ZaiV2
Feb 23, 2007, 05:17 PM
Some people are fortunate enough to have what's called soft water, which is water without much dissolved in it, to drink and shower with. Others have hard water, which has minerals and such and can cause skin problems for some people. I have hard water. However, during my stay in Paris, France (left last Friday, got back yesterday) I had to shower using their water. This, I discovered, was very, very bad.
I was affected in two ways. The first way was with my hair. I'm very proud of it, having grown it out past my shoulders (and planning to grow it longer) and keeping it shiny, healthy, and soft (my last two girlfriends have claimed that it's of better quality than that of a lot of women). Well, after just one shower in Paris it looked disgusting. Dry, frizzy, limp, and in general substandard. I wasn't using the shampoo and conditioner the hotel provided, either. I brought my own stuff. After my hair dried from my shower this morning using the same stuff, it showed great improvement. Unfortunately, it'll probably take around a week for it to recover.
The second way was my skin. I've been fighting off acne problems since puberty, using many over-the-counter and prescribed treatments over the years but all with the same kind of minimal effect. Recently I've been using two that actually work; for the first time in a long time, I had no acne but what was already well on its way to healing. In Paris, that all changed. The morning of my flight home, as I brushed my teeth, I counted seven new zits across my face and neck. "Who counts the zits on their face?" you might ask. Well, it would be pretty hard not to, considering their severity. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
The water's probably not that bad for all of Paris, but it just might be, considering that they treat their water differently. It definitely wasn't the hotel's plumbing, since I was staying at a rather nice hotel. Still, its effects were very frustrating.
I was affected in two ways. The first way was with my hair. I'm very proud of it, having grown it out past my shoulders (and planning to grow it longer) and keeping it shiny, healthy, and soft (my last two girlfriends have claimed that it's of better quality than that of a lot of women). Well, after just one shower in Paris it looked disgusting. Dry, frizzy, limp, and in general substandard. I wasn't using the shampoo and conditioner the hotel provided, either. I brought my own stuff. After my hair dried from my shower this morning using the same stuff, it showed great improvement. Unfortunately, it'll probably take around a week for it to recover.
The second way was my skin. I've been fighting off acne problems since puberty, using many over-the-counter and prescribed treatments over the years but all with the same kind of minimal effect. Recently I've been using two that actually work; for the first time in a long time, I had no acne but what was already well on its way to healing. In Paris, that all changed. The morning of my flight home, as I brushed my teeth, I counted seven new zits across my face and neck. "Who counts the zits on their face?" you might ask. Well, it would be pretty hard not to, considering their severity. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.
The water's probably not that bad for all of Paris, but it just might be, considering that they treat their water differently. It definitely wasn't the hotel's plumbing, since I was staying at a rather nice hotel. Still, its effects were very frustrating.