Washing hair in salty water

[SharpLily]

For various (unavoidable) reasons our water is currently crap. It's incredibly hard, which is never good for my hair, and now it's even salty too. This situation will be fixed in time but right now I have no choice but to live with it and it's destroying my hair. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to mitigate the damage a bit, other than the usual regular deep conditioning which isn't really touching the problem? I have tried using bottled water for a final rinse but I have quite a lot of hair and it's not proving very practical.

Some form of shampoo/conditioner/treatment designed for use after swimming in the sea? I'm sure I used to have a range from Boots that was branded as such.

Short term gym membership and wash there if you have the cash

www.purpleturtle.co.uk/product/sea-water-shampoo-and-shower-gel-169/

Water filter like a Britta?

A childhood friend of mine had very dry hair (she herself described it as ‘rope hair’) and once per week her mother would put a clutched raw egg in her hair as a treatment which apparently worked very well to add some moisture and softness. I have no idea if it really works because I have never tried it on my hair.

Need to add she would leave the egg in her hair for I think about 30 minutes and then rinse.

The problem is, whatever product you use, you are having to rinse it out with salty water, undoing all the good work!

Please remember to rinse the egg out with cold water

(Bitter experience...)

Can I ask why your water is salty? Surely it's not drinkable?

@FleetwoodRaincoat

Can I ask why your water is salty? Surely it's not drinkable?

No, not drinkable. Not in the UK, not on mains water supply.

Yes, @Maflingo, this is exactly the problem. I'm very careful to use good quality products and treat my hair well but it's chocolate teapot stuff under the circumstances. However the Purple Turtle products could be worth a try.

Washing my hair elsewhere has been done but I find it hard work on a regular basis.

I think I'd wash it elsewhere when you're able to and not wash it the rest of the time. Run some oil through the lengths and ends to detangle it if it gets dried out and plait it to keep it tidy. I'd rather do that and wash it weekly or fortnightly than wash it more often using salt water. A dense bristles brush will help distribute your scalp oils along the rest of the hair shaft too. If your scalp gets insanely itchy, facial cleanser and toner on cotton wool pads is better than nothing although it is time consuming.

Get a Britta water filter jug a easier time refill and keep using for final rinse 🚿?

Try putting a lot of cheap conditioner in your hair before you wet it. Leave it a few minutes. Then shampoo it out . I think using bottled water

might be the only real answer. If you do this,it's more water-efficient to use something like a washing up bowl to soak hair before shampooing and then reuse the water to soak off shampoo. Dunk your head in the bowl. If you do that, try using a much smaller and milder amount of product than normal. With really pure water you can get away with a third or even a quarter of the product you use in hard London water. Your scalp needs washed more frequently than the lengths so use a bowl and bottled water to wash it regularly and minimise how ofter you wash the rest.

Id wash it with bottled water - 30p for 2 litres ?

As an interim measure

Or set up a rainwater catch outside and use rainwater (this will not work in Dubai 😁)

I don't know about the salt but found that an apple cider vinegar rinse made a real difference with hard south London water. A jug or two of filtered water would be even better for this

Try the final rinse with conditioner and (warmed) bottled water. Multi packs at the supermarket are reasonable.

Can you boil and cool water and use that?

@LemonKitten - Boiling salt water will not remove the salt.

[quote StarlightLady]@LemonKitten - Boiling salt water will not remove the salt.[/quote]
Yeah I remembered that after posting - all that distilling crap at school lol

This may help though waterfiltercast.com/how-to-remove-salt-from-water/

Basically there's no quick and easy fix then! I shall continue to do a final rinse with bottled water while we wait for our new filter to be fitted then - I was hoping I'd find a shortcut in the form of a magic shampoo and conditioner but it doesn't look like such a thing exists.