The Environmental Damage on Your Hair
There are a number of environmental factors which contribute to dry, damaged hair. These include natural sunlight, air pollution, and hard water. Many people do not realize that the water they are using to wash their hair is often filled with chemicals and chlorine. These chemicals can potentially dry out the hair and can even turn it a different color! Sometimes hard water is to blame for how our shampoos and conditioners work. If you travel around, you will notice that the same shampoo and conditioner will work differently from place to place. This is because not everywhere has the same amount of hard water. Today it is thought that around 85% of American people are washing and bathing in hard water.
Hard water causes the hair to stand up and makes it harder to wash and it can make the hair tangled and rough. When the hair is tangled, the shampoo and conditioner is often not washed out effectively enough and so that can cause quite a few problems! If you wash in softer water you are no doubt going to have better results as the water does not leave any residue in the hair. There are some special shampoos and conditioners for use in hard water areas which are designed to help protect the hair form drying our too much. These products are generally more expensive but they do work.
Chlorine is used in household water to effectively kill bacteria. It is thought that some households in America even have the same amount of chlorine in their water, as there is in a swimming pool. This is not good news for the hair and special precautions should be taken in order to protect it. How to Treat Damage to the Hair Caused by Household Water
It is thought that rinsing the hair in rain water which has been filtered a few times through a coffee filter, is a good solution. Instead of using hard water, you are using natural water which has been filtered of all its chemicals. Another remedy you could use is if you live in a place where the water is extremely hard, you could rinse the hair with either vinegar or lemon juice. Obviously lemon juice will smell better, but generally vinegar is very good for solving many hair problems.
As mentioned earlier, there are also specially designed shampoos and conditioners which can often be found on the Internet. These are unique and they really do help to get rid of any chemicals within the hair that cause it to become dry and damaged.
If you do not know whether you live in a hard water area or not, your water supplier should be able to provide you with any information you need. If you look online, you should also be able to find various maps which show the worst affected areas as well as the soft water areas. It really is worth finding out as the hard water could be causing your hair to be dry and damaged.
Other environmental factors which could be damaging the hair include modern appliances such as hairdryers, straighteners or curling tongs. It is always better to protect the hair using styling products before you actually do style it, in order to prevent the hair from becoming damaged.
Overall check to see whether hard water is a problem in your area and if it is start taking precautions now and you could help your hair to be soft and shiny once more!
