Lately I have been hearing all this talk about hard water and how detrimental it is to your health and how hard it is to clean. Well of course I am on the slow side, so i decided to take it upon myself to do a little research to find out what exactly this hard water talk is.

What is hard water?

Hard water is a composition of metal buildup like calcium and magnesium in the water that makes life a little bit more tough. For example, it will be harder to clean clothes because of the additional build up left on clothing due to the water.It can also make industrial equipment like dishwashers a little less useful.

How Do I know if I have hard water?

Answers taken from ehow

• Look for clues that your water has an overabundance of minerals: Dishes will have water spots on them, your soap won’t lather well, your white clothes will look dingy. You may also notice white, crusty sediment on your fixtures, a recurring bathtub ring, or rust-colored stains on your clothes, silverware, or porcelain fixtures. The not-so-obvious results of hard water are serious wear and tear on your water-dependent appliances.
• Contact your municipal water supply, or local department of health to direct you to a lab that will test your water hardness
  
• Avoid home tests, which are expensive and have a tendency to be inaccurate.
• Call a water conditioning company such as Culligan to come to your home and test the water. You may have to listen to the sales pitch for a water softener, but the test is free.
• Look at your test results. If the water hardness is above 1 GPG (grains per gallon), your water is hard.
• Consider mechanically softening your water if the test reveals a hardness of more than 3 GPG.
  Read more: How to Determine if You Have Hard Water | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2331_determine-you-have.html#ixzz1Bmwh80l3

How does this effect my Natural Hair?

There was a time where I believed that all water was just plain water and it wouldn’t effect my hair at all. Boy was I wrong. Having Hard water can actually cause breakage throughout your hair and leave an abundance of buildup onto your hair. Think about it….If your hair has buildup is your hair really being treated every time you moisturize it or use a leave in? Don’t get me wrong, water is your hair’s (well most of us) best friend but It may be really hard to care for your hair if the same thing you thought was helping your hair is actually in turn the cause of it’s demise.

Have you ever stepped out the shower to find your hair with little white clumps or particles in your hair? Well hunny, thats the result of hard water and it will leave your hair dry and frizzy. NO GO!

What can you do?

Well for me, I live on campus and its pretty darn hard for me to just up and leave or request for the school to install a better water system, so i have decided to wash my hair less frequently and only when i absolutely need to. There are other ways to moisturize hair without direct water.

For those of you at home, you can purchase water filters that I believe can fit on shower heads if you so please. Check out stores like Home Depot or Lowes for such appliances.

The third option may be buying distilled water. I personally think this is doing too much….BUT your hair does need to be healthy so what you gotta go shortys! lol Seriously, this would be a great option though, and the water bottles do come in packs, just look out for those deals.

Here is a map of the hard water in the USA and the site to explain it is here

I hope this clarified the hard water confusion. If you have a question just leave a comment my loves!