Condition: Soft and Softened Water
You may be surprised to learn that soft and softened water can cause issues for hair just as hard water can. Soft water by definition means water that contains little or no calcium and magnesium – the minerals that define “hard water.”
If you shampoo in soft water, you may experience limp, lifeless hair that requires more volumizing styling products to achieve body. The resins that styling products are formulated with can build up on hair and block chemical services from processing properly. They can also add weightiness to hair and, in worst cases if not removed, actually cause damaged hair.
Additionazally, since over 85% of the U.S. population is shampooing in hard water, most shampoos are formulated with strong, aggressive surfactants (cleansing agents) to generate lather. When these aggressive cleansers are used in soft or softened water they can cause the dry hair and dry, irritated scalp as well as the loss of necessary oils that maintain hair’s natural shine and softness.
What is Softened Water?
Softened water is actually hard water that is most commonly put through a sodium-ion exchange process to remove hard water minerals. The process literally swaps hardness minerals for sodium or potassium ions. The resulting resins are complex sodium salts often cause hair to feel dry and lack shine and can cause the dry, flaky irritated scalp. Also, bear in mind that just because you have a water softener does not mean all minerals have been removed.
Chlorine
City treated water might be soft or softened but contain high amounts of chlorine. Chlorine is put into drinking water and swimming pools to kill bacteria. A powerful oxidizer, chlorine can cause all sorts of hair, scalp and skin problems, including “green hair,” as well as poor results from coloring or perming.
How Chlorine Affects Hair:
- Active chlorine in the hair can cause hair to feel gummy when wet and straw-like when dry.
- Chlorine can damage the cuticle and proteins of the hair.
- As an oxidizer, chlorine can cause the air and sun to oxidize hair and worsen the conditions listed above.
- Chlorine can cause hair to feel dry.
- Chlorine can cause hair to become brittle.
- Chlorine can cause hair to lack shine.
- Chlorine fades color and lowlights.
- Chlorine can cause brassy highlights.
- Chlorine can cause green hair, turning blondes and highlights a greenish tone (when excess chlorine leaches copper from water pipes).
Wellness Solution
Whether your water is soft or softened, our Wellness Solution makes your water well and protects hair and scalp using nature’s own vitamin C in our patented fresh-dried vitamin complex. Our sulfate-free Well Water Action® shampoo provides gentle cleansing without aggressive surfactants, and our Well Water Action® conditioner provides bounce, shine and pliability without coating the hair with additional “product” residue. Finally, the Hard Water Weekly Demineralizer removes minerals which might have slipped through your treatment plan or water softener while normalizing scalp exfoliation and protecting hair from oxidizing elements.
The Malibu Wellness Solution:
- Removes salts from water softeners to prevent dryness and scalp flaking
- Restores natural shine and volume
- Normalizes the natural exfoliation of the scalp
- Provides gentle cleansing to maintain natural oils for health hair and scalp