Hard Water Hair

Water really produces more damage than good on the exterior body, and the reason for the damaging effects of water can be summed up in a single term: Oxidation.

Oxidation is the leading explanation for why we wrinkle. Oxidation is at the root of most illnesses. Oxidation is the cause of skin cancer. Oxidation is the reason most of us will die.

Oxidation occurs when excessive oxygen, in combination with oxidizing agents, starts a destructive journey that leads to the creation of free radicals, resulting in an unbalancing of electrons and eventually damage to cells that were previously healthy and productive contributors to a well body. These injured cells can themselves become aggressors and produce more free radicals.

Pure water can cause Oxidation when damp skin or hair sees catalysts such as warm air, sunlight or direct heat. Certainly, today`s water is infrequently what is known as pure, and as a result of this, Oxidation is less the cause of the water itself, but rather of what is in the water.

The most potent oxidative agents come right out of the tap. Tap water is purposefully crammed full of oxidizers including chlorine, chloramines and bromine.

Evidence on the quantity of these chemicals in tap water can be startling. For example, since one hundred people died in Milwaukee from bacteria in drinking water years ago, it has become common to discover over three times the chlorine in the city`s tap water than is legally required in swimming pools! You literally could be using �pool water� to wash your face and hair.

Additionally, today`s water is high in minerals such as calcium, iron and copper � perhaps good on the inside, but potentially disastrous to hair and skin. About a decade ago, a study in Great Britain connected hard water with eczema. And in case you believe that does not damage you, more than 90 percent of Americans get hard water from the tap every day.

Knowing how hard your water is and how much chlorine it possesses can encourage you to buy hair and skin care options that will actually sustain your natural hair texture, color and shine as well as block or even reverse signs of aging on the skin. So what should you do?

Investigate Your Water. Do an easy chlorine test with OTO (orthotolodine) and get a hard water test strip to test for hardness. Simply buy the OTO at your local pool store and dispense 5-10 drops into a small glass of water to see if the water turns yellow. If it turns yellow, it is filled with enough chlorine to facilitate oxidation.

Use antioxidant products that are of the right kind and percentage to have an impact. An active form antioxidant, such as fresh-dried ascorbic acid at 10 percent concentration or greater, in fact halts oxidation on the hair, scalp and skin. Vitamin E, in a 5 percent concentration, is very effective on the skin to prevent oxidation from damaging lipids in and around skin cells.

Do you think you have the best antioxidant product? Don`t believe the hype; see for yourself. Your test kit will also test your antioxidant products to see whether they are neutralizing oxidative agents and thus are active. When you test your water and it becomes yellow from the chlorine oxidation, apply a single drop of your most liked antioxidant serum or cream to the water. If it is truly an antioxidant, or if the antioxidant is still active, the color will disappear like magic. If it doesn`t, the antioxidant is dead.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.