A popular topic in beauty and self-care lately is all this talk about soft water and hard water on your skin and hair. Like most people, you’ve probably stopped and wondered: “wait a second, how can water be soft and hard?” It sounds kind of odd when you say it out loud!

Water hardness is the general classification of how much mineral content (mainly calcium and magnesium) is dissolved in the water. These minerals in the water are measured in PPM (parts per million.) The larger the number, the harder the water (more mineral content!)

This chart will help you visualize the science:

WATER TYPE; MINERAL CONTENT

Soft Water; 10-50 PPM
Slightly Hard Water; 50-100 PPM
Hard Water; 100-200 PPM
Very Hard Water; 200 PPM +

With the revolution of natural beauty, more and more people have been paying attention to every aspect of their beauty routine: including the quality of the water available! Who knows, maybe your water quality is a skin dryness culprit!

Fear not, we’ll explain the differences and how you can identify them! There are a couple of different properties to each type of water that you should be aware of:

HARD WATER

Using the chart above, you can see that “Hard Water” is classified as anything over 50PPM in mineral content. Some telltale signs of hard water include:

A film generated on your hands after washing with soap (caused by chemical reactions with the water and soap)
Spots appearing on dishes after running the dishwasher
Dramatically dry skin after showering or washing your face

Hard water can cause a few undesirable, but identifiable, effects on your skin! The higher than normal mineral content can clog your pores and promote breakouts as well as act abrasively and dry out healthy skin cells. This can happen to your face, scalp, or any part of your body in contact with the water.

SOFT WATER

Soft water can be classified as anything under 50PPM (see chart above.) Some signs of soft water are:

A good lather when scrubbing soap
No mineral stains or deposits on faucets or dishes
Natural oils staying on the skin after washing

Soft water is ideal when it comes to skincare and natural beauty because it preserves the natural oils in the skin. Feeling “squeaky clean” is not always a good thing as it is often an indicator that the soap and/or water has stripped your natural oils (and shine!) from your skin causing itchiness and ultimately chronic dry skin.

HOW CAN I CHECK?

There are a couple of ways to see what the water hardness in your home is:

Check with your city and gather a report that details the water coming to your home
Get an in-home PH or water hardness test from the store with a DIY test
Check your dishes and faucets for signs of calcium deposits

It’s good to know what kind of water you’re dealing with! If you find that the water is harder than you desire, there are water softeners that can be added to your water to get it to the desired mineral content.

We’ve included a link where you can find a water hardness test kit so you can go see for yourself what you have in your home!