Hard Water Woes

[mormontreehugger]

I've noticed a trend here for people who have hard water--a lot of this natural body care stuff doesn't work so well. I thought maybe we could post our issues and any suggestions anyone has to help with them so they're all in one place. Unless there's another thread with the same thing...

My issues: I want to use a shampoo bar, but it leaves my hair waxy and yucky feeling. Filtered water didn't work. My hair is about shoulder length, fine (although there's a lot of it), and tends toward oily.
Would a baking soda mixture work better? I really want to get away from my old shampoo.

[OJazzy1]

I am not sure. I am having a bit of trouble with the baking soda ACV mix right now, we have REALLY hard water and my hair is pretty greasy.....

[mormontreehugger]

Cautiously optimistic

So I asked Professor Google how to soften my water without actually getting a water softener and I came across a page that said for hair and body wash you could just add the juice of a couple lemons to a bowl of water. Lightbulb!
Based on the limited chemistry I understood, hard water needs to be more acidic to 'soften' it... Which could explain the often recommended lemon or vinegar rinse.
I filled up a bucket with water, added about a half a cup of lemon juice (thanks Costco, for your giant bottles of lemon juice!) and used that water to wash my hair. I just stood in the bathtub and poured it over my head with a cup. I used my shampoo bar, and there was NO residue afterwards!! No wax! No oily weirdness! It was like magic! AND I totally saved on water consumption, which is important in my area. I plan to switch to sponge bathing from now on and just using the bucket. It's much more environmentally friendly. Now if only I could get DH to do it that way...

So anyway, instead of just doing the lemon/water rinse, I suggest trying lemony water for the whole thing. The only problem I had then was that my hair was 'too' clean, and now I have to find a better way to condition it (very fine hair=clouds and clouds), although the boar bristle brush seemed to help a lot with that too.

[Siennaflower]

I use a citric acid rinse as a final rinse after washing my hair with a shampoo bar. It's extremely cheap and lasts a long time, I use the tiniest pinch in a large cup of warm water. Without it I can't use any natural hair washing methods thanks to our lovely hard water.

[mormontreehugger]

Originally Posted by Siennaflower

I use a citric acid rinse as a final rinse after washing my hair with a shampoo bar. It's extremely cheap and lasts a long time, I use the tiniest pinch in a large cup of warm water. Without it I can't use any natural hair washing methods thanks to our lovely hard water.

Hmmm.. So just rinsing afterward is enough to prevent the waxy gunk? That would be easier than my current method I think... Where do you get it?

[Siennaflower]

Yeah, just like you would use a vinegar rinse, right at the end. I find it best to leave it in, don't rinse it out. I get mine here (about half way down the page), but I've also gotten good deals on ebay in the past.