Many customers who have water softeners installed in their houses notice that their skin feels “slippery” after a bath. Some customers say, “My water is too soft! I can’t rinse the soap off!” This reaction is normal for new soft water customers.
What causes that slippery feeling? Clean skin!
Hard water leaves an insoluble soap-curd film on you, causing your hair and skin to “squeak”. Most of us grew up with hard water, so “squeaky clean” was all we knew and what we grew to expect from our bathing and shampooing. Some of the soap manufacturers even perpetuated this misinformation with their commercials about “squeaky clean”. No wonder we all believed that we were our cleanest when our skin and hair squeaked.
But, we know now that “squeaky clean” is not clean at all. It should be called “squeaky dirty”. The fact is that we “squeaked” with hard water because there was an invisible hard water soap scum film on our hair and skin, causing our skin, scalp and hair to really be overly dry. This is bad for skin and hair. Soap scum film builds up on hair, weighting it down and making it brittle and lifeless. Soap scum film on skin makes our skin dry and itchy.
Here is one way you can prove this to yourself. Notice that hard water leaves a bathtub ring and soft water does not. That hard water bath tub ring is made of scummy, “gooky stuff” that sticks to the tub. That same scum sticks to your skin, clogging your pores and causing your skin to feel overly dry and “squeaky”. On the other hand, soft water leaves no bath tub ring. Soft water also does not leave scum on your skin, scalp and hair. Soft water leaves your skin and hair “hydrated and clean”, not squeaky. Since water is wet and there is not scummy film on your skin to cause friction, the water feels “slippery”. That slippery feeling is the indication of healthy, clean skin and hair.
With soft water, you can rinse an extra 15 minutes but the slippery feeling will not go away! The soap is long gone and your skin is very clean. Within minutes of drying off, you will notice how soft your skin feels—almost as if you applied skin lotion. Soft skin is healthy and clean skin! Ladies, your hair will be easier to style, keep its curl longer, be more bouncy and feel weightless.
Once you have experienced the wonderful clean feeling of soft water, you’ll never want to be without it again. And, your skin, hair, appliances and plumbing will thank you.