Immigrants on the Move

Water is just water right? If you asked 29 year old me about water, I would argue that it’s all the same. I drank tap water, occasionally used a filter, but certainly never thought anything of the quality of what was coming out of the tap or how it might affect me. Until we moved to France and my skin was on fire on a daily basis. As with most overseas things I had no idea why, did the French put chemicals in their water? It wasn’t until I mentioned it to a fellow trailing spouse that she told me it’s a hard water area. Since then I’ve learned more about water than I ever need to know.

Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

I have eczema and sensitive skin, so moving houses often sets it off both from the stress and from my skin adjusting to the new flooring (I like walking barefoot). As I have covered in previous posts, French rental properties are sold as shells, empty of all including the kitchen sink quite often, so when we found a well cared for, relatively modern little Jack and Jill house in Nemours we were delighted. The best part for me was that it had a bath. I do not cope well without a bath, it’s my place to unwind and release the stresses of the week. Unfortunately, the bath became my biggest stress, the hard water was agony. When a lot of limescale is left on the appliances, this is a sign it’s a hard water area. This type of water with dry, sensitive skin is a bad combination. My skin was rough, it would be constantly red and irritated, and my eczema started spreading.

When it came time for our second move (third technically if we include the Maldives) one of the first things I did was find the local Facebook forums and ask about the water. The response I got was that the water was very hard, and my skin wouldn’t like it. Thankfully by this point I had discovered the miracle that was Epsom salts, a good dose of those in my baths and my skin calmed down. But the thing was, after a few weeks I found that the water, while being hard wasn’t anywhere near as calcified as the water in France. It turned out very hard was a relative judgement.

It would take a few more years before I realised that the water also had a huge impact on my hair. A friend and I went for a girls weekend to the vineyards in the Jumilla region of Spain. We drove up the winding drive with grape vines on either side and were welcomed by the owners. We had booked a package that included wine tasting and a wine bath, yes you read that right. We had our bodies scrubbed with a grape seed formula, then we sat in a bath of red wine, then we had a grape seed oil massage – I was in heaven. After I went into the shower to wash my hair and after drying it found it was so soft. My hair had never felt that soft, it was fluffy and light and silky to touch. This was a soft water area, and my hair was very grateful for the break from mineral build up.

Where I’m living now, my friends daughter gets her to bring bottles of tap water to her house because ‘she doesn’t like what it does to her hair’. I asked if she found her hair was more flyaway and she said yes, she prefers the hard water on her hair but maybe that is because she is accustomed to it.

My relative scale of soft and hard water gained a new extreme in Baku where your skin would feel like it was shrinking from the lack of moisture. My hair that rarely looks greasy would be greasy after only a couple of days, and my husband’s skin would itch in ways he’d never experienced before. It will always be a question for me now before I move to a new location, not because it will stop me moving there but more because I can make sure I have an arsenal of products to counteract the water quality.