Your shampoo can’t fix the water

There’s a familiar loop. Hair feels dry, so you buy a better shampoo. Then a mask. Then leave-in. The aisle gets expensive. The shower feels the same.

Sometimes you really did pick the wrong products. A lot of the time, though, you’re fighting the water.

Chlorinated water is rough on hair and can leave skin feeling tight. Hot water makes it worse. Hard water minerals can pile on too — that’s a separate issue — but chlorine alone is enough to undo a “repair” routine.

So you keep adding product to fix what the rinse just did. It’s not crazy. It’s just incomplete.

A shower filter won’t turn your bathroom into a salon. What it can do is cut chlorine in the water you wash with, so your products aren’t working against the pipe every morning.

Signs water might be part of it: a faint pool smell after you shower, color that fades too fast, skin that feels tight right after you towel off, or hair that somehow feels better when you travel.

If that sounds familiar, fix the rinse before you buy another bottle. Orra screws on in about a minute. Give it a couple weeks. Keep it if mornings feel better.