Water hardness refers to the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium it contains. The more minerals, the harder the water. It’s not bad for health, but it can lead to limescale building up in pipes and appliances, and clothes fading, so think what it’s doing to your hair. The excess minerals are likely to form a film over your hair strands. This means it’s harder for moisture to get through the cuticle layers, so over time, your hair becomes dull and dry. Dry, brittle hair is more likely to break, and if you continue to wash your hair with hard water, this breakage can lead to hair loss. Before breakage, you may experience frizzy, tangled hair and a dry, itchy scalp due to the mineral buildup blocking the hair follicles. Hard water can also cause difficulties with coloring hair, with the color washing out quickly or turning brassy. Up to 85% of the US has hard water, so chances are you’re experiencing one or more of these problems.

Hair Care Tips to Protect Your Hair from Hard Water

Your first step to repairing your hard water-damaged hair is to remove the build-up of minerals. If you’ve been using hard water for a while, you can use one part apple cider vinegar and three parts water to rinse your hair to help further reduce build-up and begin the detox process. There are now clarifying shampoos that target mineral build-up instead of just styling product build-up. Swapping to one of these can improve your hair and scalp health and ensure your hair can be properly cleansed and moisturized. If you don’t want to use this shampoo every time, you can use a sulfate-free one in between to ensure you’re not disturbing your natural oil production, which will cause new hair and scalp problems. Next, work hard on hydration to combat the hard water dryness. Use light leave-in conditioners and conditioning masks regularly to improve the texture and health of your hair. Always ensure your shampoo is fully rinsed out before conditioning so you’re not locking in anything other than moisture.

Long-Term Steps to Repair Your Hair

The haircare tips here will help protect your hair and scalp, but there are ways to go further for better results. The best way to get results is to replace your shower head with one containing carbon cartridges to soften the water as it comes out. This stops the mineral build-up at its source. If you can’t change your shower this time, using filtered water to rinse at the end of your shower can help clear some minerals. Ending with a cold blast can also help close the cuticles and lock in moisture.

Once you’ve taken steps to prevent further build-up, your salon can offer deep conditioning or protein treatments to help build your hair back up to its full glory. At Indulge Salon, we are proud of our mission to help you find your best hair. To start with, find out more about our conditioning options.

People are more aware than ever about the prevalence and impact of harsh chemicals in our lives. That’s why there’s a growing demand for natural haircare. Changing from a chemical-based routine to a natural option involves a few steps, which we’ll go through here, but we’ll also discuss the benefits of sticking with the transition process and completely switching to natural products.

Many hair care choices contain sulphates, silicones, and parabens, and you should first of all look through everything you’re currently using and see which ones contain these, so you know what to start replacing. Silicone is the most important one to replace, as this creates a dependence on sulphate cleansers to clear it. These ingredients cause build-up, so we’d recommend starting to clear that before you start on new products. You can do this with a scalp scrub and/or clarifying shampoo that will help get your hair to a good starting point where it’s most likely to respond well to new products.

It’s best to start this process gradually. Don’t go out and replace everything, as your hair is likely to react and become hard to manage and style. It’s also important to know what product you’ve changed in case you have any irritation or an allergic reaction to it. Swap your shampoo first so your hair is getting a good cleanse, then conditioner, then other conditioning and styling products. Give each one a few days, then introduce the next swap until your whole routine has been replaced.

What to Expect During Your Transition

Ditching the chemicals your hair is used to may not be easy at first. Your scalp is likely to either produce too much oil or not enough as it gets used to balancing itself without the harsh stripping process of chemicals. It may also feel brittle as your cuticles clear their silicone coverings. It can be tempting to go back to your old habits at this point, but if you can hold out for a couple of months, you’ll see big changes. During the transition process, try to go further between washes to help your scalp balance. You should also do deep conditioning treatments and use heat as little as possible. Using a style like a braid can hide the dryness as you adjust, and it doesn’t require heat at all.

The Benefits of Using Natural Products

Breaking the reliance on chemicals can help improve your hair health. Natural products are made using gentle ingredients such as essential oils and aloe vera. The focus on healthy plant-based elements means natural haircare is designed to nourish your hair and scalp, leaving soft hair that feels as good as it looks. Many people find that this improvement in hair health and the lack of build-up means they need fewer products, no longer having to reach for frizz serums and hair spray. Many people also simply enjoy knowing they are removing a few toxins and chemicals from their routines.

Using quality haircare is the best way to make that freshly cut salon feeling last. Read more about our revolutionary cuts at Indulge Salon that will inspire you to take your haircare to the next level with our French haircuts.

If we made you guess how long we’ve been coloring our hair, we doubt you’d go back far enough. It turns out we’ve always loved expressing ourselves by mixing up the color of our locks because we’ve been doing it since 1500 BC. That’s right, in ancient Egypt, they were using henna to cover up grey hair, and in Greece and Rome, they were using plants and leeches (we wish we were joking) to create black hair dye. For a while, we stuck with black and dark red shades, mostly from henna, until the Saxons started burning plants and nuts and using the ashes to get bolder colors such as yellow. They used these colors to intimidate their enemies in battle, so try and embody that confidence the next time you dye your hair.

Natural red hair was viewed suspiciously when it first started to become common in Scotland after the Dark Ages, but once Queen Elizabeth the First took the throne with her shock of bright red hair, it helped it be seen more favorably. Members of higher society even began trying to recreate it on their own hair.

There were no more significant advancements in hair color trends until 1863. An English scientist named William Henry Perkin was attempting to find a cure for malaria and accidentally ended up with mauve dye, which came to be used on hair. The dye was called Mauveine. It’s not dramatic to say it changed the world of hair color forever, as shortly after the discovery, Perkins’ professor isolated a color-changing molecule called PPD in the dye, which is still the base of most permanent hair dyes made.

The Importance of Advertising

Perkins’ incredible discovery opened the door to commercial hair dye, and then movies and advertising combined to propel the market into what it has become today. The first commercial dye was made in 1907 by the founder of what became L’Oreal, and demand soared. Shortly after, in the 1930s, platinum blonde was modelled by Jean Harlow in a film of the same name. Fans of the film rushed to salons to copy the iconic look, and there was even a cash prize of $10,000 offered by Jean Harlow’s publicist if a salon could match her shade exactly.

In 1950, the founder of Clairol created a one-step blonde dye that could be done easily at home and didn’t require bleaching and reducing the damage that could be caused. This caused a surge in at-home dye kits, and by 1968, Americans no longer had to state their hair color on their passports because the chance of it changing was so high.

In the 1970s and 1980s, celebrities began to endorse hair color brands in advertisements. This not only boosted sales but also helped shift the perspective from coloring secretly at home to being honest about your coloring choices.

Recent Changes to Color Treatments

Since the 1980s, celebrity endorsements have continued, salon and home dye offerings have improved, and as of 2015, more than half of American women colored their hair. Hair dyes became kinder to hair, focusing on hair health and not just color. When lockdown hit, box dye sales went through the roof, and many people experimented with bold fun colors while they were bored, although we’re sure there were a few bleach incidents.

Color trends and preferences now change faster than ever, thanks to social media and new brands and techniques entering the dye game and at Indulge Salon we’re excited to see what comes next. Read more about our bespoke color service.