If you've ever felt that no matter how much you moisturise your skin, or how dutifully you care for your hair, neither feel quite as you'd like them to, hard water could be to blame. Not just responsible for scale-studded kettles and sluggish dishwashers, we will explore why hard water might be your biggest health and beauty nemesis yet.
Reverse Osmosis filtered water is a new way of drinking water - despite it being an old practise, with Reverse Osmosis research dating all the way back to 1748. More and more people are switching to Reverse Osmosis to help with and even fix some problems they experience by using hard water. Some concerning chemicals that you can find in your water are Lead, Chlorine, Chloramines, Mercury, VOCs (Volatile organic compounds), Pharmaceuticals, Herbicides, and even Pesticides!
Do you want to drink or bathe in those chemicals?
What is Hard/Tap Water?
According to Byron Bedford, who is CEO of ProEconomy (the company that treat the Royal Family's water), it's the mineral quality that affects the hardness. "It may have flowed through limestone and chalk, which leaves deposits of calcium and magnesium. Soft water, on the other hand, is largely free of minerals - falling rain, for example."
Reverse Osmosis Water VS Tap Water
Weighing up RO Water and Tap Water is a very interesting way to see how we can benefit from RO water. The chemicals found in RO water are far less than those found in Tap Water. Some things RO cannot remove are certain pesticides, certain solvents and certain volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) including: Ions and metals such as Chlorine and Radon. But, like we said, Tap Water can contain Lead, Chlorine, Chloramines, Mercury, VOCs (Volatile organic compounds), Pharmaceuticals, Herbicides, and even Pesticides!
Chlorine and Radon are similar in terms of their radioactivity - but we're sure you've swallowed a mouthful of chlorinated water at the swimming pool at some point!
How can this benefit me?
We're glad you asked! There are many ways RO Water will benefit you:
Hair
Skin
Nails
Hair
In order to mitigate the effects of the outdoors dryness and general hell our hair goes through on a daily basis, we can change our water source. Freshly Squeezed has an excellent shower head adaptor, which filters tap water through its head, which is filled with tiny beads. This excellent, affordable alternative to an under-the-sink unit, is available on our website here.
Using RO Filtered water to wash your hair will prevent calcium from drying in your hair. Dried calcium in your hair can have many negative effects including creating a film over the hair strand - ultimately preventing proper moisture absorption. This alone can increase hair static, tangling, and finally... breakage. Leave this issue resolved and there's a chance it could even lead to hair loss.
Cosmetic dermatologist Dr Sam Bunting listed some of the tell-tale signs of hard water as "Soap not lathering sufficiently, your clothes feeling rough to the touch, a build-up of scale on your taps and a sort of "film" on shower doors or bathtubs."
How does hard water affect your hair?
If you've been battling a flaky, irritated scalp and flat, lifeless hair, your daily shower could be to blame. Michael Lendon, Creative Director at Aveda, said "Your scalp is just skin - it needs just as much hydration as the rest of you. People usually condition the lengths of their hair, but the scalp doesn't get the same nourishment, which makes dryness really common. Also, the porosity of your hair and the physical barrier it creates on your scalp means hard water gets 'trapped' somewhat, leaving minerals there."
Trichologist Ricardo Vila Nova operates a clinic in Harrods, but see clients all over the world. He noted that he finds very different issues from country to country, thanks to varying levels of water hardness. "Hard water can irritate even the oiliest of scalps. Even if you think you have very fine hair that has to be washed daily to avoid it looking greasy, the hard water can dry your scalp out to be point where it becomes dehydrated and oily." Likewise, if your scalp is already on the slightly dry side, hard water can push it over the edge into flaky territory. "Hard water also makes the hair flat," added Vila Nova. "It erodes the hair elasticity and leaves the hair very rough, as it lifts the cuticle."
Skin
The UK is home to some exceptionally hard water, with cities like London, Newcastle and Oxford among the worst afflicted. Aside from leaving something resembling tectonic plates atop your cup of tea, limescale and hard water can play havoc with your skin and hair.
Similarly to with hair, your skin can also be prone to dryness when you use hard water instead of RO Filtered Water. When the minerals present in hard water dry out on your clogged pores, it leads to flaky and irritable skin.
"When water contains high amounts of calcium, it doesn't properly dissolve soap, meaning that there can be some residue left on the skin. This can contribute to sensitive, irritable and blemish-prone skin,"
explained Dr Bunting to Vogue UK.
Have a look at our three excellent RO Systems! Click here
Some information from https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/hard-water