Hard water can cause many concerns. It may not taste very nice, can build up limescale inside kettles and can also cause clothes to deteriorate faster. But for many, a particular concern could be what it does to you when you bathe in it.

An article by AOL Lifestyle highlighted the potential damage it can be doing when you wash your hair. Although it was written for an American audience, the issues still apply here in the hard water areas of southern England; the chemicals that make water hard are a good reason to get water softeners in Berkshire, including ones that can filter the water you shower and bathe with.

Not only can hard water leave hair feeling filmy and dry, but it may even cause hair loss. The nature of the problem was explained by Mary Wendel, a doctor from Medi Tresse, a hair loss clinic for women with branches in New York, Massachusetts and Tennessee. She highlighted that calcium, magnesium and iron are the kinds of minerals present in large concentrations in hard water.

The expert said: “These metals can sometimes make it feel like your hair is never completely clean, even after shampooing, and can overall make hair feel dry.”

Moreover, she added, it can make hair feel “brittle, more frizzy, and appear less clean and more dull,” while “the scalp in certain individuals can become irritated and inflamed, especially if you have a history of sensitive skin, psoriasis, or eczema.”

Clearly, therefore, hard water is not good news for your hair. Softer water will do for you things that switching your brand of shampoo, conditioner or anything else could never achieve.

Hair.com notes that soft water can make your hair itself softer and more manageable. That does not mean there are no downsides, however: it can make your hair flat and greasy, especially if you have oily hair. But this can be counterbalanced by using the right sort of shampoo and conditioner, leaving you with far better hair than hard water would ever permit.