelating shampoo. I think it’s important that you use a clarifying shampoo somewhat regularly.
By the way, you can buy Herbal Essences Hello Hydration at Rossmann and probably at any other Drogerie in Germany. It’s the Spülung in the blue bottle and it goes by the name “Verwöhnende Feuchtigkeit”. Hope this helps!
The only thing that immediately spnigrs to mind is perhaps to have a secondary particle system to add in curly bits.I’ve no idea if this would actually help!Also you could have different eyebrows depending on the specific shot, ie uses painted eyebrows when the particles don’t work out, but particles when they are predictable.Good luck, your blog is inspirational! Stuart
moved futher south towards london and was shocked by the change in the water on my hair and skin. i had hair breakage and what appeared to b dandruff even after i shampoo’d as well as ashy, itchy knuckles. two months ago started using Pantene Pro-V Clarifying shampoo (removes build up, gentle and softening to my hair, helps my conditioners and moisturizers work effectively) and some aloe vera juice (smooths down hair cuticles) in my leave-in spritz. coconut butter on my skin 🙂
I’ve heard rinsing one’s hair with apple cider vinegar helps but I’ve never done it. I live in NYC, so perhaps we don’t have hard water? Even if we do, I’d be the worst person to notice. Coming from Texas, where water IS known to be hard, NYC is definitely an improvement.
NYC has the best water. That is my home. I first moved to Philly where my hair turned to worse than a brillo pad. I had to bring water from home after visits or buy spring water. I now live in Delaware where it is a big improvement but still not as good as NYC.People really dont believe me.
Well, we have hard water in Barbados but i find its not damaging to our hair at all. (been using it all my life)
We consume it, hairdressers use it in the salons (some use filters) and we use it at home when we handle out hair…
Thing is, when you look at Barbados’ geography its predominantly made up of limestone which acts as a natural filtration system for our water supply and subsequently our water is one of the purest types in the world =D
I have witnessed many black women living in Germany (for the first time) lose their hair due to the VERY hard water there. Luckily I didn’t fall into that category. I think it’s cause I deep conditioned and hot oil treated with every wash.
I don’t like when articles call it black hair. As if no one fully or even partially black could possibly have kinky/curly hair. Also, hard water is a problem for hair in general not just kinky/curly hair.
i prefer afro-textured or highly textured hair, kinky/curly as well. but i have come to realise that although i do not categorize my hair or myself as black or African American perhaps some authors/vloggers/bloggers etc limit their readership/audience to a specific group of people unknowingly. its unfortunate.
No offense but the site is called “Black Girl With Long Hair” So, it’s targeted to a specific community. Though, sure, that’s not stopping other people from taking the advice and hell, it’s encouraged but no one is saying anything about other ethnic makeups can’t have kinky-curly hair. It’s just a general statement for what the site is called.
Well, the book IS called the science of black hair, so………
The name of the site is Black Girl with Long Hair. The use of the term black hair is probably gonna come up. Yes there are many people of other races who have kinky/curly hair, but this particular page seems to be directed to a specific group. What I found helpful was the information. I live in a hard water area and that was more important info than the terms used to describe hair.
In the USA partially Black IS Black. That is part of our history. We (% of Blacks) are all mixed with a little something.
I buy 2 to 3 gallons of distilled water from the store. I usually use one gallon to shampoo and then the other to rinse out conditioner. I use the leftover water for my spray bottle.
This helped my hair so much and its the cheapiest way for me.
WHERE CAN WE FIND THESE SHAMPOOS CAUSE MY GIRLS AND I ARE GOING THRU JUST THIS
WHERE CAN I FIND THESE SHAMPOOS CAUSE I HAVE BREAKAGE LIKE CRAZY
Yep, we have hard water in London.
And yeah, it’s horrible on my hair.
I use a cider vinegar rinse to try to combat the calcium deposits and acidify myself. I also go to the petrol station and buy a big bottle of de-ionised water to put in my spray bottle instead of tap water.
Yep I agree, the hard water in London is terrible on the strands. I deal with hard water by using ORS aloe shampoo regularly, the ACV rinse I can’t stand seems to make the tangling that is associated with the hard water worse.
I have been dealing with this problem for years now. I find that add more moisture to my hair and scalp makes a major difference. Instead of using the basic spray moisturizers. I use all natural oils such as olive, jojoba, coconut, apricot, etc. In their oil forms or medium to thick creams and protective styles. Depends on the season.