While many of us are aware of the negative effects of chlorine on skin and hair after swimming in a pool, fewer realize that using chlorinated tap water at home can have a similar impact. Understanding this effect in your daily interactions with water is crucial for maintaining overall well-being. In this article, we’ll uncover the hidden dangers of chlorine in tap water for your skin and hair health and explore what you can do to protect them from exposure.
The Use of Chlorine in Tap Water
Chlorine is the most common disinfectant used in municipal water facilities to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases, as its oxidizing properties make it highly effective at killing most harmful pathogens present in water sources that can lead to death. Likewise, households supplied by private wells should disinfect their water systems through shock chlorination. Indeed, this process is crucial in ensuring the safety of drinking water, especially in the wake of outbreaks like those in Walkerton and North Battleford in the early 2000s, which served as stark reminders of the risks posed by microbial contamination.
Despite its effectiveness, even low levels of residual chlorine in tap water can be highly irritating, significantly impacting skin and hair health.
The Effects of Chlorine on Your Skin
Skin, the body’s largest organ, acts as the first protective barrier against environmental aggressors, making its health crucial for resilience and systemic support. Consider how often you wash your hands, face, and body; you’ve likely noticed that your skin feels dry, tight, or appears red afterward. Surprisingly, this might not be due to your skin type but rather to external factors – especially the water you use. Chlorine’s oxidizing and irritant effects disrupt the skin’s delicate balance, leading to deeper, long-term damage. Here’s how the process works:
- Keratinocytes, the primary cells forming the epidermis, produce keratin, a protein that strengthens the skin and helps retain moisture. They also support skin renewal and immune integrity.
- Ceramides, or natural oils, act as “cement” between cells, essential for providing moisture and blocking harmful agents.
Together, keratinocytes and ceramides form a protective barrier that keeps the skin smooth, strong, and resilient. When chlorine contacts skin, it opens pores and strips away these essential components, disrupting the epidermis’s structure, lowering sebum production, and hindering moisture retention. Chlorine also kills beneficial bacteria in the skin’s microbiome, which are critical for defending against detrimental ones. Furthermore, it alters the skin’s pH, diminishing its ability to counter free radicals. Hot water intensifies these effects by increasing chlorine levels and further opening pores, making hot showers or baths particularly impactful.
Chlorine in tap water ultimately weakens the skin, leading to dryness, itchiness, peeling, and increased sensitivity, which can result in irritation, redness, and scaling. The skin can become reactive and suffer inflammation, allergic reactions, rashes, and even lesions in more severe cases. This constant aggression impairs the skin barrier, potentially escalating to the development of conditions like eczema, psoriasis, acne, and rosacea. For individuals with pre-existing sensitivities or skin disorders, these effects are often exacerbated.
By undermining the skin’s structural integrity over time, chlorine induces a loss of elasticity and accelerates premature aging. More importantly, studies suggest that long-term exposure to chlorinated water affects immune responses and promotes oxidative stress, increasing free radical production. This raises broader concerns, as immune overstimulation may lead to deeper cellular damage, increasing the risk of conditions like skin cancer.
Lastly, chlorine reacts with natural organic matter to form disinfection by-products (DBPs) like trihalomethanes (THMs). These compounds can penetrate the skin by dissolving in the fatty acids from soaps and skincare products. Some DBPs, such as THMs, are associated with increased cancer risks.
Chlorine’s Impact on Hair Health
Just like your skin, your hair can suffer from the harsh effects of chlorine in tap water. One primary concern is structural damage, as chlorine breaks down keratin – the same protein that makes up skin. Chlorine also disrupts sebum production on the scalp, which coats the hair shaft, providing hydration, strength, shine, and manageability while protecting against external stressors and moisture loss. Without this barrier, hair becomes more vulnerable to dryness and environmental damage, resulting in a coarse, dull, and lifeless appearance.
The corrosive nature of chlorine dries out and irritates the scalp – which, after all, is skin – causing redness, itchiness, flakiness, and dandruff. Additionally, chlorine affects the hair follicles, complex skin structures from which hair grows, supplying essential nutrients and growth signals for hair retention and development while providing structural support. Prolonged exposure to chlorine can weaken these tissues, resulting in thinner, more fragile hair that struggles to thrive and may eventually lead to hair loss.
As a result, chlorine overall deteriorates the hair’s cuticle – the outer layer of overlapping scales – making hair brittle and prone to breakage and split ends. The lack of hydration affects hair elasticity and softness, leading to increased frizz, static, and tangling. Ultimately, continuous chlorine damage can create a “Barbie hair” effect – a waxy, hard-to-comb texture.
Furthermore, chlorinated water increases hair porosity, making it more susceptible to water loss, environmental irritants, chemical treatments, and heat damage. As porous hair traps care products, dirt, and impurities, it becomes drier, further prone to breakage and less likely to grow well. This is particularly concerning for naturally porous hair types like curly hair.
Another noticeable effect of chlorine is its impact on hair colour. The lipid barrier on the hair’s surface not only locks in moisture but also protects melanin – the pigment responsible for hair colour. By sapping this protection, chlorine exposes melanin, leading to a loss of colour vibrancy and discolouration. Dark hair may appear lighter or brassy, while blondes, who are more sensitive to these effects, may develop a ‘swimmer’s green’ hue due to chlorine reacting with copper in the water. Chlorinated water leaves behind unwanted tones, and these effects are intensified in processed hair. The chemical bonds with the dye of colour-treated hair, causing it to fade and appear dull or uneven. Bleached hair, already more vulnerable, can suffer even greater harm from chlorine exposure.
A Brief Note on Skin and Hair Care Products
A final point worth mentioning is that chlorine can encourage the buildup of skin and hair care products by hampering their proper dissolution, reducing effective cleansing, rinsing, and moisturizing. This allows products to cling to surfaces like an obstructing film, further impacting overall health and appearance.
For skin, as chlorine’s drying effects make it more susceptible to irritation and roughness, it often causes soaps, moisturizers, or sunscreens to apply or absorb poorly. Over time, this buildup may further impair the skin’s barrier function. For hair, the roughened cuticle from chlorine exposure makes it harder to remove residues of shampoos, conditioners, and styling products, exacerbating dryness and tangling.
How to Prevent the Adverse Effects of Chlorine
Given the potential dangers of chlorine in tap water, it’s essential to protect your health from this contaminant. You might invest in upmarket skin and hair products, apply them more frequently, exfoliate regularly, use specialized treatments, apply weekly hair masks, or even install a shower filter to reduce chlorine exposure. However, these measures require time, expense, and consistent effort. Moreover, as mentioned, chlorine diminishes the effectiveness of these routines, and a shower filter only improves water quality in the shower – not at other taps for washing hands, do the dishes, or laundering clothes. Such efforts may only minimize impacts locally and temporarily without addressing the problem at its source.
A more sustainable solution is to invest in a water filtration system, which effectively removes chlorine and other harmful contaminants throughout your household plumbing. Options range from chlorine removal filters to comprehensive whole-house water filtration systems, ensuring that cleaner, healthier water flows from every faucet. The benefits extend beyond improved skin and hair health; filtered water enhances taste, encourages hydration, and contributes to a healthier home environment.
Conclusion
While chlorine plays a vital role in keeping our water safe from harmful pathogens, its hidden dangers cannot be overlooked. By taking proactive steps to mitigate exposure, you can safeguard your overall well-being while maintaining healthy skin and hair.
Kent Water Purification Systems offers a variety of solutions to ensure your household has pure, clean water free from harmful contaminants, including chlorine. Our team of water quality professionals is here to help you find a personalized plan to meet your needs.
