How does hard water with high metal content affect hair?
An exciting question
What kind of water is considered hard and how exactly does it affect hair? And also how can hair saturated with metals manifest itself during the dyeing process? We briefly talk about it in the material.
What kind of water can be considered hard?
Hard water contains large amounts of calcium and magnesium, which tend to accumulate in the hair structure (especially severely damaged hair). With constant washing of hair in hard water, a “negative” cumulative effect will become noticeable: the curls will become dry and dull.
How exactly does hard water with high metal content affect hair?
Calcium and magnesium ions in hard water have strong positive charges (2+) and are called cations. When water hits the hair, these cations quickly find negative charges on the hair and become attached to it.
When in contact with the hair, the hard water ions bind and block the negative areas of the hair that should be used by conditioning cationic polymers (conditioners). The use of conditioners is very important in terms of smoothing the surface of the hair, detangling, and retaining moisture in areas of high damage.
Another problem with hard water is that it can make your hair more difficult to clean, sometimes requiring more shampoo.
Dr. Jennifer Marsh of Procter and Gamble conducted research several years ago on how copper affects hair. For the experiment, she invited 450 women who lived in different cities and used water with different amounts of copper in running water.
What conclusions did the researcher come to? “Even though copper is found in small amounts in water, hair accumulates the metal over time. If a person constantly uses hard water for washing, most likely a lot of copper has accumulated in the structure. "Exposure to such hair dye can lead to the formation of free radicals that damage the protein structures in the hair, and copper acts as a catalyst and speeds up this reaction."
Jennifer Marsh noted that the effects of copper are similar to UV radiation: “Hair loses its ability to resist physical damage, breaks faster, as a result of which the shine disappears and the hair begins to split.”
According to the conclusion, copper does harm the hair and accumulates in the structure over time.
How does excess copper in the hair structure affect the dyeing process?
Copper can have a detrimental effect on the hair coloring process. “Excess copper within the structure can interact with the color oxidizing agent, which in turn can cause a small chemical reaction or micro-explosion within the hair,” explains Adam Reed. “This, in turn, means that the dyes can’t do their job fully, requiring more effort from the artist to achieve the desired result.”