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Water Quality and Hair Moisture in Australia
Most hair routines start with the bottle: shampoo, conditioner, a mask. The water that rinses it all off gets less attention. In Australia that water is disinfected, and what it carries changes from city to city.
Every utility disinfects its supply. Some use chlorine, some use chloramine, and in a few cities it depends on which supply feeds your suburb. Our guide to your water lists it by city, and the chloramine guide explains how the two differ.
Understanding Hair and Moisture Retention
Hair is primarily composed of keratin, a structural protein. Around each strand sits the cuticle, a layer of tiny overlapping scales, a bit like shingles on a roof. Colouring, heat styling and sun all work on the cuticle. Shower water is the one input that arrives every day.
Australia’s Diverse Water Conditions
Hardness varies by region. Hard water carries more of the minerals calcium and magnesium, and the city figures are on the your water page. On top of that, municipal systems add chlorine or chloramine so the water stays disinfected all the way to the tap.
Chlorine, and What It Reacts With
Chlorine is left in the water so it keeps working on the trip from the treatment plant, and some of it is still there when the water reaches your shower. It is an oxidising agent, which means it reacts with the organic molecules it meets.
Natural Oils Play an Important Role
The scalp produces oils that travel along each hair shaft. Chlorine can react with those oils, and so can sun, wind and air conditioning.
Why Water Quality Matters for Hair Care
Shampoo and conditioner are rinsed away with shower water, so the water is part of every wash. Three things are in it: hardness minerals, a disinfectant, and fine particles from the pipes.
What Vitamin C Filtration Does to Chlorine
Vitamin C reacts with chlorine and chloramine and turns them into chloride. The cartridge in a Suhae shower filter holds 25,000 mg of vitamin C, and it works at normal shower temperatures. KEWI certificate IW-230133 records 99.9% chlorine removal, with none detected from 1,000 up to 6,000 litres.
Coloured Hair and Your Shower Water
Colouring opens the cuticle so pigment can get in. Chlorine is an oxidising agent, so it reacts with organic molecules, colour pigment among them. Calcium and magnesium, the minerals that make water hard, are in the same water. A Suhae shower filter acts on the chlorine.
The Suhae Shower Filter Range
Suhae Radiance and Suhae Nourish are hand showers built on Vitae Infusion and Purea Core, which captures sediment, rust and pipe debris. Suhae Aura is the rain shower. Suhae Universal (AUD $49.90) fits behind the shower head you already have.
Each cartridge lasts two to three months, depending on how much the household showers (the replacement guide has the details). Vita Refill is AUD $29.90 and comes in ten scents.
What Better Water Changes About the Rinse
Genetics, climate, styling and products all shape how hair looks and feels. Water is one more input, and a shower filter changes one thing in it: the chlorine.
More on the water side is in shower water and hair.
