Depending on where you live, your drinking and bathing water could look different, taste different, feel different and have completely different implications for your overall health.
Water can be considered hard or soft depending on the journey it takes from the clouds to your tap, with water in the South East of England being particularly high.
Hard water contains much higher levels of minerals such as calcium and magnesium than soft water, which can make it slightly healthier to drink and give it a distinctive taste, but at the same time can cause problems when trying to wash with and especially when you shower.
One way around this is to use a shower filter, which is a mains water filter attached to the shower arm typically attached between the shower arm and showerhead that uses either carbon, vitamin C or kinetic degradation fluxion (KDF) to remove impurities from the water before it touches your skin.
Exactly which benefits you will notice will vary considerably depending on the water quality in your area as well as your overall health, but here are some of the most common key benefits to fitting a water filter in your shower.
Healthier Looking Hair And Skin
Hard water can often create a film that makes it difficult for moisture to reach your skin or your hair, which can have quite detrimental effects on both.
Skin can get dry and patchy, and according to studies on its effect on hair, hard water was found to damage it compared to distilled water, causing it to look ruffled and thinner than before.
As well as this, chlorine and hard water can combine to irritate the skin and exacerbate skin conditions such as psoriasis or eczema, as well as cause more dandruff.
A shower filter is a cost-effective solution that can help protect your skin and boost the volume and revive lifeless-looking hair.
Protects Your Showerhead
A common consequence of hard water is the build-up of limescale, and whilst this is most predominantly seen on taps and in the middle of a kettle, it has perhaps its worst effect on a showerhead.
Whilst limescale is unsightly, annoying, and can reduce efficiency on taps and in kettles, it can make a shower head completely unusable and contribute to soap scum and other unsightly bathroom blemishes.
A shower filter protects the showerhead from this problem.
Reduce Costs
With a cost of living crisis causing people to more carefully consider every penny they spend, installing a shower filter can reduce costs in the long term in two very important ways.
The first is that by eliminating the risk of limescale, showerheads are more efficient and less water and heating are wasted whilst washing, lowering energy costs that can add up.
The second is that most shower filters act as water softeners, which reduces the soap scum effect that stops soaps and cleaning products from properly lathering up, meaning that you can use less and get the same effect in your shower.
The most effective way to get this effect is with a whole-home filtration system, but a shower filter can be a cost-effective alternative to get the same benefit during difficult times.
