How water could be making bad hair days even worse

Katie Rosseinsky asks experts about the damage minerals in hard water supply can do to your locks... and how to avoid it

- Katie Rosseinsky

Feel like every day is a bad hair day? Perhaps your mane is less crowning glory, more scarecrow mop every time you look in the mirror? You might spend an inordinate amount of time cursing your poor hairdresser or bemoaning the fact that none of your styling products seem to be working. But have you stopped to consider that the real culprit may be a stealthier villain? Could something as innocuous as water be to blame?

Recently, hairdressers in Bristol have been, well, tearing their hair out over concerns that the city’s hard water might be impacting their clients’ tresses. It might sound like an oxymoron, but water is described as hard when it contains high levels of minerals. One local stylist, Kelly Hill of Yours Truly hairdressers, told BBC News that one of her client’s hair “has been falling out and the quality of her hair has come down” ever since she arrived in the South West for university; others who are new to the area often suffer from similar problems, said Hill. For their part, Bristol Water stated that they “have not received any reports of these effects” and recommended anyone worried to consult their GP.

And yet if you’ve ever travelled somewhere new to find that your once glossy locks suddenly look lacklustre, greasy, and generally disappointing, you might be nodding in recognition, just like I did when reading Hill’s concerns. When I lived in London, a hard water hotspot, I had to wash my hair every other day without fail, otherwise it would start looking dull and frizzy. It also wasn’t long after a hairdresser’s appointment before my newly blonde colour developed a brassy, yellow hue. No amount of purple toning shampoo seemed to help.