Does an acid rinse lose effectiveness with hard water?

pelicano · 08-03-2009, 07:08 AM

What I mean is, if you use an acid rinse, then wash it out with hard water, are you back to roughly the same ph as you were before?

Does it therefore make more sense to use a weakly acidic leave-in rinse?

Thanks for any input.

kathymack · 08-03-2009, 07:30 AM

It's not the pH of hard water that's the problem, it's the minerals. Some people do a final rinse with bottled water that doesn't have the minerals.

pelicano · 08-03-2009, 07:45 AM

Ah I see, thanks!

All the bottled waters round here seem to have minerals, but I guess less than hard tap water. I can buy deionised water, but that works out very expensive.

kathymack · 08-03-2009, 10:08 AM

Don't know if this is possible, my next door neighbor has well water--we have public water. It measured 3 of 4 on hardness when I was setting up espresso machine. I was going to offer to fill up gallon jugs for her--for her final rinse since our water is "better." Is it everyone's water, or just yours??

pelicano · 08-03-2009, 11:50 AM

The whole of the local area's water is 'rock hard', so to speak.

It's harder than anywhere else I've ever lived and is officially classed as 'very hard'.

edit: Doh! I've just thought, I can use a jug water filter. That's got to help a bit.

aerohead · 08-03-2009, 12:01 PM

hi pelicano,
which region are you as i am lincolnshire based and our water is hard as well, wish i was still oopnorth as the water there was lovely and soft, you will probably agree pelicano, when you get a bit of hard water in your eyes it feels like grit, not very nice! urgh!!!!

DownwardSpiral · 08-03-2009, 12:10 PM

The body uses calcium (one of the main minerals in hard water) to neutralize excess acid in the blood stream; in theory, it should be a similar reaction in the situation you're talking about. I'm not sure if it is enough calcium to neutralize all the acid in your rinse though. Maybe if you can find some pH strips you could test the water remaining in your hair immediately after you get out of the shower? Or maybe I'm being too extreme?

I think you could do a final acid leave-in on your hair but only if you make sure the the pH doesn't exceed what is normal for hair. Does anyone know what the normal range is? I think if your hair is consistently too acidic it will become damaged.

Hope that helps

likethegum · 08-03-2009, 12:45 PM

I found that when I had hard water, acv rinses didn't do anything for me. I switched to rinsing with distilled water, which helped, but I still had a lot of problems. Now, with my water softener, things are good. I highly recommend one

pelicano · 08-03-2009, 01:16 PM

Thanks for all the tips. Yes, I'm a bit worried about over-acidifying the hair too. I use a glycerine and deionised water spray after washing, so I was thinking that I could just add a bit of lime juice to that (I don't like ACV).

I'm based in Essex *waves up to Lincolnshire*. When I lived in Nottingham the water was hard, but nowhere near as hard as here.

pelicano · 08-03-2009, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by likethegum

I found that when I had hard water, acv rinses didn't do anything for me. I switched to rinsing with distilled water, which helped, but I still had a lot of problems. Now, with my water softener, things are good. I highly recommend one

I've always wanted to try one - you know, have a bath and a hair wash round someone's who has one, but so far I haven't found anyone who has one, let alone who would let me come round with my towels and wash bag!