Cheap ways to soften water - bath/shower

Loopylew28

So I've discovered that my skin obviously does not react well to hard water, which is a bummer because I live in a part of the Country with very hard water! I don't want to fork out on getting a water softener added to my house, so I wondered if there are any tricks that I can use to soften the water say if I was to run a bath and add something to it, like bath salts maybe? Or does anyone know of a product/way to soften the water for the bath taps only (my shower is on a mixer tap)?

Here's how I've concluded its the hard water if anyone wants to know! I've been getting blotches over my arms, legs and abdomen and have been through a trial and error test to work out what is causing it. I've changed my shower gel and shampoo to sensitive lines, bought non-bio washing powder and have been using E45 and I thought it was all starting to work, but I was wrong! What I've figured out the hard way tonight is that the last 3 days I've showered at the gym rather than at home and my skin has been getting less and less itchy. But today I've showered at home and my skin has gone back to square 1. I used the same brands of shower gel and shampoo at the gym and at home, used towels that had been washed in the same load using non-bio washing powder and had the temperature at the same level, so the only remaining variable is that my gym uses a water softener.

Help, the itching is driving me mad!

Fire_Fox

Healthy adult skin is naturally acidic (pH 4.5 - pH6). Unhealthy or damaged skin is higher. Hard water is naturally alkaline (pH 8.5+).

You can buy quality pH test strips or a digital pH meter. Hide either from any men, they will test everything. Women? :whistle:

The pH scale is logarithmic, that means each number is ten times more acidic or ten times more alkaline that the next number. Two numbers apart one hundred times more acidic/alkaline (10x10). Three numbers apart is one thousand times more (10x10x10).

End of maths lecture.

Back to the bath water .... Problem is adding the right quantity of the right acid to be safe and beneficial. In theory a simple mathematical equation plus a test method plus great care in dosing and mixing. In theory because you need to know how many litres of water in your average bath in your actual bathtub.

Unfortunately the method used on a tiny scale in laboratories and pharmaceutical compounding and formulating skincare products =/= domestic bathtub. Sloshy. Not safe. Not accurate. Sloshy. Angry homeowner/ neighbour.

How frequently you bathe and time of soak is highly relevant. If you go this route, as the DIY acid face peelers say, "RESPECT THE ACID".

It is a fine line between soft skin and chemical 'sunburn'. Some tissue is very very thin - eyelids, ladyparts - and that your eye mucosa (watery stuff) is naturally alkaline! :eek:

That being said there is only one acid for healthy happy human adult skin and that is lactic acid (pH ~4.5). The acid in live natural yoghurt .... the acid naturally in human skin. It is in an ingredient in some decent moisturising lotions.

Just as you can buy test stuff online, can also buy concentrated (highly corrosive) lactic acid online. "RESPECT THE ACID".

I have a litre bottle of 80% lactic acid but have not used in yonks (PP rosacea diagnosis, worsening other health problems, inc. lazyitis).

Always diluted wearing disposable gloves, clothed arms, glasses, cat trapped behind a heavy door, never ever does a child enter my flat. Always in the bottom of an empty bathtub. Knocked or falls over all I have to do is snatch my arms out. All sloshes should be contained in the empty tub and easily rinsed down the plughole.

End of safety lecture.

Fire_Fox

Please dispose of fragranced bath salts. Post the full ingredients if they are unfragranced. Only natural fragrances?

Almost all of the EU list of most allergenic fragrance ingredients are components of essential oils. Just one of the twenty six top fragrance allergens is man-made. They are all known irritants too, many becoming more irritating or more allergenic with exposure to air or sunlight.

Your itchy irritated skin is AKA by doctors as pruritis. The -itis bit means inflammation, which is the big sister of irritation.

Other variables might include sweat, blood pressure (impacts blood near skin), air conditioning, ambient temperature, the fabric of your clothing, how closely it contacts your skin .... likely not just the water softener.

Sorry.

Spoonie_Turtle

Just FYI, pH and alkalinity of hard water are not actually the same - alkalinity of water is the ability to buffer itself, so the ability to keep its pH despite the addition of an acid or base. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/alkalinity-and-water?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

HOWEVER hard water *is* likely to have a higher pH due to the underlying chemistry and geology of the area where it's come from (especially in the US) - but my very hard water (~330ppm CaCO3) consistently has a pH of 7.2-7.5 over the last couple of years of checking our water quality reports. You can check your own water quality online, providers should make reports available.

OP, you have a few options.

One is miracle water - citric acid and ascorbic acid mixed in with the tap water. Citric acid reacts with the hard water ions, and ascorbic acid neutralises the chlorine or chloramine in the water (whichever one your supplier uses). I'll find the recipe, but with the caveat to test the pH before getting in! I actually use litmus strips because my skin likes fairly acidic things so I'm not too concerned about a precise reading, but with your sensitive skin you'd probably be wise to use a pH meter.

It is entirely possible that it is the chlorine or chloramine upsetting your skin, more than the hardness of the water. If that's the case, you can buy inline shower filters, or a bath filter to hang over the tap which filters the water as it runs over it. They will all say they soften water - they don't. The only one I know of that does soften water is Showerstick from the WaterSticks brand but they're only in the US. But the filters over here do neutralise the chlorine/chloramine - that is their only real benefit, because here in the UK we don't really have to worry about any other nasties in the water, but it can certainly still be worth it. I bought a shower filter to see if it made any difference for my hair, I'm not sure it really did but my skin always tells me when the filter needs flushing through or changing!

Okay, miracle water recipe (originated for hair from the US, so they just used a gallon container)
1 gallon of water, ~3.75L
1/4 tsp citric acid
1/32 tsp ascorbic acid.

Teeny-tiny measuring spoons are available very very cheaply (pinch/smidgen/etc. sets)
When I did this in the sink with 3L water I used 1/16 tsp ascorbic acid, plus the citric acid and according to the Litmus paper, it had a pH of ~5
However if you know how much water your bathtub holds or how much water you usually use, you can adjust the recipe accordingly.
Actually according to Google it's an average of 180L to overflow level, which is ~47.5 US gallons (or 39.5 imperial gallons, but the recipe used a US gallon).

So for a full bathtub (in theory)
12tsp citric acid
1.5tsp ascorbic acid

Yikes! The powdered acids are pretty cheap but maybe a bath filter would last longer. Though of course you probably don't fill it up quite so full - I dunno. It's an idea, anyway.

If you do want to try it, I suggest trying the original recipe first*, maybe using it to wash your face a few times (it should be okay to be kept for a few days) and see how it reacts, then try with a fresh batch washing elsewhere, before you try taking a bath in it. Kinda like a large-scale patch test!
*TEST pH FIRST, and tweak if need be. You can even experiment with what your skin prefers, whether more or less acidic. Even pH 7 should be okay but lower is usually ideal.

Spoonie_Turtle

Me again, another couple of thoughts:
I've re-read your post and it really does sound like the water, but these are some things that have helped my skin so I'll say them anyway in case they may help you as well.

Do you use the shower gel just on the important areas or all over? I found once I stopped using it all over and just on my armpits and underneath, I needed less moisturiser on my arms and legs. (I do use shower gel all over about once a week if I feel I need to). Of course rinsing it off means it will be in contact briefly with your ams and legs, but much less irritating than directly washing with it all over.

Also how quickly I dry - I either have to towel dry completely (no cream), or towel dry but still be a bit damp to put on any cream. If anywhere air-dries completely, it will feel tight and itchy and even putting cream on doesn't really help. In the warmest of summer I sometimes find my arms have air dried and start to itch, so I'll rinse them in the sink to wet them again in order to towel dry (or put cream on, damp) to stop the itching.

Do you find that E45 helps the rest of the time? If not, you may be better off looking for something else, but if it otherwise helps then great [The reason I ask is that I've had things work for a while and then start making my skin worse, which is pretty annoying!]

DigForVictory

Loopylew28 wrote: »

the last 3 days I've showered at the gym rather than at home and my skin has been getting less and less itchy.

Just how hard would it be to shower at the gym most of the time? Is it convenient to you & open 24/7 or on the commute & at finite hours? As while the chemists have been admirably clear on ways to wash at home, if there is somewhere you can wash without as much fuss, might that be worth it?

As for the it itches Now, would antihistamines help at all?

Spoonie_Turtle

DigForVictory wrote: »

Just how hard would it be to shower at the gym most of the time? Is it convenient to you & open 24/7 or on the commute & at finite hours? As while the chemists have been admirably clear on ways to wash at home, if there is somewhere you can wash without as much fuss, might that be worth it?

As for the it itches Now, would antihistamines help at all?

That's a great idea if it's doable! It would save OP's water and electricity too