A Few (Good) Water Filters Will Be Good For You

While the Jaws theme doesn't exactly pop into my head every time I turn on the shower, you never really know what's in the water. Have you ever rotated through multiple shampoos to no avail? Your hair just doesn’t feel right, or even clean. Or, maybe you’ve tried every cleanser and moisturizer, but your skin just doesn’t ever seem hydrated. You can keep sinking cash into product after product or maybe try to treat the root of the problem rather than the symptoms.

In the U.S, American’s tap water comes from a public community water system usually broken down by municipality. According to the National Resources Defense Counsel, “Chronic underinvestment has left water infrastructure outdated and on the verge of collapse in many places across the country.” Climate change and extreme weather conditions has exacerbated this quietly growing crisis across the country. Catastrophic floods in Jackson, Mississippi leaving 150,000 residents without access to clean water for days or the chemical spill into the Delaware River in 2023. 

“I think people usually think of really extreme events like a hurricane or flooding, but there's all sorts of different sort of stresses on the systems that can cause breakdowns,” Tara Lundy, the CBO/CMO of Lifestraw, the water filter and purification company said, “And we know just that our infrastructure in the US for drinking water is very old.” She also points to droughts, construction or more localized issues. 

Because water supplied to our homes comes from surface water sources like reservoirs, rivers and streams, it’s very easy for contaminants like bacteria, parasites, PFAS (also known as forever chemicals that have been linked to linked to cancers, immunotoxicity in children, thyroid disease, and reproductive problems) microplastics and pesticides. 

You can’t see it, but unrest assured – there’s definitely something in the water.

CLEANER DRINKING WATER CAN’T HURT:

We’ve long been focused on our drinking water, but even the last couple years worth of info on microplastics push for innovation in our at home filtration systems. “What's interesting about microplastics is they're removed in the same mechanism that bacteria and parasites, by size exclusion,” Lundy said. “Some of the more traditional filters are not as effective at removing microplastics that are kind of targeted towards lead or mercury or other things you need to be concerned about.” 

Although Lundy said people want a faster filter, Lifestraw is removing both toxins whose long term exposure can negatively affect our bodies as well as bacteria and parasites that have more immediate implications like diarrhea, which not only makes you physically sick but prevents your body from absorbing the nutrients you need to get better. These things take time. 

I was introduced to LifeStraw’s incredible filtering system through their TKSTRAW on a press trip with them in San Pancho, Mexico. We put standing, dirt road water through it and it came out sparkling, crystal clear water. With this very visible, tangible result from the straw, incorporating their glass home filter into my everyday life was a no brainer. 

Beyond our drinking water, other filtration systems have begun to pop-up for our sinks and showers, like Filterbaby and Jolie. Although they aren’t currently equipped to filter out everything Lifestraw can, you can get cleaner shower and sink water. 

FILTERED WATER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERY SKIN AND HAIRCARE PRODUCT:

“At a town level or municipal level, whoever's in charge of the water supply, we're chlorinating the water to disinfect it and kill bacteria such as E coli, Salmonella and things you definitely don't want to drink and shower in,” Arjan Singh, the co-founder of Jolie, the showerhead filter, said. 

Hard water contains heavy metals, sulfur and chlorine. “Heavy metals can lead to hair loss, oily roots and can have your hair feeling hard or rough. High levels of sulfur can worsen existing hair problems like brittleness and dry out your hair. Chlorine strips natural oils which leads to dry hair and make it prone to breakage and dead ends,” Nina Aprile, celeb hairstylist turned That Girl That Did Your Hair owner, said. 

All the products in the world aren’t going to fix this. “When you use shampoo you rinse with hard water, it's not really cleansing. It's causing build up,” Aprile said. “Then you follow up with a conditioner. You rinse again with hard water, so you’re stripping the moisture you just added. Now your hair is really tangled from the hard water, so you add detangle spray. All that build up causes bad hair days from not being properly washed. You can't tell if products really work based on your water, so having filtered water is so, so important.”

Jolie did a clinical study with Lemma Labs in upstate New York focused exclusively on hair after getting so much feedback and seeing reviews from users saying they were shedding significantly less hair in the shower since using their product. The study concluded that after three months with the Jolie filter participants experience 81% less hair shedding.