Beauty Tip | Your Water is Ruining Your Skin & Hair

I may be living under a rock thinking this is some sort of new discovery/breakthrough, but I had to share regardless because it’s pretty much the best decision I’ve made all year. If you haven’t heard yet, you’re officially hearing it here first, your water is probably the biggest contributing factor to your biggest skin & hair issues.

YUP– your water is ruining your skin & hair in a big big way. Let me explain…

The water coming out of your shower head & faucets is hard water. Hard water simply means it has a high mineral composition & contains a handful of heavy metals. These heavy metals dry out your skin, cause redness + irritation, mess with your skins pH balance, breaks down the collagen in your skin (due to oxidation), strips your skin of natural oils, & makes you breakout. Also, the calcium & magnesium in hard water strips your hair of color, leaves it dull/brittle/lifeless, & your hair never really feels squeaky clean.

Next time your in the shower, take a look down at your drain. You will see some nasty ass residue build up all around it… that my friends, is the same disgusting residue being absorbed into your skin & hair.

Gross. RIGHT?

I actually didn’t really start reconsidering my water until I heard a rumor that Cameron Diaz washes her face & hair with bottled Evian. Fancy as fuck & very diva of her, but it did catch my attention. She is hot, has great skin, & her hair is on point. If the proof is in the pudding, I am always eager to give it a go.

Plus, French women have been warding off tap water for eons now & if there is one thing we all know, French women have got it going on.

That said, you still gotta bathe, & Evian water showers is pretty unrealistic (plus bad for our environment)… so I did some extensive research & found some pretty cost effective ways to fix this major hard water problem.

Okay, So Here’s How to Fix It

✓ Test Your Water: Okay, so first & foremost, test your water to find out how hard it is!! It’s important to kind of get an idea on how hard your water is & testing it is super easy (see how to do it here). You can also check out this map to get a general idea of water hardness in your state!

✓ Showerhead Filter: Okay, so this a BIG one & probably one of the best purchases I ever made. Yes… ever. I replaced all of our shower heads with filtered ones. They can’t possibly get rid of all the harmful minerals, BUT they make a HUGE difference. Within two days of using it my hair was 100 times smoother, dried faster, felt cleaner, & after a week my skin started to clear up & look worlds better. I am not exaggerating… this was kind of life changing. T3 makes an AMAZING filter, but it’s a bit pricey, so this one by Culligan a really great (more affordable) alternative.

One day, when I buy a house, I will definitely be adding filters to the water system so that filtered water comes outs of every drain!! Life goals.

✓ Micellar Water: When it comes to washing your face, sadly I haven’t found a filter for sink faucets. I try to rinse in the shower every night so I can wash my face in the filtered water, but sometimes that’s unrealistic, so I use Micellar Water instead. I did a post on this a few weeks ago when I first hopped on the anti-water train, so be sure to read all about it here. P.S. Garancé Dore swears by the stuff!

✓ Repair your Hair: If the damage is done & you want to fix the damage that hard water has done to your hair/remove all that disgusting build up I suggest finding a good clarifying shampoo & follow up with an intense leave in conditioning treatment. You can also go the DIY route & rinse your hair with apple cider vinegar (my holy grail) to remove build up. Dilute your ACV with water & just pour it through your whole head. Let sit & rinse after a few minutes. Also, you can use ACV as a toner on your skin to kinda clean out the gunk on your skin.

✓ In a Bind, Go For the Bottle: I don’t suggest using bottled water on the reg because it’s bad for the environment/a total waste, but when I am travelling & don’t know the water situation, I will have a water bottle on hand. I don’t use 5 bottles to wash my entire head, but instead just do a pre/post wash rinse with the bottled water to make sure my hair isn’t really absorbing that nasty hard water.

I actually did wash my entire head w/ bottled water when in Mexico because I am VERY scared of getting sick from water (thanks to the scene in Sex & The City when Charlotte”pookipsied” her pants). Lemme tell ya though, if it didn’t break the bank or waste all that plastic, I totally get where Cameron is coming from showering with Evian. My hair & skin were ON POINT.

Okay okay, so there you have it. It’s time to up your water game & marvel in what it will do for your skin & hair. Trust me, it’s gonna blow your mind! If you’ve already made the switch & have some helpful water tips, share below– I’d love to hear!! x, Erica

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