Here's Why Your Hotel Shower Could Be Ruining Your Hair

Feel like your hair doesn’t look quite as well-rested as you after your holiday? It could all be due to your hotel shower. Here’s why.

If your hair suddenly feels dry, frizzy, or flat after a hotel stay, you’re not imagining it. It’s a familiar travel frustration, and it’s often chalked up to jet lag, new travel-friendly products, or a change in climate. But there’s another factor quietly shaping how your hair behaves – the water in your hotel shower.

In fact, one of the most overlooked reasons for your hair suddenly not playing ball – wherever you are in the world – is water quality. Water quality varies dramatically from place to place, meaning when you travel even short distances, there can be a noticeable shift in water composition. Hotel plumbing systems often intensify those differences, too. The result: your hair routine can behave very differently from what you’re used to at home.

Here’s what you need to know.

What are the hidden culprits?

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Hard water

One of the most common hair-compromising issues is hard water – aka water with high levels of calcium and magnesium. These minerals aren’t harmful to health, but they can be surprisingly harsh on your hair. That’s because, when you wash your hair in hard water, the minerals can bind to strands and leave behind a residue. This can lead to hair that feels rough or heavy; dullness and loss of shine; increased tangling and breakage; plus a scalp that feels itchy or dry.

“Hard water quietly chips away at the hair’s strength. It starts with dryness, then comes the breakage, frizz and snapping. I see it constantly in clients after summer,” reveals the founder of Stā Studios, Samantha Cusick.

Equally, ever blamed your travel-sized haircare products for your routine just not performing the same way as at-home? Again, it might not be the products themselves, but the water you are using them in. Hard water can also be responsible for you finishing up your shampoo and conditioner on your travels faster than you expected (which can be especially frustrating when travelling light). That’s because these minerals can affect how your shampoo lathers, leading you to use more than you would normally, while still potentially stepping out of the shower with a feeling of less well-washed hair. Equally, because your hair texture is suffering, you can find yourself overloading on your conditioner, but any mineral build-up can, at the same time, make it harder for your conditioner to penetrate the hair shaft.

Soft water

On the other end of the spectrum, soft water (which contains a low concentration of dissolved minerals) can also affect your hair – although it can often be a little more manageable in the long term. The main consequence is that your hair can feel weighed down with less volume than usual, making it more difficult to style. That’s especially irritating if you are travelling light and haven’t got all your normal styling products with you. Another source of irritation: you may find that you need to spend longer in the shower washing out your products as well.

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Chlorine and the effect of water treatments

You might already know about the effects that chlorine can have on your hair from your experience with swimming pools, but did you know that hotels often rely on water systems that use chlorine to disinfect the water too? While totally safe from a health perspective, chlorine can strip natural oils from your hair and scalp, leaving hair feeling further dry or brittle. It’s especially problematic for already dry or colour-treated hair, as chlorine exposure can make fading and damage more noticeable too.

Older plumbing

Finally, staying in beautiful grand dame hotels with lots of history can be a wonderful experience while travelling, but the older plumbing might have unexpected consequences for your tresses. In particular, older pipes can mean trace metals like iron or copper leak into the water supply, contributing to slight brassiness in lighter hair tones and a worsening hair texture over time. Again, these trace metals are unlikely to be at levels where you need to be truly concerned, but your hair could be sensitive enough to notice the difference.

How to protect your hair while on your travels

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A quick Google before you head on your travels can often give you an indication of whether the area you are visiting is prone to hard or soft water, allowing you to plan ahead a little. However, of course, we wouldn’t advocate for not staying somewhere just because of the – uncontrollable – nature of the water in the shower! And, the good news is you don’t need to overhaul your entire routine to make a real difference to your hair quality.

1. Use a travel shower filter

One of the most expert-recommended essentials to add to your travel haircare routine might surprise you, not least because it isn’t an actual haircare product. It’s something you add to the shower itself. Portable shower filters attach easily to most hotel fixtures and reduce chlorine and some mineral content. They’re small, affordable, and surprisingly effective for regular travellers.

Hello Klean’s clinically backed Purifying Shower Head and Shower Filter remove over 90% of chlorine and heavy metals, and come particularly highly recommended (and get bonus points for being female owned). Another great option is the Curo Skin shower filter, which comes both dermatologist and trichologist-recommended.

2. Use a clarifying shampoo

Another great addition to your travel beauty routine is a chelating (or clarifying) shampoo – a product that is specifically designed to bind to minerals and remove existing buildup from hard water. Using it once during your trip (or immediately after) can reset your hair and also help keep your hair protected when in and out of the swimming pool during your travels.

Try L’Oréal Professionnel’s Metal Detox Anti-Metal Cleansing Cream Shampoo or Living Proof’s Clarifying Detox Shampoo.

3. Prioritise mini styling products

When packing light, hair styling products can often be the first to come out of your beauty bag, but they can actually be travel essentials. A lightweight leave-in conditioner in particular can really help counteract dryness caused by chlorine or mineral exposure, while a mini version of your favourite volumising products can breathe new life into your styles.

We love Ouai’s Leave In Conditioner and K18’s AstroLift Reparative Volume Spray.

4. Rinse with bottled or filtered water

Finally, if your hair is already really dry or damaged, or you are spending a long time in an area with poor quality water, some frequent travellers swear by a final rinse using bottled or filtered water to avoid mineral residue. Consider it your quick and simple back-up plan when your hair is really suffering.

Becki Murray is Citizen Femme’s Beauty and Wellness Director. As one of the only UK journalists to hold a Distinction-grade diploma in cosmetic science, she combines her unique knowledge with an editor’s eye to help you make smarter choices about beauty, wellbeing, and aesthetics. Becki also heads up CF’s spa guide so you could say she’s an expert in the science of relaxation too…