Hair | Hair Care Range That Guarantees Water Isn't Too Hard (Or Soft!) On Hair

[The Ed.]

What if getting the right shampoo wasn't about matching the product to your hair type but to your water type? London hairdresser, Patrick Lehane, decided to tackle this problem head on (excuse the pun) when he got a number of customer complaints about the negative effect that the different types of water had on their hair.

Lehane decided to develop a hair care range tailored specifically to fight the effects of hard and soft water. Designed and developed by bio-chemists, the range spent 6 long years in clinical trials during which scientists examined the mineral properties of each kind of water type to see how they affected hair.

What the water boffins discovered was that metal ions, present in all types of water, react with shampoo and form mineral deposits that cling to hair. Area H20 is designed to act as a magnet to attract these pesky mineral ions allowing us to wash them away more easily, leaving hair feeling noticeably cleaner, smoother, shinier and less flyaway.

Area H20 is a range of shampoos and conditioners designed to work with hard, medium and soft water. Even more, they both contain a pH of 5.5 - the body's natural pH.

But, you may well ask, how do you know what type of water you have? Good question.

If you have hard water your hair is probably rough and hard to untangle. In hard water regions mineral deposits, basically limescale, are left in the hair after shampooing making it hard to get a sleek and shiny appearance. Hard water won't make much of a lather either.

If, however, you are in a soft water area your hair may feel lank and lifeless. Soft water tends to lather pretty well but leaves a 'slippery feeling' on the skin. Due to the sodium content of softened and desalinated water, it's not so good at combining with soapy film making it harder to rinse off.

If any of this makes sense to you and you're sat there thinking, "Oh...that's what that is," (like I was) then maybe you should head over the AreaH2O and see what they've got going on.

Until then...geek on!

The Ed.

 

[nicole333]

Thanks for this Ed. I live in a hard water area and notice a real difference in how my hair feels when I visit family in Bristol, where it is softer.

I will be checking this out. :biggrin:


Edit...

Oh interesting! They have Bristol down as hard, but believe me, my hair is silky soft after washing when I'm there.

 

[dandelionpoppy]

As a consumer, not a hairdresser, this makes very interesting reading. I definitely notice an improvement when I'm in a soft water area, as opposed to the hard water at my home.
If the science works must be better for the scalp, too.

 

[Tomme]

Was about to post about hard water but done a search and seen this.
Really shocked how bad my hair feels now, iv never been anywhere with hard water until this week and can't stand it, any ideas on a good product I can get from most salons for this? What do you geeks in hard water areas recommend for bleached hair? No idea where the nearest warehouse is to Skegness but seen quite a few salons. Can't wait until Saturday to get to normal water and be able to drink from a tap and wash my hair and body without a bad taste and feeling dry and like iv been in the sea xoxo

 

[persianista]

Drink from a tap? Yikes!

I'm in a hard water area, most of London is. Whenever I go to a soft water area, my hair is vile, way too soft and flat, bit lank. I often switch to a pure protein shampoo to counter the soft water and give my hair some oomph.

Shampoos don't lather well here, so we use Pureology in the salon which lathers really well.
In hard water, just use the right shampoo and conditioner and your hair will be fine.

Incidentally, you can buy tea made especially for London water.