Slimy Soft Water!

Clean Water Man:

We just had a water softener installed last week and I can't stand the slimy feeling.  Why is it so slimy? Our water treatment company can't give us an answer.

June, Darien, CT

June:

This is where I wish companies that sold water treatment were more aware of everything that changes when a water system is installed and were also able to show you all the benefits, including slimy water.  Yes, I said slimy water is a benefit.

First of all, it will take you at least two weeks to get used to bathing in soft water.  The water itself is not slimy.  The sensation comes from three factors:

1. When you bathed in hard water, the calcium and magnesium combined with soap to clog the pores in your skin.  The clogged pores prevented natural oils from coming to the surface of your skin, natural oils that are there to keep your skin from drying out.  A water softener removes those clogging minerals and allows the oil to come out.
2. Soap lathers much better when there are no hard minerals grabbing onto the soap molecules.  The sensation of slipperiness is intensified with natural oil or tallow based soaps.
3. The slightly elevated sodium in the soft water combines with the now free oil on your skin and creates  the slippery feeling.  Believe it or not, soap actually rinses off more quickly and easily with soft water, but this combination of sodium and natural skin oils mimics the soapy feel (soap is usually some combination of some sodium, like sodium hydroxide, and fat, either vegetable oil or tallow).

 I ask all of my customer to give it two weeks and get used to the feeling and consider how much easier soft water is on their skin.  Also consider the fact that the water that people and animals have been exposed to for most of our existence is either surface water or shallow well and cistern water.  Bathing in and drinking deep well water is not truly our natural water habitat since most deep well water, compared to surface water, is very high in hard mineral content.  If for most of the past millions of years our ancestors were using surface water, which even in lakes and rivers has a naturally elevated sodium content due to natural erosion, isn't that the natural water our breed is used to?  The exception to this rule are hot springs throughout the world where bathing health spas have sprung up, but they are high in both calcium and sodium.  I suggest that our skin has been designed to deal more easily with water that has a low hardness level.

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