(Possibly) hard water and skin health

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi. My name is Cookies, and I’m a 33 year old woman who has been breaking out like a 13 year old for the past few weeks.

I’m seriously getting zits in places that I’ve never had them before, and I think it has something to do with our water supply. We moved into this house back in March. I’ve not noticed anything odd about my skin until a few weeks ago, about the same time that I noticed that some of the holes in our shower head were clogging, with some white powdery build-up. There was some sort of issue with our water recently as well. Coupled with some interesting “facts” about the chemical signature of our water that have been relayed to us by our landlord, it is the best guess I have as to what is going on with my skin.

We get our water from the same spring as our landlords, who live in a house right next door to ours. The houses are on a 4 acre parcel up in the rural Santa Cruz Mountains, about 5 miles south/southwest of Los Gatos.

The first interesting thing I learned about our water supply upon moving in, is that our landlord testifies that he only has to use very little chlorine to treat the pool that we also share with them. It was a brief conversation, a few months ago now, and wine was involved (mostly on his side) but what I recall him saying was something to the effect of the water having such a high mineral content, that the chlorine can be titrated to the desired levels at a much lower concentration than most other pools. When he took his pool water in to be tested at some point, the technician said “there’s no chlorine in it”. But my landlord assured him that he had indeed added some chlorine, and stopped when the indicator that comes with his treatment chemicals told him to stop. He seems to trust whatever titration test he uses with his pool chemicals more than whoever this testing technician was. He is convinced that only a small amount of chlorine is needed. I swam in this pool over the summer, and it is always quite sparkling clean and free of any algae or slimes or weird smells (including the smell of chlorine). The only thing I’ve ever seen in it are a few bugs and leaves that fall or blow in.

Being a rural mountain area, our landlords warned us that occasionally things go wonky with the water pipes coming down to the houses from the spring, but they usually discover and fix it quickly. A few weeks ago, when turning on the kitchen sink, it sputtered and coughed with air in the lines, and then ran dirty for a bit. It cleared up within a few minutes. We noticed the discolored water for about a day or so, mostly in the toilet bowl. I took a shower the following morning, and everything seemed fine, when the undeniable smell of onions or garlic started to build in the steam.

It was really early in the morning, and I was really tired, but I swear that is what it smelled like. Mrs. WeHaveCookies showered after I did, and she said she could still smell it, but only a little bit.

My skin and hair seem to get oily and dirty much faster now than they have in the past, which sounds like symptoms of hard water based on what I’ve been reading.

I’d like to get a home testing kit and see what I can see. Any dopers out there have similar experiences? Anecdotes? Traditional home remedies? Product recommendations?

2

If you have hard water, you typically have to use more soap/shampoo/whatever to get clean.

As far as your hair being more oily than normal try a clarifying shampoo once a week or every other week to help remove mineral buildup.

We have very hard water here in Nevada. If it were any harder it would come out as little rocks :slight_smile: I have had very good luck with that Dr. Bronners cleanser for cleaning the body. I also use fru fru shampoo for my colored/abused high maintenance hair so YMMV vary there. Mr Geek uses the cheapest shampoo possible and he has no problems with his hair.

High mineral content in the water tends to lead to higher chlorine demand to keep chlorine residuals at appropriate levels. But the pool is safe for swimming, if it is as you described (Mr Geek worked at a pool store for years through college).

The onion/garlic smell could be attributed to some sulphur in the water, but at those levels drinking the water might make you ill (think diarrhea. Also If you have any cast iron piping or steel pipes those metals can give off a garlic or oniony smell when exposed to acids (see here)

If you are truly concerned about yor water quality you should be able to contact a local water company about having your water tested. Since you are on a well/spring it might cost you money out of pocket, but usually having a suite of basic water quality samples only costs a few hundred dollars.

see all of above.

3

Great stuff. Thanks muchly. I have definitely noticed requiring more shampoo and soap over the past few weeks as well. I forgot to mention that prior to the episode with the air in the lines at the kitchen sink, and the strange smell, the landlords had discovered they had no water and had done some sort of repairs on the line. Do mineral deposits ever clog up larger pipes? Can mineral content fluctuate through the year or for environmental reasons like rainfall? Is there hope that I’m noticing higher concentrations at the driest part of the year, and once the rains start it could get better?

4

That could account for the smell… the corrosion being exposed to the air , the sputtering and the turbid water coming from the lines probably stemmed from the line repair. Our house pipes sputter after the water has been shut off for sprinkler line repair and the like, minus the silt and smell.

In short; yes, yes and yes. Water chemistry can fluctuate seasonally with regards to flow volumes of the spring*.

:slight_smile:

*local springs are those that are smaller, in regards to their “capture” area, and emit the water that fell on the hills locally around the spring and the flow rate and chemistry will fluctuate with local precipitation. Local also doesn’t necessarily mean tiny… there is a local spring near Pahrump, Nevada in the Spring Mountains that during wet years emits around 2000 gpm.

There are regional springs that drain whole valleys and such but they tend to have a more constant flow rate and chemistry.

5

The white powdery buildup (lime, calcium) on your shower head can be cleared up with CLR. I have to do this a couple times a year, the shower head and the faucet filter thingies. And my steam iron – clogs regularly. Take the shower head off and soak it in a bowl of CLR.

There’s a water softener system for the town’s water supply, but it doesn’t always work right. Our little town can’t afford to pay a maintenance person, so the mayor or one of the city council people will refill the salt, check the valves, etc.

You might want to consider getting a water softener system for your home. They’re expensive, $3,000 or $4,000, I think, but if there’s no municipal entity responsible for the quality of your water, that might be your only permanent solution.

Once it’s installed, all you have to do is keep the tank supplied with salt. The systems are good for 10-15 years.

6

The main thing I’ve noticed with hard water is that it dries my skin way the hell out. I went to dinner one time after taking a quick shower and the other people actually asked if I was okay. I realized that it was because my whole face was so dried out it was peeling. I use a conditioning body wash now, and that seems to eliminate most of the problem, but some days…meh. :frowning:

7

We have one of these plastic shower heads, so I don’t know if I can use CLR on it. I’ve thought about that myself. When the individual holes get closed, I’ve just been poking a small nail through them to unblock them.

I’m not sure how much has changed since I was in high school, when I last cared about such things, but I had oily/combination skin on my face back then. And my hair has always had a tendency to be on the oily side. I have short hair, and have stopped using conditioner of any kind since chopping my long tresses off a decade ago. When my hair was longer, I used conditioners.

I don’t necessarily know if my hair has been oilier than usual over the past few weeks, or if what I’m feeling could be mineral buildup that LVgeo mentioned. I do know that my face has definitely been oilier. And the articles I’ve been reading about hard water indicate that since it can dry skin too much by stripping away the oils, that the body can overcompensate with too much oil that can lead to acne.

8

My house is over 100 years old and we have horrible, hard, rusty water. Our skin is fine, our health is fine, and all the geezers in the 'hood are OLD. The worst part of having hard water is:

  1. Tastes pretty crappy
  2. Makes cleaning very difficult
  3. It takes a toll on whites in a very short time

I think your issues are related to something else. A change in laundry or body soap possibly

9

No change in shampoo or body soap. We have been trying a few different laundry detergents in the Arm&Hammer line. We’ve recently tried one of their plant-based “Essentials” varieties, and I believe we’re currently using their “no dyes or perfumes” varieties.

10

My well water smells very sulphurous and is pretty unpalatable (for me). However it tested free of bacteria and the old owner of the house died when she was 99, having lived there all her life. I was told that it takes a lot more than a regular water softener to remove that taste and smell, and (joyous day!) city water recently came to my road. So now I have city water in the house, but I still use the well to water the horses. Interestingly enough, my dogs will go from the house (where there’s a full clean water bowl) outside and drink from the water dish filled from the well. Hopefully it’ll give them a good long lifespan.

StG

11

Aside from the one odd smelling shower after the repair last month, our water tastes quite nice and has never had any other odors associated with it. I’m familiar with the “urban” hard water that some of you are speaking of. My grandmother’s house certainly has it (Gonzales, CA), and she has to use water-softening additives in her laundry or nothing gets clean, and I’ve always felt like my skin was squeaky/sticky when I shower at her house.

The house we rent is also quite old (100 years). But other than the calcification build up, nothing about our water reminds me of my grandmother’s water.

I don’t know how the circumstances that result in hard water differ between urban and rural areas, but some combination of this, this and this is basically what it looks like out our window, and the spring that feeds both houses is within 50 yards of our front porch.

12

I wonder if there’s some little bug-critter that’s invaded your space. We had fleas in our house once. They didn’t bite me or Kid Kalhoun, but Mr. K was chewed up really bad. Another time, some little microscopic critter came in on a new kitten and made mincemeat out of both of us.

13

Ditto. Our hard water dries hair out, not make it oily. It’s probably hormonal changes screwing with oil production rather than water problems - apparently they begin to change in our early to mid 30s. Google claims stress causes oily hair too, and moving ranks high on most stressful events charts.

14

Maybe hormones, but I don’t think it is a stress reaction. The move was 8 months ago, and I think it was kinda fun. I moved back home to California after 9 years of living in Ohio and Georgia. I didn’t have to pack or unpack (the moving company did it all) and I didn’t have to pay for any of it (my new employer relocated me).

What about really fine sediment in the water, stirred up or introduced after whatever repairs they’d done? Fine enough to clog up a few pores and build up in my hair? It finally rained decently night before last. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a few more good rains will help flush everything back to normal.

15

One thing that I thought of also was that seasonal changes (weather) usually “triggers” hair and skin issues for me. Typically it is at the when the weather starts getting warmer in the spring and again when the weather starts cooling down or the fall. I tend to get a lot of break-outs and my hair sometimes gets really unruly.

Maybe you are experiencing something similar as well… :confused: just a guess.

16

Um…I’ve been reading the responses and the closest anyone has come to getting to the neighborhood I’ve been thinking of is Kalhoun but my guess is that perhaps you are pregnant?

bad skin…wonky hair…sensitive to smells…I’m just sayin’…

d&r

17

Baring an immaculate conception of some kind, not a chance. The last penis that ensued anywhere near me was over a decade ago.

18

I got this fairly inexpensive water-filtering shower head (from Target no less) and I have to say I am loving it. Why not try one?

Where do you live?

19

We live a few miles up Black Road. I’ve been looking at some shower head filters, but encounter yet another problem in that area. The ceilings in this old house are very low, which is great for heating reasons but kinda sucky in the shower department, or when forgetting not to stretch under the ceiling fan. When we moved in, the shower head was about at chin level, which was not a satisfactory experience. We bought the rainpik one I linked above because we can bend it just enough that it ends up higher than end of the pipe coming out of the wall yet still lower than the ceiling.

20

You should be able to use CLR on plastics without a problem. Or if you’re concerned, you could try soaking your shower head in vinegar (but that works more slowly, you might need a few hours to clear it out).