Hard water has minerals like calcium and magnesium, which are essentially metals. This is not good for the hair, and one needs to use shampoos which eliminate this from your hair. So, whether your hair is affected by metals due to air pollution or hard water, it’s best to purify your scalp and hair with a cleanser that fights this.
You will notice that hard water leaves a thick residue of gunk on your taps and bathroom tiles. The residue it leaves isn’t restricted to taps though. It stays on your hair and skin, too.
That happens because the minerals in hard water react with sulphates in your shampoo and form this soapy white scum which leads to additional buildup on the scalp and hair strands.
• Hard water can make hair rough and frizzy because that soapy film it leaves is very drying despite being slimy to touch.
• These remnants can also make hair greasy and slippery for long periods.
• This residue can also irritate your scalp, leading to poor follicle health, and therefore hairfall.
• While one can always install a water-softening filter in their showerhead, certain shampoo ingredients help with hard water as well.
• Look for shampoos with chelating agents, of which EDTAs are the best, while Sodium gluconate, Citric Acid, Pentasoidum Pentetate, Phytic acid are also chelating agents to look for in an ingredient list.
• Chelating agents are basically ingredients which bind themselves to those metals which make water hard and cause buildup. So chelating shampoos help effectively cleanse hair, even if the water you’re rinsing with is hard.
• Shampoos with the ingredient EDTA are the best option, because EDTA helps bind those minerals which react with sulphates and lead to buildup.
• Even though sulphates are normally best for removing oil, dirt, and product buildup, in this case, they don’t help with hard water buildup and instead make it worse. So opt for sulphate-free formulas.
• Go for shampoos with Cocamidopropyl betaine, a coconut-derived surfactant which doesn’t react with those minerals the way sulphates do but still cleanses effectively.
Here’s taking a look at the shampoos which effectively get the job done.
This gentle sulphate-free shampoo contains Cocoamidopropyl Betaine as the surfactant to cleanse hair, and has EDTA as the main chelating agent. It has Redensyl to promote hair growth, hydrolysed soy protein and hydrolysed keratin to improve the strength of brittle strands, and Moroccan argan oil to nourish frizz away. In addition to that, it contains matcha, apple cider extract, and onion peel oil.
The main surfactant or cleansing agent in this sulphate-free shampoo is Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate. It also has Disodium EDTA, and contains argan oil and panthenol like the Detoxie shampoo above. However, instead of more nourishing ingredients, it has salicylic acid which acts as an exfoliant for the scalp in reducing boils and buildup. So this shampoo is better if your hair is really greasy.
This shampoo is a heavy-duty scalp-cleansing product that one should only use if their hair is very build-up prone and greasy, say if you work out a lot, or live in a very polluted city. That is because in addition to Cocamidopropyl Betaine, it has surfactants like Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, Cocamide Mea, and Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate. So, it can be drying if your scalp and hair are already dry. But if your hair gets dirty easily, this is perfect for an intense cleanse. It contains Citric Acid, which helps with chelating.
Lead image credit: Instagram.com/janhvikapoor, Instagram.com/norafatehi
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