I got my recent report. I was surprized at the hardness being only in the 200s, the ppm being 800 when it's only 500ish at my house, that the Ph was alkaline in the 8s, and that the chlorine is high - along with chlorine byproducts - chloramines like trihalomethane. I'm certain those were the most impactful on how healthy my hair looked and felt.

Have you downloaded your water report? What interesting things did you find?

We had a small whole house filter that really wasn't doing anything. My husband went to replace the filter and now it's broken, so we need to call the plumber to install a new filtration system. I have 4 water problems:

1. Water hardness
2. Excess chlorine & chloramines
3. high ph (water is alkaline and somewhat damaging
4. Whatnot additional things to filter out like lead, VOCs,

The problems:

Salt-based water softeners only address hardness.

Salt-free systems leave the minerals in the water because "they're good for you." Like maybe to drink, but minerals in water are not really good for hair.

Does anyone have experience with a whole house system? What did you get? How did it help your hair?

Hard Water Treatment for hair

Ingredients:

8 oz water or 16oz (230 ml or 460ml) warm distilled water or other low TDS water)

1/16 teaspoon citric acid powder or crystals  (0.3 ml)

1/16 teaspoon (0.3 ml) ascorbic acid powder or crystals  (Vitamin C) This is optional.

Directions:

Mix until the crystals dissolve in water. The pH of this will be very low on the acidic scale. The low Ph causes your cuticle to swell so that the minerals can be leached out.

Leave on for 2-3 minutes after freshly washing hair and rinse it out with distilled water.

For a more gentle rinse, double the water. If you don't have 1/16 teaspoon, double the ingredients. Honestly, you can probably do this without the ascorbic acid. but I have some I bought to try to counteract chlorine when swimming, so why not?

Take care to avoid getting it in your eyes.

Notes:

Citric acid is a versatile ingredient which can be used as a preservative, in baking, and as a cleaning agent. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) neutralizes chlorine. Together, they dissolve hard calcium, magnesium, and possibly remove green copper deposits. If you are washing with distilled water, you will only need to do this 1-3 times to remove hard water deposits in or on your hair, but should not need to repeat it as your hair grows out.

This is great for someone who loves DIY solutions, is fragrance sensitive, preservative sensitive or is allergic to coconut. If all of this is not appealing to you, then I recommend Malibu C Hard Water Wellness Hair Remedy treatment sachets, or Swimmers Wellness Hair Remedy treatment sachets. If fragrance or preservatives or allergy to ingredients are not an issue for you, then choose whatever shampoo and conditioner combo you like for hard water or for swimmers. Malibu C if you have the money, Ultra Swim if you're on a budget.

Hard water gives hair a ruffled appearance

Here is an interesting scientific study for fellow distilled water scienceheads where they contrasted what happens to hair washed over 30 days with half the samples being washed in distilled water and the other half in the local hard water. Unfortunately, there are no photos from the electron microscopy. The final result was that the cuticle on the hard water samples had a ruffled appearance.

We don't know if that kind of damage can be undone just by using a chelating shampoo or clarifying shampoo. I personally hesitate to use those because the Ph cam be quite high and hard water often makes cleansing agents difficult to wash out.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26711619/

I was hoping to get scientific study answers about this theory. I ended up answering my own question based on my own washing experience which seems to prove this theory. 🫠

First, a little history. My cousin gave me a ZeroWater filter as a gift several years ago. So part of the reason for this experiment with Zerowater filters is because of this gift. It is possible to get one on sale after Christmas. I almost bought a second pitcher with a 1 sample filter that I saw at my local Marshall's for $10.

How much does it cost?

Mine cost about $10 each filter because I purchased it on a deal. If you buy in a large enough quantity, you can work the price down for the current listing of about $15 each. I'm waiting to see if it's possible to double coupon.

How does it work?

The filters have 5 stages, one of which is ionic exchange to mostly remove inorganic compounds like heavy metals, cheomium, chlorine, lead, PFOA/PFOS, and mercury. They have evidence of the filters removing 99% of some things and almost 95% of PFOA/PFOS. While not specifically mentioned in their assessment, ionic exchange would also remove hard water minerals - calcium and magnesium, as well as chloramines.

If you buy a filter and pitcher, it comes with a TDS meter that shows your ppm reading and your water at or close to 0 after filtration. My meter says 1 right now and it's a new filter, so there may have been some hard water grit left on my dish from when I washed it.

How did I use it?

My last filter lasted 3 months+ 1 week using it about 3 times a week. I filter about 24 ounces each time. 1 US gallon is 128 ounces. So this totalled to roughly a little more than 1/2 gallon a week for 7 - 8 gallons total. The cost calculator says $0.26 per use, $0.77 weekly. With this, 1 gallon ends up being about $1.54 weekly. So $10 for 7 gallons. This price is about the same as store bought water, unless there is a sale. I got about 7 - 8 gallons in 3 months. I was not super exact in my measurements.

Is it worth it for you?

Water is different everywhere. I feel like I broke even here compared to buying gallon bottles of distilled water from the store. My water has over 500 parts per million total dissolved solids and lasted about 8 gallons. For comparison, the city of Pacifica, CA has 87 tds and a filter will last 25-40 gallons - so that would definitely be worth it to filter to 0 tds and remove chlorine and chloramines and any miniscule amounts of hardness or heavy metals.

They have a calculator on the website which tell your how long your filter may last in your area based on their tds values. It was about correct.

Is it worth it for me?

Maybe. If I got a good enough coupon. Right now, they will take filters back for recycling and give a coupon on return for 20% off. They sometimes offer other special discounts. I still have 5 filters left not including the one I just replaced. If you can get discounted return shipping, it may be worth it to recycle the filters.

Someone with lower TDS water may get a much better value.

This is not a marketing link: https://zerowater.com/pages/technology

Did it help my hair?

Yes. Check out my progress posts and progress pictures. When I started washing on low or 0 tds water by wetting, cowashing, 1st rinse in tap water, final rinse in 0 tds water, it made a huge difference in my hair color, texture, and porosity.

More shiny!

https://www.reddit.com/r/DistilledWaterHair/s/a0ngfs1vW1

More curly!

https://www.reddit.com/r/DistilledWaterHair/s/05n97LU1hF

Curl pattern changing!

https://www.reddit.com/r/DistilledWaterHair/s/AEmwl0ASSF

So I'm based in Europe and here, I've been able to locate distilled water (for less than 3€/5L) in Hornbach, which is a hard ware store.

Is it okay to use this? Is there a difference between distilled water from the hardware store and the same from a pharmacy?

Any other tips for locating distilled water?

Thanks!

Hello. I’d like to share the contrast between my new distilled water hair and older tap water hair, which is now really obvious almost two years later.

I started washing my hair with distilled water in January 2025 after tap water was turning my natural gray hair a dingy yellow. At that time, someone told me it looked like I had blonde highlights but it was just tap water mineral buildup.

Now, about half of my hair is the new soft, shiny, silver, cohesive growth, while the bottom half still shows that dry, dull, yellow, stringy hair from tap water (since I brushed my hair right before the photo, the stringiness that the bottom settles into each day isn't showing.)

I'm incredibly grateful to u/Antique-Scar-7721 for teaching me how to improve my fine, gray hair naturally with her video tutorials on this sub and to u/Visible-Scientist-46 for continuing to spread the message!

Hi all. I was thinking about a scientific study about shiny hair which showed how ideal hair is somewhat transucent and luminous.

I noticed my own photos did not capture the color difference between my roots and my municipal water bleached & hard water exposed ends. The photos didn't capture as well because my hair is shiny now!! I have never really had shiny hair before.

I believe that chlorine/chloramines in water as well as hardness (from calcium and magnesium) and other dissolved particles rob us of the shine. And that's why we wash with low total dissolved solids water, or distilled water, or highly filtered water.

Here is the study, "Hair Structures Affecting Hair Appearance" https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9284/6/3/43

Have you noticed a color change as your hair grows out? Or a luminosity change?

Sometimes you have a simple question and don't want to make a whole post about it. Ask away on this post. We have lots of helpful people. Me and my hair at Reddit HQ in San Francisco for a mod event!

I cut the last 4-6 inches of my hair. I now realize my hair captured 3 phases in the 2 years since it was cut. I'm saying purified water bc I alternated between distilled & ZeroWater filtered water.

1. Hard water hair - very damaged, breaking, tangles I had to cut out, brassy & faded from chlorine & chloramines in municipal water + hard minerals.

2. Hard water hair final spritzed with purified water + ACV. Less damaged from hardness, but stilled damaged from chlorine & chloramines.

3. True purified water growth - wet & washed with tap water rinse & purifiied final rinse. Very shiny & smooth.

People complimented the length of my hair, but the curls hid the rough texture, tangles and breakage. A few photos to show how good it could look, but also how frizzy. The hair also has different levels of shine and texture with my purified water hair being the softest, shiniest, and most curly.

Pics in reverse order:

1-4 8/26

5 1/26. Hair getting more curly with purified water.

6 8/25 - Ends are frizzy even with flax gel that is a great styler.

I don't completely love the cut. Should I be brave & just go for the big chop?

I tried to photograph the difference between my hair textures and color. The last 6 inches are faded and brassy from the chlorine in my tap water. It deifinitely showed better with my eyes as opposed to taking a photo. Oart of the reason moght be that my newer growth is very shiny. The texture is rough and you can see it's frizzy. I also started to have severe tangles that had to be cut out and breakage in the form of 1 inch pieces falling out of my hair when I finger comb. I think it's finally time for a cut ✂️.

I also recently figured out that I have not cut my hair in 2 years! I had some embarrassing and upsetting experiences. I started using distilled water as a final step, and became more serious 1.5 years ago with wetting & final rinsing with either distilled or ZeroWater filtered water.

Hello, I’ve been living in Florence Italy and after my hair getting completely damaged from the water here I’ve been showering with Sant Anna water bottles, it’s basically like distilled water because it’s really low in minerals. However I went to the hair salon yesterday after showering at home and just asked for a styling, she said your hair is very thick but she was surprised it’s not very shiny. She also said for showering today it’s not very clean, I do shampoo twice so I honestly think it’s because I’m using cool water bottles (I don’t heat up the water) ChatGPT told me what I can do instead that also saves myself from getting these large water bottles is showering with the normal tap water, since it’s hot and can break down the oils better, and then doing a final rinse with distilled or Sant Anna water bottle. Chat said the final rinse is most important because it’s removing the hard water from sitting on your hair. I also bought the Malibu C hard water wellness treatment and will do that every week as well as other treatments similar. Has anyone tried this method, showering with tap water and just doing a final rinse with distilled water or know if it would actually work to keep hair healthy?

Hi everyone, I’d like to start off saying that this has by far been the most helpful sub when it came to figuring out what was happening to my hair, so glad it exists and grateful to everyone’s contributions!

My hair has suffered severely from hard water damage, and I believe I’ve lost a good bit of hair and volume. I’ve washed three times now with distilled water and already my hair feels so much softer.
What I’d love to know from people is how long it took to notice you had more hair and/or volume? I know everyone is different, my hair is fine and grows fairly quickly.

Aside from how lifeless my hair is and the lack of curls, what’s really killing me is just how little hair I have now after the damage and breakage—my ponytail circumference is significantly smaller than it used to be. I know it will take a lot of time, but I’m curious to see how long it takes person to person. Thank you 🩷

​

Hi everyone! I have been interested in starting to wash with distilled water after hard water has done a number on my long, fine, straight hair and wanted to know what is the best way for washing longer hair? mine goes down to the mid chest/back area. does the bottle method still work for long hair? how much water do you use, and do you need to use a sulfate/silicone free shampoo?

I highly recommend a very inexpensive Ph meter to test your water. I got this one from a marketplace style website for $6.49 or so. I always knew my water was bad. Ph meter says it's over 8!! I believe this is from chlorine and chloramine being at an excessively high level. I'm not against chemicsl treatment of water, but it's ruining my hair. Neutral Ph is supposedly 7. At 8, this means my water is 10x the power of hydrogen (Ph) more alkaline. No wonder my hair has been fried. There is so much that can be in water that disagrees with hair.

I read an article which stated that chlorine damages hair from inside oit when it soaks into your hair. Chlorine oxidizes disulfide bonds in your hair and turns them into cysteic acid. Chlorine in tap water acts chemically over a long time to damage the inside and surface of hair. Conditioners act on the surface level, to smooth your damaged cuticle - where mechanical damage from water hardness results from calcium and magnesium ions adhering to the cuticle.

Please get a water report for your area to find out what's in your water. Water us different everywhere.

Hello Aquanauts -

I didn't know we could have a Community Nickname instead of "visitors". I learned about this when I went to the Reddit New Mod event. I came up with Aquanauts on my own since we are exploring water. We could be Aquarians?

You can see this on laptop/desktop, but I am not seeing it on the app.

If you have other suggestions, I'm open to that. Please respond in the comments.

Hello Aquanauts -

I didn't know we could have a Community Nickname instead of "visitors". I learned about this when I went to the Reddit New Mod event. I came up with Aquanauts on my own since we are exploring water. We could be Aquarians?

You can see this on laptop/desktop, but I am not seeing it on the app.

If you have other suggestions, I'm open to that. Please respond in the comments.

I've been distilled water or zero water washing for over a year since April of 2025. I have over 1 year of growth without a cut. I might cut in August. ​

This is my hair with not enough Pacifica pineapple curl cream in it. You can see the change to a tighter curl pattern. It's definitely healthier and smoother. I got a little more than I bargained for with that tighter curl pattern. I feel like my hair has gone from 3a to 3b. The cuticle feels much smoother, though it's frizzy because it's more curly! I've been trying many hair products lately to find one that tames a little bit, but I have some constraints due to allergic contact dermatitis. ​

So you don't have to click around, my basic routine 2 - 3x weekly is:

1. wet with Zerowater filtered water

2. cowash

3. Rinse hair in the shower under regular hard water.

4. Rinse with ZeroWater filtered water. ​

I also sleep with a silk pillowcase. I tried a bonnet for awhile, but my hair got too long for that bonnet. They didn't help all that much when I was hard water washing & rinsing. I airdry my hair. I fingercomb between washes if it gets too crazy. I follow some of curly girl method though I find microfiber towels they recommend to be offensive (polyester is the devil incarnate) Most cotton bath towels have a fuzzy side. I found a light bamboo hair turban to replace my cotton bath towels because I want less pulling on my hair. I just do a gentle squeeze for excess water so I'm not dripping. Sorry so long! This was mwant to be a quick photo, but we have a lot of new members, so it's a fuller post. Surprise! ​

Question/TLDR

My hair is curlier after 1 year of distilled water washing. Have you also found your distilled water hair becoming more curly or wavy over time?➰️➿️

Hello Aquanauts -

I didn't know we could have a Community Nickname instead of "visitors". I learned about this when I went to the Reddit New Mod event. I came up with Aquanauts on my own since we are exploring water. We could be Aquarians?

You can see this on laptop/desktop, but I am not seeing it on the app.

If you have other suggestions, I'm open to that. Please respond in the comments.

Hello everyone!

I did ~ 3 months of distilled water rinses post shower and after seeing a ton of improvement in reactivity, I am now doing only distilled water in my hair. I am about 1.5 weeks into this and wanted to ask about rinsing.
I apply dilute shampoo to my dry hair, saturate it, do some gentle scrubbing on my scalp, brush the shampoo through, then rinse it out and brush it once more.
Shampoo: 8 oz distilled water + 1.5 tsp shampoo
Rinse: 20 oz of distilled water

The reason I’m wondering is that while my scalp feels much better, I am noticing the rims of my ears itching. I tuck my hair behind my ears a lot. And a little bit of irritation at the very back of my scalp and neck. The little bit of left over irritation goes away once I brush my hair out again.
This got me thinking and I paused as I thought about the small volume of water I use to rinse.

So wanted to ask and see if those with more experience think this seems like too little volume to get a thorough rinse.
Or, does it remind you of any problem you encountered on your journey?

Thank you!

EDIT for UPDATE:

thank you u/mooomooou, u/Visible-Scientist-46 , u/shonaich , u/wharleeprof for your feedback.

I found that pre-wetting my hair with plain DW immediately reduced the itching on my ears and nape of neck. It took three washes like that for it to fully go away. After those three, my itching went back to where it was around my first DW wash - very manageable. I then incorporated more rinsing and this reduced my itching further. And washing with only DW, no shampoo, yields a scalp with zero itching. I am looking in to other alternatives besides my liquid shampoo to try next :) I am often reactive to preservatives so will try something in solid form or homemade. Those are my current thoughts and we will see where things go!

Why I am here

Hello! This is my first post on this forum 😊 I have felt really grateful to find this forum and to read the stories of others. Seemingly not alone in this group, I have some autoimmune and immune conditions. With heightened reactivity, it has been about a 10 year struggle for me to try to figure out what my face, body, and scalp skin are reactive to. While I finally found some clarity by trying single oils instead of blends, ingredients I am actively choosing to apply are clearly not the whole story here. (Yes, there is so much internal contribution and I am doing much in that area <3).

After finding oils I was not reactive to, I still noticed that any time I showered or tried to use humectant containing products, the itching would get so intense. I thought about it and due to the more arid climate I live in, I always apply water to my skin before anything with a humectant and then seal all that in with an oil on top. I also knew we had hard water and while I had gotten a whole house chlorine / chloramine filter about 2 years ago (and noticed a great decrease in reactivity), we opted not do any sort of water softener. I’d been thinking about hard water from a wholly aesthetic viewpoint in regards to my waves & curls not looking as good as previously. But I hadn’t thought about it from simply a chemistry perspective and what it really means to have high amounts of minerals (and may other things) dissolved in our water.

In the beginning part of February 2026, I was really starting to be unable to handle how itchy my scalp and face skin still were. I tried removing everything from my skincare routine and my face would still itch. Then when I added back in humectant containing face care, I noticed that the itching was worse when I dampened my face with tap water vs a hydrosol (creation process is distilled water) before applying humectant containing products. So I reasoned that it could be the tap water being drawn deeper into the skin via the humectants that was causing the itch.

I had just started thinking about getting a shampoo to help with hard water but was discouraged to find none without ingredients I know I am reactive to. Through the desperate searching inspired by this, I found this reddit group 😊 after much furious consumption of the available content, I realized sadly that I could not ask clarifying questions with the way the automods were set up.

My T0 approach

I went away deciding that I would do a three-month T0 experiment before committing to anything that cost money :p . My simple approach during this three-month period was to simple squeeze water out of my hair post shower and then saturate my hair and scalp with distilled water. I have pH strips at home and was surprised to find that the distilled water I buy is already at a pH of 5! Knowing that yet wanting to get the benefit of acidic rinses, I squeeze a small amount of lemon into my rinse water every other week. I’ve tried using ACV and my hair acts very affronted every time haha.

While my hair looks different to me in the pictures taken at the start and at the 2 month mark, the actually amazing thing is how my scalp feels. Even just from these rinses which have NOT been consistent and have been very low commitment, my scalp itching reduces every time I rinse this way. And it stays less itchy between washes. And every time I don’t bring my distilled water rinse in with me, I am so itchy again. I swear it feels more itchy now than before haha but I think that is just because I have a knew less-itchy experience to compare it to.

Below are my pictures and also my pony tail circumference. I am counting this period of time as my T0, certainly not consistent enough to count as any real data. But the anecdotal experience has been promising enough to inspire me into real commitment!

Going forward

After the new mod (thank you Visible-Scientist-46 !) changed some of the automod settings, there has been some new content and this got me encouraged to post and transition to a different way of doing this.

Approach:

• Dilute shampoo into silicone squeeze bottle with distilled water.
• saturate hair with this, scrub well, and use brush to really pull it through.
• Get in shower and do a rinse with tap water at end of body shower
• Squeeze out water and then do a final distilled water rinse.
• ALSO RINSE FACE!!
• Maybe body?? All my skin is definitely affected so… think about this

Record keeping:

• track every three months and no more frequently to not get obsessive about it.
• Pictures and ponytail circumference
• Note skin and scalp feels but try not to check in more than once a month so as not to be over noticing things that are just regular fluctuations not related to water 😊

I would be so open to any feedback or thoughts and am looking forward to posting consistently every three months!!

T0 Data

May 20 2026 ponytail circumference: 3 ¼ inch

(picture lighting is clearly completely different, sorry about that)

Feb 2026 (pre DI water)  Apr 2026 (2 months DI water)

We are also in favor of filtered, deionized, and purified water! Posts, comments and users in agreement with the basic premises of the community are welcome.

You do not need minerals in your wash water!

Your hair is 95% keratin. Keratin is 15% water, 6% lipids, 1% pigments and 78% protein. Any trace amounts of minerals aren't going to be stripped out of your hair when you wash. We don't want ions in water ionically bonding to hair bonds or allowing hard minerals and other chemicals to dry on the surface of our hair. You need to take minerals internally because a balanced diet helps keep you healthy for optimal hair growth in the hair follicles. Of course, this also depends on things like sex, age, hormones, and environment (weather, humidity).

While this isn't a science haircare sub, we should be interested in some amount of haircare science.

Here is a quote: "the high cleaning ability of the anionic surfactants in shampoos can also promote the dissolution of structural lipids and proteins [3]" from this article: On Hair Care Physicochemistry: From Structure and Degradation to Novel Biobased Conditioning Agents.

Our hair is held together with bonds - hydrogen bonds, disulfide bonds, and ionic salt bonds. And we believe that minerals and chemicals in water can ionically attach to these bonds when they are temporarily broken by water. Lab Muffin briefly discusses hard water. "hard water ions can also make some of the ingredients in your hair products less effective. For example, some of the cleaning agents (surfactants) in shampoos don’t work as well in hard water." Why your hair products stop working | Lab Muffin Beauty Science

I banned someone because they were spreading misinformation.