I moved to an area where the water was much harder than I was used to. First, I bought products for the dishwasher, something called "Lemi-Shine" - it solved those problems, and no more spots on cutlery and so on.
My hair started going darker, dryer, and just all-around unhealthy. Did some research, and here are the things I learned:
1. If you rinse your hair at the end of shampoo/condition with some vinegar - this will restore softness, shine and bounce. Sounds weird, but it *does* help. Add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar (can use apple cider vinegar if you have darker hair) to half a bottle of bottled water. Suggestion: don't use a bottle of water from the fridge - not fun to put cold water on your head after showering. So, room temperature bottled water (not the hard water from the taps), with some vinegar in it. Pour over your head and do not rinse. The vinegar smell will completely go away once your hair is dry. People who live in hard water areas and don't have a water softener often use vinegar to clean off hard water deposits on their faucets and so on. It works for hair too - just use a tiny bit (tablepoon or two) diluted in some bottled water though.
2. I started looking at the ingredients in that Lemi-Shine stuff for dishes - citric acid. Also looked into what to do to fix hair that is damaged from hard water - the magic combination is citric acid and ascorbic acid. Now, you don't go putting this stuff on your hair, but you can find shampoos with these ingredients. Most "clarifying" shampoos have at least one of these ingredients. Two products in particular (Malibu Wellness) and Sally Beauty's ION Hard Water shampoo have both these ingredients. Also, there are little packets of powder that you mix with water to do a deep de-mineralizing treatment. Some salons even do this.
Here's one of the shampoos:
http://www.sallybeauty.com/har.....lt,pd.html
Here's the little envelope/sachet of special de-mineralizing treatment:
http://www.sallybeauty.com/cla....._vc=MYBUYS
Interestingly - I see that the de-mineralizing treatment is also used as a 'prep' before colouring hair. Now, I don't colour my hair, but I did notice that when my hair was damaged/discoloured from hard water, it just wouldn't style as easily - curling irons, flat irons, and so on didn't work! Styling products didn't work as well either.
I think this is because the minerals bond to the hair over time. It makes sense then, that perhaps hair colour wouldn't 'take' as well on hard-water damaged hair.
Meanwhile, clarifying shampoos can be drying - so be sure to use a good conditioner.
Here are a couple more shampoos that have at least one of these 'magic' de-mineralizing ingredients:
BB Sunday Shampoo:
http://www.sephora.com/sunday-.....ZS5jb20%3d
Some great reviews on MakeupAlley re: Joico Chelating Shampoo:
http://www.makeupalley.com/pro.....co/Shampoo
I posted that last one in there so you could read what people had said about how hard water can affect one's hair.
I have not yet tried the little packets of de-mineralizing treatment powder. I bought some, but I've found that within just a few days, using the ION Hard Water shampoo, my hair is bright and back to life again.
***Disclaimer: I do not know how these shampoos or the treatment stuff affects coloured hair, so be careful. I think trying the vinegar rinse might be ok. Maybe ask your hairdresser about a de-mineralizing treatment (they use the same powder that you mix with water - it turns into a gel).
Here are some reviews/testimonials re: Malibu brand Hard Water shampoos/treatments:
http://malibuc.com/solutions/cn/38/Hard-Water
Ok - this has gotten really long, and I hope it's not too confusing. I threw all this in here because if you're finding that your hair colour isn't 'the same' and you're also experiencing dull/limp hair, plus too much dryness/breakage - it's possible that you live in a hard-water area and that this is affecting your hair.