If your hair suddenly feels drier than usual or the products you’ve loved for months suddenly don’t seem to be working anymore it’s easy to think, What happened to my hair? Do I need to switch products again? But before you add another product to your routine, I want you to look at something we don’t talk about nearly enough: your environment. Your hair is exposed to water every wash day, along with changes in the weather, humidity, sun, heat, and everything you put on it in between.
What your hair is exposed to can alter how your hair feels and one of the biggest culprits to this is the water coming out of your shower. If you have hard water, every wash can leave tiny amounts of minerals behind on your hair. Over time, that buildup changes the way your hair feels and how well your products work.
So before you toss your conditioner and start searching for the next “holy grail” product, there’s one question I want you to ask: Could it actually be your water?
So what is Hard Water?
In scientific terms, the hardness of water is determined by the amount of salts (calcium carbonate [CaCO3] and magnesium sulphate [MgSO4]) that are present in your water. However, hardness can also be caused by several other dissolved metals including aluminum, barium, strontium, iron, zinc, and manganese. Depending on the hardness of your water, you can sometimes feel a residue left on your hands after washing with soap, this is because soap reacts with the calcium, resulting in "soap scum."
Where is hard water most commonly found?
The crazy part is that a majority of people in the USA have hard water in their homes, yet most hair product can't remove this type of buildup. About 85% of the United States experiences hard water, which is most common in the Southwest, Midwest, and regions with high concentration of limestone and carbonate rocks that yield groundwater that is packed with calcium and magnesium.
Living in Florida, figuring this out changed my entire routine and the way that I formulate around how your environment impacts your hair, because most formulas ignore how hard water mineral causes severe breakage, buildup, and dryness over weeks and months of these minerals accumulating on your hair.
Hard water buildup on your curls over time
Nobody talks about what to do when your hair isn't absorbing anything anymore. and your "products" stop working. Over time, continuing to shower with hardwater minerals slowly build up around your hairs cuticle, reducing the absorption of water from penetrating and entering your hairs cortex.
This happens because the hard water metal ions are positively charge, whereas your hair strands has a negative charge. Opposite charges attract, so these minerals begin to bind to your hair and begin to buildup into tiny crystalline deposits along your hair strand.
Without the right shampoo, your water quality can quietly suffocate your hair follicles and begins to strip away moisture. The result leaves your curls unpredictable, leading to coating you can see and feel. Over time, your curls begin to feel dry and you'll notice a rougher surface that causes your hair to look dull, more friction, tangles, and curls that lose their bounce and definition.
Chelating shampoo Vs. Clarifying Shampoo
First things first, you cannot moisturize a coating away. You have to start removing what is sitting on your hair for your curls to come back. This requires you to treat your hair with a chelating shampoo. The key difference between a chelating shampoo and clarifying shampoo, is that clarifying shampoos are formulated for surface-level buildup like silicones, waxes, oils, and styling products by offering a deep cleanse with strong surfactants like SLS.
However, a chelating shampoo goes even deeper. It uses a special chemical agent that binds with stubborn mineral bond deposits on your hair, neutralizing these metal ions. Some of the most common ingredients found in these shampoos include EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid) compounds. This is the most widely recognized chelating agents in the industry (particularly Disodium EDTA) that binds with metal ions like calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, and lead.
EDTA and its environmental impact
Disodium EDTA has shown to one of the more effective chelators widely used. It is mildly acidic compared to EDTA acid and more practical to use in liquid formulations, easier to handle, and has a longer storage life. However, keeping this in mind, it is also considered to be an environmental pollutant that poorly biodegrades. It can absorb and remobilize heavy metals found in the environment. For this reason, I opted for a more sustainable option: Citric Acid. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic Citric acid is derived from citrus fruits, such as lemons and limes, but can also be produced through fermentation processes.
What to use to combat hard water
I formulated our Helix shampoo bar to keep your curls at the center. This formula is a balancing shampoo that offers acid support that binds with the minerals in your water to remove what's coating your curls and causing buildup. Because once you stop trying to feed your hair more products, you will notice your curls come back.
Citric acid is used in cosmetic and personal care products as a preservative, to adjust the pH, and to bind with hard water build up. However, it's not considered a "true chelator" like EDTA, despite many water treatment facilities showing it neutralizes metal ions like iron, manganese, and copper, preventing deposits and reducing staining or discoloration.
How often should you use Helix?
To treat hair damaged by hard water, use Helix once a week or every 3-4 days. This shampoo bar is multi-purposeful offering both clarifying and chelating benefit because it's more mild than EDTA. While Helix won’t leave your hair feeling stripped, if you have curls, I recommend saving it for when your hair needs that deeper reset and letting Clementine, our gentle, sulfate-free moisturizing curl shampoo handle your regular wash days.
Use it:
- Once or twice a month, if you have a shower filter or soft water
- After heavy swimming
- If you travel to a hard-water area
- Occasional reset, versus your regular curl wash
Will using a chelating shampoo remove hard water altogether?
If hard water is a permanent part of where you live, a chelating shampoo doesn’t stop new calcium and magnesium from depositing every time you wash. A chelating shampoo only resets the buildup that’s already on your hair. Instead, it makes more sense for you to prevent minerals from reaching your hair than to keep removing them afterward. Consider installing a filtered showerhead to prevent future deposits and always follow up with an intensive moisturizing mask or conditioner like our Haven conditioner bar.
Can I use a chelating shampoo on color-treated hair?
Absolutely, and realistically if you have bleached or colored hair it often needs it more. This is because chemical processing makes your hair bind to minerals faster. One thing to keep in mind if your hair is color-treated or toned: a thorough chelating wash may slightly fade deposited toner. I recommend timing your deeper mineral-removal wash before your next toner refresh rather than immediately after one.
And don’t skip conditioning! Follow with conditioner to bring softness and slip back to your hair. If you’re maintaining blonde, silver, or cool tones, pair your chelating wash with our Electra toning Shampoo or Solstice Conditioner to help keep unwanted warmth in check.
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Citations:
Citric acid for water treatment. Water Solutions Unlimited. (2025, June 24). https://www.getwsu.com/chemicals/citric-acid/
Hinners TA, Terrill WJ, Kent JL, Colucci AV. Hair-metal binding. Environ Health Perspect. 1974;8:191–199.
Evans AO, Marsh JM, Wickett RR. The structural implications of water hardness metal uptake by human hair. Int J Cosmet Sci. 2011;33:477–482.
Sengupta P. Potential health impacts of hard water. Int J Prev Med. 2013 Aug;4(8):866-75. PMID: 24049611; PMCID: PMC3775162.
Smart KE, Kilburn M, Schroeder M, et al. Copper and calcium uptake in colored hair. J Cosmet Sci. 2009;60(3):337–345.
Srinivasan G, Srinivas CR, Mathew AC, Duraiswami D. Effects of hard water on hair. Int J Trichology. 2013 Jul;5(3):137-9. doi: 10.4103/0974-7753.125609. PMID: 24574692; PMCID: PMC3927171.