Must you be showering with a filter? What specialists — and social media influencers — say concerning the results of laborious water.

What’s the reason for your dry pores and skin and frizzy, shedding hair? It could be your bathe water, based on TikTok. That’s what influencers selling bathe head filters for manufacturers like Jolie and Canopy are claiming in advertisements which have grow to be unavoidable on social media.

“I can’t imagine a showerhead was the reason for my pores and skin performing this unhealthy,” one girl says in a video for Jolie as she reveals off her blemishes. She then claims that her hair is “shedding much less” and her pores and skin has improved after she changed her showerhead with one of many model’s filtered fashions. In the meantime, a video for Cover’s related product claims that its filtered showerhead prevents hair breakage and promotes hair progress.

Does your showerhead actually make a distinction? Specialists say there could also be some fact to those claims.

Dr. Anna Chacon, a Florida dermatologist specializing in medical, surgical and beauty dermatology, tells Yahoo Life that it’s a matter of addressing hard water, which is frequent in lots of households. She says laborious water can harm scalp and pores and skin well being over time however might be filtered out to maintain hair and pores and skin “in optimum situation.”

However what is difficult water, what influence can it have and is a bathe filter a essential repair? Right here’s what you might want to know.

What is difficult water?

Laborious water is water that comprises “a excessive mineral content material and heavy metals,” mostly calcium and magnesium, based on Dr. Jeannette Graf, assistant medical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai College of Medication.

The minerals are pure to the water supply and rely on geographical location. A reported 85% of American homes have laborious water to a point, with Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Phoenix topping the listing of cities with the hardest water.

How do you know if your home has hard water? Dry, itchy pores and skin and lackluster hair are two signs indicating you do, together with a filmy residue in your bathe, in your dishes and even in your arms after washing. There are additionally methods to have your water tested for those who’re not sure.

Unfiltered bathe water may additionally include chlorine, which is commonly added as a disinfectant in public water programs.

How does it have an effect on hair and pores and skin?

The presence of calcium and sulfate in laborious water can result in buildup that Graf says can “intrude with the pores and skin barrier,” preserving skincare merchandise from correctly penetrating the pores and skin and doubtlessly blocking pores, which might “result in additional breakouts.”

Chacon provides that these minerals can equally be damaging to your hair. “The minerals present in laborious water can depart behind undesirable residue, which has a spread of unfavorable impacts,” together with stopping a full deep clear of the hair and scalp,” she says. “This coating and publicity to minerals prevents moisture from penetrating the person strands and might depart hair trying boring and dry. Publish bathe, it could even influence the general look and texture of hair in the long run.”

The extent of the harm to hair has been examined by way of a number of research. Whereas analysis finished in 2013 recommended that arduous water doesn’t intrude with the power and elasticity of hair, two follow-up research discovered that hair handled with laborious water could also be thinner and more susceptible to breakage. Claims of hair loss have but to be confirmed, although Graf says that mineral buildup can “forestall new hair progress.”

Chlorine is one other situation that the manufacturers behind showerhead filters declare to handle. “Any quantity of chlorine in unfiltered water might be sufficient to strip the pores and skin of its pure oils, thus making it vulnerable to sensitivity and irritation,” says Graf. “It may well trigger flakiness, extra dryness and exacerbate signs of current pores and skin situations, equivalent to eczema.”

Do you want a showerhead filter?

Probably, for those who aren’t already doing one thing to sort out laborious water at house. A showerhead filter is both a substitute or an attachment to your current showerhead, which permits for the filtration course of that conventional plumbing doesn’t have. Jolie and Cover, for instance, are showerheads that you simply set up instantly onto your water pipe. Each have a filter inside that’s to get replaced each 90 days.

It’s an alternative choice to water softeners, which is most frequently a tank that must be put in on the water supply to deal with the water earlier than it’s dispersed by way of taps. A showerhead filter could also be extra handy for individuals who don’t have entry to that supply, like anybody residing in an condo constructing. It’s additionally vital to notice that there are different (and extra inexpensive) options of showerhead filters outdoors of the manufacturers popularized by social media.

Graf says that showerhead filters “will take away extra and broader impurities and chemical substances from water” by neutralizing these substances because the water is popping out. Jolie, for instance, likens its filter to that of a Brita, utilizing water stress to push bathe water by way of the filter, the place a combo of KDF-55 and calcium sulfate work to take away chlorine and heavy metals.

“Over time, it could assist forestall undesirable buildup in your bathe and in addition in your hair and scalp,” says Chacon. “Altering your filter recurrently is vital for stopping buildup and making your system last more and be more practical.”

Showerhead filters (or different various) are particularly helpful for folks with pores and skin situations equivalent to dermatitis and eczema, as they may help them “preserve their signs at bay,” provides Graf, however she’d advocate them for anybody.

“Everybody can profit from having a water filter or softener, as it’s going to assist with hair progress and preserving your pores and skin clear,” she says.