Does Hard Water Really Cause Hair Fall?

Let’s be real for sometime. Have you ever noticed that your hair seems really dried out after stepping out from a warm shower and after grabbing your towel?

It is deliberately a frustrating feeling and most commonly you are definitely not the only person who will be staring at the bathroom mirror in total shock . 

Normally there are millions of people who get this issue every single day. Typically they look down at a comb that is covered in loose and tidy hairs and immediately start to get tense. Almost all of them ask the same question: Is hard water the real reason behind my hair thinning?

If you need a real quick answer,then it can be yes, it absolutely does but not in the way you are probably thinking.

There is a huge myth going around that hard water kills your hair roots or makes your hair drop out straight from your scalp. But that is just wrong.

Hard water doesn't make you go bald from the roots. Instead, it aggressively attacks your hair strands from the outside. It leaves a nasty coating that makes the hair stiff, dry and weak until it literally snaps in half.

You have to notice the facts properly if you want to save your hairs. Let’s understand easily about what hard water is all about, how it slowly destroys your good look as well as how you can take measuring steps to reverse the damaging hairs.

How Hard Water is Secretly Damaging Your Hair?

To understand the damage to your hair, you have to get the knowledge about how a single strand of hair is built first. Your hair normally is covered with a protective layer called a cuticle. If you watch the cuticle with the help of a microscope, it looks like tiles on the roof or else it layers together like scales on a fish. 

When your hair looks healthy, the outer layer looks perfectly smooth as well as flat. This helps to keep your hair tight as well as in a moisturized state. But when you use hard water on your hairs then those heavy minerals crash inside your hairs and stick like gum. Normally they form a structure like a wall on the top of the hair strand.

This crusty buildup triggers a horrible chain reaction:

• It completely blocks out moisture: The mineral layer forms a waterproof shield. It stops water, leave-in conditioners, and natural scalp oils from ever getting inside the hair shaft. Your hair ends up starving for hydration.
• It creates massive friction: The smooth shingles become rough and scratchy from the mineral dust. Your hair strands start rubbing against each other like sandpaper, causing constant tangles, knots, and snags.
• It destroys your hair’s stretch: Healthy hair is supposed to stretch a little bit when you pull it. But dry, mineral-coated hair loses all its elasticity. The moment you run a regular comb through it, the strand snaps.
• It messes up your pH levels: Hard water is naturally highly alkaline. This forces your hair cuticles to stand wide open and stay open, leaving the soft inner core completely unprotected.

The Real Truth: Hair Loss vs. Hair Breakage

You must understand the difference between actual hair loss and simple strand breakage. If you get this mixed up, you will waste tons of money on the wrong treatments.

• Hair Loss (A Scalp and Root Problem): This is when something goes wrong under your skin. The hair follicle itself shrinks, dies as well as it completely stops growing new hair after old hair got damaged. There are different reasons that lead to hair loss like genetics, high levels of stress, issues from thyroid, hormonal changes as well as it can happen from a bad diet. Hard water usually does not stop your roots from working.
• Hair Breakage (A Strand Problem): This is when the root is perfectly healthy and growing fine, but the actual hair shaft snaps off midway down. Hard water is a primary cause of this.

When your hair breaks off really close to your scalp, it feels and looks exactly like traditional hair fall. You see a mountain of hair in your shower drain and assume your hair is falling out. But it isn't. Your roots are totally fine; your strands are just snapping like dry twigs.

Dead Giveaways Your Home Has Hard Water

Honestly, just don’t think about spending your valuable money on some fancy water testing materials, commonly you don’t need them. Just keeping your eyes open around the bathroom and paying attention to how your head feels, will tell you everything you need to know.

1. What’s Going On in the Bathroom?

• That annoying white gunk: Peek at the tiny holes on your showerhead. See any chalky, yellowish, or white crust blocking the water? That’s your first big sign.
• Why is there no lather?: If you are using half a bottle of your shampoo or else body wash just to get more foam or bubbles then you have to blame your water. Hard water usually stops soap from getting lather, it leaves you in an awkward state, leaves silky lather on your skin as well as the shower tiles instead of foam.
• Cloudy drinking cups in the kitchen: Just have a look at your cups once after taking them out from the dishwasher. If they are looking foggy permanently or else if they are covered in little white water spots, water is leaving a spot on your dishes.

2. Read Your Hair and Scalp

• Desert-level dryness: You can pile on all the expensive hair masks, oils, and leave-ins you want. But if your strands still feel like absolute sandpaper two hours later, something is wrong.
• Your hair color vanishes: Dyeing your hair costs a fortune, but hard water washes that money right down the drain. It strips out fresh dye in just a few weeks. Even worse is, it can give muddy green shade to hair that was bright blonde in colour before.
• The dreaded nape-of-the-neck knot: Your hair knots up immediately and turns into a bird’s nest. Most commonly it happens when a high amount of shower hits the back of your neck region.
• Constant, flaky itching: They easily clog up your scalp when those minerals mix with the natural oils on your head. The result? A super itchy head and dry flakes that look exactly like bad dandruff.

How it Hits Your Specific Hair Type?

Minerals don't treat every head of hair the same way. The type of damage you see depends completely on your hair texture.

1. Fine or Thin Hair

Fine strands have a super thin inner core, making them incredibly fragile. They simply can’t handle the weight of heavy mineral buildup. The gunk drags your hair down until it looks totally flat, greasy and lifeless plus, it starts snapping off with the slightest tug.

2. Curly or Coarse Hair

Curly hair soaks up moisture and dries so fast, they need moisture to keep curly hair bounce. Normally hard water removes hydration from them. Because of this, the healthy curls  turn so frizzy that you cannot manage even after trying everything on your hair. 

3. Color Treated as well as Bleached Hair

Repeated bleaching on your hairs leads to cracking the protective outer layer of your hair. When you shower in hard water, minerals rush right into those tiny gaps. They wedge the hair surface open, allowing your expensive color to leak out every time you wash. Also, if your water has iron in it, expect your blonde to turn brassy or orange real fast.

The Clogged Scalp Problem

Let’s clear one thing up: hard water doesn’t cause permanent genetic hair loss. However, it definitely disturbs the environment that helps in growing your hair. After all,your scalp is your skin and it has to get nourished to stay in healthy condition.

When hard water residue traps your natural oils, then it leads to creating a thick as well as waxy paste that disturbs your hair pores. This will lead to some nasty side effects:

• Root Inflammation: Your follicles will totally get irritated, cause redness in your scalp, lead to soreness as well as create tiny and painful bumps around your roots.
• Weak New Growth: New born hairs must have to fight effectively just to get pushed through the water residue buildup on your skin. If the struggle continues, the new hairs will grow much thinner as well as weaker than the normal ones. 
• Yeast Issues: That waxy clogged layer traps the moisture against your skin. This leads to a perfect as well as warm environment for natural skin yeast to multiply, leaving you with stubborn as well as itchy dandruff flakes.

Simple Steps to Fix Your Water and Save Your Hair Strands

No need to pack your bags and move to any other city just to save your hair from hard water. Some few simple changes to your hair care and washing routine will do the trick. Here is how to remove the mineral crust:

1. Swap in a Real Shower Filter

This is by far the easiest fix, whether you rent or own. A standard shower filter screws right onto your current pipe in under five minutes. Look for a multi-stage filter that mentions carbon and KDF media on the box—these materials grab the calcium and magnesium before the water touches your head. Just change the cartridge every six months so it stays effective.

2. Get a True Chelating Shampoo

Regular clarifying as well as retail shampoos won't cut it here, they are good only to remove styling gels and oils but not minerals. Use any Best shampoo for hair growth, for that you need a chelating agent shampoo to fix your hair.

Turn the back side of the bottle and notice the proper ingredients like EDTA or phytic acid. They usually behave like small magnets,as they break the bond between the minerals, so the dirt actually washes away. Apply it weekly once or else your hair will dry out.

3. Try an Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

If you are familiar with inexpensive as well as natural remedies, then this ingredient will do wonders. This natural apple cider vinegar breaks down mineral residue very easily. Add and mix one portion of raw apple cider vinegar with three parts of clean as well as filtered water.

After shampooing the hair, pour this vinegar all over your hair strands and scalp. Leave it for three to four minutes, rinse with cool water after that. It removes the dust as well as forces your hair strands to lay flat as well as it gives your hair instant shine.

4. Double Down on Hydration

Because hard water removes the moisturizing content from your hair, your hair of moisture, you have to pay them back. Stop using as well as applying basic commercial conditioners and use a high quality contained as well as deep conditioning moisturizing mask once a week. Most importantly, try to apply a lightweight cream,or else a tiny portion of argan oil on your hair while your hair is wet so it stays hydrated.

Your Weekly Hair Plan

Consistency is the secret to beating hard water damage. Here is a basic procedure to keep things simple:

• Daily: Apply some tiny amount of dab conditioner on the tip of your hair to stop them from breaking.
• Once a week: Use your chelating shampoo as well as apple cider vinegar to rinse out the dirt buildup.
• Once a month: make a habit of applying a rich, moisturizing hair mask to give the strength of your hair strands to bounce back.
• Twice a year: Change the filter of your shower twice a year so it keeps doing its job.

Additionally, you can use Best shampoo for hair fall such as Tinfal anti hair fall shampoo. As, it cleanses your scalp while strengthening weak hair roots and blocking the hormone that leads to excessive hair fall and tinfal hair regrowth serum to awaken sleeping hair follicles and helps in growth of thick hair.

The Final Thoughts

Think of hard water as a complete nightmare for your hair, but it does not mean that it will make you bald. It leads to deep dryness of your hair scalp that makes your hair snap off close to the roots.

If you are putting any cheap filter on your shower, then try to  use weekly any Anti Hair fall shampoo as well as focus heavily on moisture content, after applying for such a period of time, you can easily notice the changes in your hair and you will get back your bouncy, soft as well as nourishing hairs.