I live in upstate New York and we have very hard water at my house.Right now I use dr. bronner's and sometimes I wash with bs/avc but I keep hearing that with hard water, this will leave residue. I haven't noticed any residue yet, but I have only been doing this for about 3 weeks. Should I buy something new to wash with?
With hard water, don't bother with the Dr. B's. You won't see residue build up right away. But over time, you'll notice that your locks are weighed down, and feel heavy and stiffer than they should.
You can keep using the BS wash, but you'll have to do something about the water. You can either start to buy bottled water to wash with. But that gets expensive. Or you can boil it/distill it. Boiling it is easier in the short run. You get a big pot of water, boil it, and let it cool. Fill whatever container you use to mix the BS and water in. But do this GENTLY, and always leave some water in the bottom of the pot. Hard water has dissolved and undissolved minerals in it. When you boil the water and let it cool, those minerals sink to the bottom. By leaving some water at the bottom of the pot, those minerals stay in the pot.
Mix your BS in this new clean water, and wash with that.
You don't need to use the boiled water for the ACV, since ACV doesn't need to dissolve.
Or, better yet, look into dreadlockshampoo.com soaps. They are the best for locks, and pretty local. They are a small company based right outside of Philly. Their prices are great, and they ship really fast. Plus they use flat rate shipping boxes, so you can get about 6 bars/bottles in a package before the shipping rate goes up
absolutely get these www.dreadlockshampoo.com
and u probably should do an anti residue to remove the bronners buildup
Thanks for the helpful advice and many options, guys!
I'll probably buy some of that dreadlock shampoo. But in the meantime, what can I do an anti-residue wash?
Hard water and dreads suck. I have hard well water....If you choose to buy bottled water, get the water cooler size, lasts a long time as you only need to use it for the BS mix. The dreadlockshampoo works fantastic for me, smells great too. You won't notice the build up right away, it happens over time, you will think, wow, my hair is locking fast, they are really getting hard, but that is the build up. Dreads should be soft and squishy. It took about 3 months at the beginning of my journey to notice that I had a residue build up, which slows down the dreading process.
Boiling saves money, but I am too lazy to boil mine.....peace
Yes I think I will just order some of my own dreadlock bar. I have noticed that my hair seemed to be knotting fast, which really just makes me want to get rid of any residue thats built up over time. i do think i am too lazy to boil water as well, heck i only boil water for tea or mac n cheese hehe...thank you for sharing!!! much love
the Barrellady said:
Hard water and dreads suck. I have hard well water....If you choose to buy bottled water, get the water cooler size, lasts a long time as you only need to use it for the BS mix. The dreadlockshampoo works fantastic for me, smells great too. You won't notice the build up right away, it happens over time, you will think, wow, my hair is locking fast, they are really getting hard, but that is the build up. Dreads should be soft and squishy. It took about 3 months at the beginning of my journey to notice that I had a residue build up, which slows down the dreading process.
Boiling saves money, but I am too lazy to boil mine.....peace
Sure will, some people even make their own filter system. The brita gets rid of the minerals you don't want in the water, so yeah, use that instead...peace
Premo said:
Hey I'm from Upstate NY too. I feel your pain about the water here. I'm not trying to highjack the thread here but I'm wondering if running our water through a Brita filter makes a difference? Or does it have to be boiled?
