# Water Softener Question



## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

Can a water softener malfunctioning cause greasy hair?

Daughter started complaining that her hair was greasy, right after she washed it. Blamed it on the new conditioner, then on the new shampoo I bought her. And this morning her hair was just *gross!* Like she'd dipped her comb in vegetable oil. Well, then later I showered and mine turned out the same way, and I used a different shampoo that had worked fine before. 

Started racking my brain trying to figure out what could cause it . . . yes, I did use the same brush, I guess we need to wash our brushes (side note: can you wash a hairbrush in the dishwasher? The laundry?) but that couldn't possibly be enough to cause this! I mean it was awful! I went to class today with my hair up in a bandanna, something I never ever do because I don't like my bangs up. 

Then it hit me -- I remembered hearing the water softener beep a few days ago because the salt was getting low. So I stopped and got a couple bags, dumped one in and I'm running a manual regeneration. Then I assume I have to also empty out the hot water tank (I'm running a load of laundry, washing the rags and a blanket the cat peed on, ew, on hot) and I hope, hope hope hope our hair will no longer be icky!

Anyone ever hear of this happening? What a mystery!


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## blooba (Feb 9, 2010)

Hard water can cause soap and shampoo not to suds and clean as good so that very well maybe your problem. Or over softened water can make your skin and hair slick feeling but will rinse, just takes longer. If you cannot figure it out take a sample of softened and unsoftened water to Sears or somewhere that sells water softeners and they can test it.


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## grandmajo (Mar 25, 2008)

Yep, same thing happened to me. I cleaned the injector on our water softener, then forgot to put it back into normal mode from bypass mode. My hair looked awful, like it had the greasies!

Once it is operating properly you should be good! If not, then do as blooba suggested.


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

I can tell when my salt is low by how my hair washes. Because I do not need as much soap with the soft water, it will not suds up as much as the water gets harder using the same amount of soap (or shampoo). Therefore with low or no salt, your water is getting harder and you would need more shampoo to clean your hair, so if you're using the same amount of shampoo your hair will probably not be as clean.

Dawn


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## Marcia in MT (May 11, 2002)

I regularly wash our brushes and combs in the dishwasher, and I have thrown them in with laundry, too. Neither thing you'd want to do to a natural bristle brush, though!


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

This is so weird, the hair thing.

It's not a matter of hair looking a little greasy, like it's got some soap or conditioner that didn't quite rinse out. This is some serious gunk. It looks like we haven't shampooed for a week -- but it's only on the top part of our heads. It's almost waxy, tacky. Both daughter and me.

So what we did today was to go up to the YMCA and shower, figuring that if it was our water, that would solve the problem. I bought some clarifying shampoo - "De-gunkify," it was actually called this, by Herbal Essence. But alas, the stuff was still in our hair! It's so strange - we can't tell until we've dried our hair, then it shows up again.

On the way home we were about ready to cry . . . or shave it all off! I bought a small bottle of Dawn dish soap. That is supposed to take off oil from everything, right? It's the super de-greaser. They use it on wild animals to clean them when they get into oil slicks! Ack, desperation!

It worked . . . but not completely. Daughter's hair was maybe 80% back to normal. Mine was improved somewhat. I got it to look halfway decent for when we went to our friend's birthday party tonight, but it's still greasy/waxy/gunky. 

Something else is going on though, don't know if it's related or not. When DH got up this morning and went to take a shower, the hot water was only running at a trickle, so he couldn't shower. When I tried it later, it worked fine. He figured our hot water heater is about to croak (it's about 8 years old). 

I have no idea what to do about the hair though. I've Googled and found all kinds of remedies - cider vinegar, Listerine - I think I'll try the Dawn again tomorrow morning, and the vinegar if that doesn't work. This is absolutely bizarre!


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

As dumb as this sounds....try using about 1/3 of the amount you normally use. I'm not positive that this is what's happening, but in our house we found that the lack of hard water meant that we did NOT need to use anywhere near the amount of soap that we used to use. The greasy feeling we'd experienced was actually residual soap.

Once we did that, we found our 'greasy' hair stopped. Plus we spend less on soap and shampoo.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I would use less soap but it does sound like somethings going on with the water softner.
Can you call the 800 number for the type you have? We have a water boss & they are very helpful anytime I have questions or need help. It just doesn't sound like it's working right.


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## TheBlueOne (Jul 2, 2004)

Depending on how long you were out/low on salt you may have to cycle the softener more than once to get back to normal. When the resin bed in the softener gets clogged up (which is what can happen when you run out of salt) two or three cycles may be required to get it back to normal.
You could also have your water tested, before and after the softener, to make sure the settings are correct or that there isn't a malfunction such as a stuck valve or burned out solenoid.


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## 49ergirl (Jun 1, 2021)

Hi,
I’m fairly new to this community and this is an old conversation but we are going this same thing in our house. Does anyone know what the outcome was here or if any solution??


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

We have very hard water. Solid deposits on the sink edges in a week hard. When our well went out it ruined our softener and we lived with rock water for a couple years. I never had a problem with greasy hair. My hair felt like it had actual dirt caked in it. A vinegar rinse was the only thing that took out most of the dirty feel.

When I could take it no longer I threw a tantrum and threatened to move out and leave the kids. Hubby got me a softener with his next paycheck.

Try putting the softener through a cleaning cycle but make sure you don't run any water when the system is cycling. 

You could try washing your hair with Dawn dish soap but use just a little bit, rinse well and use a clean towel to dry your hair.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

The water softener should be set to run at night.


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## Mygirls1 (Jan 14, 2022)

Peacock said:


> Can a water softener malfunctioning cause greasy hair?
> 
> Daughter started complaining that her hair was greasy, right after she washed it. Blamed it on the new conditioner, then on the new shampoo I bought her. And this morning her hair was just _gross!_ Like she'd dipped her comb in vegetable oil. Well, then later I showered and mine turned out the same way, and I used a different shampoo that had worked fine before.
> 
> ...


I have the exact same problem! Have you found a solution?


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Mygirls1 said:


> I have the exact same problem! Have you found a solution?


The person you quoted hasn't been here in 4 years. They never did say if they found a solution to the problem. Several possible solutions were posted. If you find one that works please come back and let us know.


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