Soft Water/Hard Water
 

We live in L.A. where the water is "hard". We just returned from Monterey where the water is soft, and you always feel like you have a film of something left on you when you rinse off.

I was curious about two things: (1) Is L.A. the only city with hard water (hard to believe); and (2) when you have soft water, how do you get that squeaky clean feeling on your skin?

Silly question, I know, but we've had to deal with this so often, I know there must be a solution from all of you in soft water cities!

Soft water actually rinses off better. that squeaky clean sound is a mineral deposit:

http://www.sosafe.net/faq/hardwater.htm

Yep, true! We have hard water as well (Ann Arbor, MI), but the soft water "film" is actually your skins natural oils, which are supposed to be there. It's how you "should" feel after a bath or shower, but the water is hard many places in the US, so most of us just aren't used to it. You're not dirty, though, after a soft-water shower. :D

Yes, that squeaky clean feeling is the hard water stripping your body and hair of essential oils not dirt.

I grew up in an area where the water was extremely "soft." I never knew that water would be any other way, so I never felt what some of the posters described as "squeaky clean." All I knew was that I felt pretty good after my bath. (And no wonder -- in the country that weekly Saturday night bath did wonders for your outlook.)

Once I experienced the "hard" water of other areas, including the fact that it made washing dishes twice as difficult, I understood what other wiser and better-traveled people were talking about. Now I have a water softener in my house.

It's difficult to find soft water in any metropolitan area these days. My guess is that the softest water comes from local wells in less populated areas--never from a lake or from urban wells.

Besides what everyone else says - hard water REALLY plays havoc w/ your hair.

janis,

Here is a plug for my FAVORITE company: Lush They make shampoo for people with soft and hard water. It is wonderful. :)

www.lush.com

Jax Florida has hard water.
I would prefer soft myself.

wallace-and-gromit. Yes - isn't LUSH the bomb! Fortunately (or Unfortunately if you check my credit card balance) LUSH now is in San Francisco. I used to have to wait until I was in the UK - but now I have no excuses . . . . . .

There was a discussion about this on the radio recently. I was somewhat surprised to hear that NYC water is on the "soft" side, because I do feel "squeaky clean" after a shower. However, my hair gets pretty shiny. Where I grew up (an hour N/of NYC) we had well water - nothing beat that for great-looking shiny hair!

In Florida the water is extremely hard, so much so that when I stayed at the South Seas resort in South Beach, I couldn't get any suds from my soap (felt like washing with a bar of plastic!) and my hair was so dull & frizzy I had to rinse it with bottled water. My parents' community on the west coast of Fla adds water softener...but it's so soft that it feels like the suds will never go away.

I'd take soft over hard water any day though...

Hi janis,

Where in San Francisco do you purchase Lush? I will be there in May and would like to pick some up. We have very hard water here, Northern Canada and I have never heard of Lush being sold here.
Thanks!

My husband and I were on a business trip in San Antonio once and I remember saying that my hair always came out so nice! It was fluffy not flat. I thought it must be the water! I guess they have soft water and we have hard!

Whenever we go somewhere that has hard water, I add a little oil to my hair and skin in the shower and use a heavy moisturizer like Glycerin Silicon (Dreiturm Kosmetik), Eucerin, Nivea Cream (not the lotion) or Kiehls Intensive Treatment Moisturizer as soon as I get out of the shower. If you moisturize while your pores are still open, it works much better.

atilla: LUSH is on Powell just up a bit from Union Square. You will probably be in that area more than once (or maybe you are staying near Union Sq) during your visit so no need to even detour to get there.

I understand they opend another shop on Union Street (this is not near Union Square) But I haven't been to that one yet . . . .

I really got a kick out of the question posted by Surfergirl: "Is L.A. the only city with hard water?"

girlonthego posted: "My husband and I were on a business trip in San Antonio once and I remember saying that my hair always came out so nice! It was fluffy not flat. I thought it must be the water! I guess they have soft water and we have hard!"

Not unless the hotel had a water softener! (Where are you from?)

I was just getting ready to post about how hard our water is here in San Antonio. You should see the bottom of my tea kettle and the water spots on everything. I visit my Dad in Springfield, MO where the water feels "funny" (I keep trying to rinse more) and my hair is always flat. Guess it just doesn't like the soft water any more.

Surfergirl, Lake Erie water is nasty hard!

If Florida has hard water, why does my hair always get fluffy and look good? Doesn't happen here.

I always thought the weather had more to do with flat or frizzy hair. But I realize now it must have been the soft water. At home, my long hair is poker straight and flat as a board. I chocked that up to the (usually) dry weather. In Monterey, the texture felt like it had changed, but I thought it must have been the hotel (Aveda) shampoo and conditioner.

I was really surprised by the comment about the natural oils not being stripped. That makes a lot of sense, but I kept thinking with all the film on my hands that I'd never be able to insert the contact lenses!

Surfergirl - Funny you bring this up. I have mostly lived in areas that have hard water. This last week I was in New Orleans for a convention and the first shower I took, I just keep rinsing and rinsing because I couldn't get the shampoo out of my hair. Or at least it felt that way. I do agree that your skin feels so much nicer after a shower with soft water but you feel like you are never getting the soap off your body. And hard water is very hard on appliances like coffee pots and dish washers. Even though I run vinegar through my coffee pot, I find myself replacing it on a regular basis.

Florida has hard water. WE sit on a bed of limestone so there's lots of lime in the water. We use a lot of rinse aids. Limeaway in the shower. Rinse stuff to take the lime off the dishes. It's a limey place. Hard, hard water.

carroll. I am not sure of the name of the hotel. Maybe it was a Marriott. It was on the Riverwalk. I don't know, but we live in VA where the humidity kills my hair and it lays flat in the summer time. We were in San antonio and my husband and I both commented on the fluffiness of our hair. Maybe the air was dry?? It was a fun trip anyway. And we had great hair!

thank you janis!
:-)

altho there are plenty of exceptions listed here, I think that in general east of the Mississippi you are likely to have soft water and west of the Mississippi you will have hard water.

My mom has soft water in her house and , like Surfergirl, I never feel that I can get truly dry when I shower there.

We just returned from Daytona Beach, but this seems to be the same at Myrtle beach, SC too...When I go to these places and take my first shower, my hair and skin improves. I hardly need hair conditioner. My skin feels very soft, and my hair seems to be moisturized, but full of body. A year ago, I wanted the same results at home so we had a very good water softener installed in our home. The results are not the same. I still need to use conditioner on my hair and the water in the shower just does not feel the same as it does in the hotels we stay at, and they are not expensive hotels. I brought home water from the hotel in Daytona and tested it with my meters at home, and to my surprise, it was hard! If they have hard water, and we have soft water here at home, why do I still have better results at the hotels?