i am in my thirties and have somehow spent my entire life under the impression that the only difference between hard and soft water was that they taste and feel different. and which one you preferred was based entirely on what you were used to. now i find out that hard water is why my clothes get so fucked up so fast. people without hard water don’t agonize over how many times they can wash a soft blanket before it stops being soft. all those years of reading online discussions about how showering should only take five minutes and every other day you should just rinse your hair out with water. my intense confusion because if i try to take a five minute shower i come out looking and feeling dirtier than when i went in. if my hair gets wet in the shower and i don’t shampoo it i come out looking like i fell in the creek. if i gave myself a quick soapy rinse before work and then ran out the door without extensively moisturizing i would be the itchiest bitch alive in five minutes. i just assumed it was a body chemistry thing. now you’re telling me that other people don’t have that. that i am in Special Circumstances because every time i step in the tub i am effectively taking a mineral bath.
don’t get me fucking started on hard water and yes i am writing this right in the post i am so sorry op but where i live we have hard water (there’s a higher Very Hard level) so i would like to rant with you about how showering makes your skin so itchy and how you live and breath dandruff because your scalp is crying and how soap won’t rub off your hands no matter how hard you scrub and how drying yourself with a towel just leaves you clammy and how you have to wipe every surface down to combat the accumulation of limescale even though it doesn’t help so everything is spotted white and how your plants can just start dying because of the shitty shitty water and how you can technically drink tap water but it tastes terrible so you have to go on pilgrimages to mountain towns to get water from their fountains and how, since we’re ranting about shampoo, you think your hair is Irrevocably and Horribly damaged until you go to a city with soft water and wash it there one (1) time and your hair comes out silky and shiny and like a goddamned commercial yes i am still pissed knowing what my hair could be like if only i weren’t washing it with liquidized minerals
I hope I’m not barging in too hard, but I saw this in the notes and I thought I should tell y’all in case nobody has yet:
It’s possible to plumb a water-softening device into your home pipes. I have one, as do most homes in my area.
I’m *guessing* that for y’all there aren’t big displays of softener salt readily available in every grocery store and most convenience stores, otherwise you’d have found out sooner (although it’s also possible you *do* have displays and didn’t notice because you didn’t realise they were relevant to your interests, I could definitely see myself doing that), but some models run off of resin beads instead and only need the resin replaced every few years (possibly at the cost of worse taste than salt-based systems, but I’m not sure about that part).
I was doing some googling on prices recently because mine is getting old and decrepit, and it looks like it’s on the order of a few thousand if you don’t already have your pipes set up for it, or a few hundred to slot in a unit on piping already designed around it. I’m aware that a few grand is a lot of money and that many people don’t have the authority to make those kinds of changes to their homes, but it’s still good to know that it’s *possible* to have soft water without having to move to a naturally-soft area.
#reblogging again for the comments #i feel like i have heard of this contraption but never in this country #and i’m pretty sure if if my unlces had known about it when their house was in construction (decades ago) they’d have set it up #i mean we have houses here that up until recently didn’t build in something as basic as heating #and just slapped the radiators and pipes on after everything was finished #but yeah I don’t think it’s an option here #(and if it were it wouldn’t be because my god thatya lot of money) #thank you reblogger #and now you know
Tags:
#conversational aglets #(I mean technically mine is also retrofitted given that I’m pretty sure my house predates the local water grid) #(but fortunately somebody *else* dealt with that) #PSA #domesticity #the more you know
Brinens and Things 
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