I just got back from a business trip to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo is a nice enough town, but the water there is harder than a rock; when I soaped up in the shower I got a slimy film that just would not rinse off. I didn’t dare try to shampoo my hair.
I was finally desperate enough to stop at a drugstore and ask for help; but the gal I talked to was a recent arrival from Grand Rapids, and not very helpful.
This isn’t the first time I’ve run into this; the coastal towns here in Washington tend to have hard water, too.
So I appeal to Dopers who live in areas with hard water: What kind of soap do you use? i’ll buy a bar and throw it in my suitcase so i’m prepared next time.
In my experience, slime that won’t rinse off is caused by over-softened water, not by hard water. I’ve never had a problem rinsing off in a house that I knew had hard water, but pretty frequently do in homes with water softeners, and almost always in hotels.
I agree with Sattua, that slimy feel is from soft water, not hard. And it is not soap slime you are feeling, it is the natural slipperiness of your skin which you have never felt before because of soap residue in hard water. So it is the other way around.
I’m a little dubious about what you’re saying, Sattua and Fear Itself. I certainly can’t claim to be any expert, but in looking around, I see that Wikipedia says that the slime is a result of soap interacting with hard water:
“Hard water and soap combine to form “soap scum” that can’t be rinsed off, forming a “bathtub ring” on all surfaces, and it dries leaving unsightly spots on dishes.
Using soap on the body in hard water can cause the formation of a scum often referred to as “curd.” The formation of scum and curd is caused when calcium and magnesium form insoluble salts with anions. This curd remains on the skin even after rinsing, clogging pores and coating body hair.”
Kirk’s Original Coco Hardwater Castile Soap advertises it self as being good in hard water. Anybody have any experience with it?
Soap scum that forms in hard water has little to do with the slimy feel many experience when washing in soft water. No less than our own esteemed SDSABer **Una Persson ** has even taken on this subject in an official column:
If **Una’s ** research is good enough for **Cecil ** to put in his column space on the Straight Dope website, it’s good enough for me.
I agree with everyone who says the slimy feeling is from soft water. I know our water softener is out of salt when my hands drag roughly across my skin. The slimy feeling returns when our softener is working correctly.
I agree that hard water forms a soap scum residue but have never found it to be a slippery feeling residue. It’s more of a wet, grainy texture.
Also, when the water is hard my hair feels waxy after I rinse the shampoo out.
ZEST soap is made to work especially well in hard water. Or try a liquid soap which is actually a detergent and reacts in a different way than a soap with the hard water
I have tried castile soap and I find it harsh and drying.
If the problem is actually soap scum from hard water, the best solution (heh) is a synthetic detergent – either liquid body wash or a syndet bar like Lever 2000, which is highly regarded. If it’s a problem with softened water, then plain soap like Ivory will do ya fine.
You know, if you phone your water Municipality they will tell you in plain english whether your water is considered “hard” or “soft”. Every year we get a document from them providing chemical/mineral analysis. The first one that I looked at years ago made me think that the water was soft based on something in that doc. It intrigued me. I called them, and they confirmed that the water was indeed, soft.