Water Filters In Dubai: The Antidote To Hair Loss In The City?
“It’s the desalinated water.” “It’s hard water” – we’ve heard it all.
Are water filters effective in combatting hair loss? Bazaar Arabia shares everything we know.
If you live in Dubai, you’ve probably complained about hair loss at some point or heard someone else complain about their thinning locks. While some blame the heat and humidity, the most commonly accused culprit is the water.
A distressed Dubai resident’s cry for support on the popular Internet forum, Reddit, is surely the voice of many in the country. “Do you also feel that in Dubai you lose hair quickly?” asks a concerned user, garnering over a hundred responses. Many nodded in agreement, some shared their own remedies, while others didn’t seem to have the same problem and believed that the issue was not unique to the city. One of the solutions, according to a fellow hair loss sufferer, is to use bottled water to wash your hair.
Are Water Filters Effective In Combatting Hair Loss?
While there are some UAE residents who do not wash their locks with tap water and only use mineral water to shampoo their hair, the most common and easily accessible solution seems to be getting a filter attached to their shower head.
Most of these water filters come with the promise of removing chlorine and other impurities from the water, thus in theory, preventing hair loss and restoring scalp health.
In our search for water filters, a company called Blu seemed to be popular. Their filters supposedly have a permeable mesh filter chamber that is said to enhance the ionisation process and efficiently remove large sediments and insoluble pollutants from your shower water. Another part of the filter is said to remove harmful soluble water pollutants, heavy metal ions, and chemicals from your shower water.
Have Users Of Water Filters Noticed A Difference In Hair Loss?
One Reddit user swears by water filters, writing, “The water in Dubai is hard water. It is full of minerals (not just the good ones for your hair) that damage your hair and stay in your hair if you don’t wash them out. I purchased Blu ionic shower filter, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It pretty much filters out all ‘the bad’ stuff from Dubai water.”
Others believe that the water filter phenomenon is simply just a placebo effect. “How are you able to identify if the Blu iconic shower filter is working? For me, it’s just the belief and peace of mind that I am spending to pamper my hair. I guess this lowers stress and hence reduces hair fall,” they wrote.
Another Redditor wasn’t convinced, sharing, “you’d be better off getting your tank cleaned. These shower filters are nothing more than snake oil. What do you think is wrong with desalinated water?”
Whether you believe that it’s the water in the country that’s causing hair loss or that it’s other factors like stress or ageing, it’s best to consult a professional such as a dermatologist should you have a persistent hair loss issue.
Lead Image from From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s January 2023 issue.