If you have dandruff, and/or an itchy scalp then one of the causes of this could be the water you’re drinking and showering in.
In this module you’ll learn how water affects your hair and what to do about it.
Dandruff and scalp irritation can make hair loss much worse and lead to weak hair growth. If you’re dehydrated your hair will also become dehydrated, leading to brittle, thin and lifeless hair.
Drinking water
The water you drink affects your hair in a few different ways.
Firstly if you aren’t drinking enough water you’ll be dehyrated and your hair will also be dehydrated.
You’ll also put extra strain on your liver and kidney which can have an impact on hair loss.
Dandruff is also made worse my dehydration.
The solution is to drink more/better water. I recommend aiming for 3 litres of high quality water per day.
We generally want to avoid bottles water as the plastic bottles can leak chemicals into the water which can be harmful and disrupt our hormonal system. Glass bottles are fine, but are expensive of course.
Tap water is not ideal either. Most tap water contains many harmful chemicals, bacteria and heavy metals. It also contains fluorides which can damage your gut health.
The best option is to distill your water and then re-add minerals by adding a pinch of sea salt.
The second best option is to filter your tap water using a simple filter such as Berkey or Brita.
Aim to drink 3 litres of distilled or filtered water per day.
Summary:
Drink 3 litres of high quality filtered or distilled water each day.
Shower water
Shower water can also damage your hair directly. In areas of hard water the calcium can leave your hair brittle and cause irritation as well.
Other chemicals found in tap water can also have a damaging and irritating effect on the hair and scalp.
Hot water especially can be very damaging to the hair.
The solution is to use a shower filter to remove as much of the calcium and other harmful additions from your shower water as possible.
I won’t recommend one shoer filter in particular because what is available across the world and what is currently the best priced/highest performing filter will change.
Most shower filter you can buy from amazon will be suitable to remove most of the harmful contaminants from your shower water and will be much better than nothing.
Summary:
Add a shower filter to your shower and use only cold/cool water on your hair.