Chelating Shampoo Survival Guide: Conquer Hard Water Shampoos

Right now, you might be thinking, ‘What’s a chelating shampoo?’ because until you need to use one, it’s probably not a product you’ve ever really thought about. But if your hair feels unbearably dry and frizzy or has been breaking easily and you can’t pinpoint the cause, it could be time to reach for a chelating shampoo.

Hard water, hair products, or even your latest swimming session can cause minerals and metals to build up on your hair strands, leaving your locks dull, limp, and lifeless. It could leave color-treated hair looking less vibrant and even affect your hair texture.

Chelating shampoo helps to break down the residue left on your hair and whisks it away, improving the look and feel of your mane.

So if your hair has been lacking its usual shine and bounce, this guide will explain how chelating shampoos work, how they differ from clarifying shampoos, and what to look for in a chelating product. 

What Is Chelating Shampoo?

You could think of chelating shampoos as being like a deep cleansing facial for your skin or like an intensive clarifying shampoo.

Mineral deposits from various sources accumulate in your hair, leaving it dull, brittle, and discolored.  These could be minerals from hard water, like calcium, copper, or iron, which are deposited on your hair every time you wash it. Or they could be residues from hair products like hair sprays and leave-in conditioners, which build up over time and can’t be removed by a regular shampoo.

If you’re a keen swimmer and don’t use a swim cap, the chlorine could give your hair a green tinge and even weaken your hair strands. Regular dust, dirt, and environmental pollutants can also build up on your hair and scalp, even with regular washing. 

You could have your hair chelated at the hair salon, but this can be expensive and time-consuming. Luckily, chelating shampoos make it easy to rinse away mineral deposits at home, giving you shinier and more voluminous hair once it’s not weighed down by all that residue.

How Does a Chelating Shampoo Work?

The active ingredients in chelating shampoos are called chelating agents. They latch onto particles of minerals like calcium or salt and form a kind of cage around them. When you rinse the shampoo suds out of your hair, the mineral particles will then wash away with them.

Chelating shampoos are often packed full of powerful antioxidants that can stop free radicals from damaging your hair.

Although chelating agents are incredibly effective at removing build up, the chelating process can also cause natural oils to be removed from your hair strands, leading to dry hair. So if you want to avoid this, it’s vital to follow up your chelating agent with a deep conditioner or hot oil treatment.

Benefits of Using Chelating Shampoos

If you have hard tap water or swim regularly in chlorinated water or salt water, a chelating shampoo will help to remove the minerals like chlorine, calcium, and salt that build up on your hair. It can also help to protect hair from future mineral build up and damage.

But these products have a lot of other benefits, even if you live in a soft water area.

They can help restore the natural pH balance of your hair and scalp and remove the yellow tinge you sometimes get on gray hair.

And using a chelating agent on the wash day before you color your hair will help to remove any product build-up. This will give you a more consistent result for your color treatment and keep your hair color vibrant for longer.

Chelating Shampoo vs. Clarifying Shampoo

Are you confused about whether a chelating shampoo is the same as a clarifying shampoo? It’s a pretty common confusion, especially because people often use the terms interchangeably.

A clarifying shampoo is great for eliminating the build-up of styling products you can get through regular, everyday use. But clarifying shampoos will only remove deposits from the surface of the hair shaft.

Chelating shampoos have a stronger effect and also work below the hair shaft’s surface. So if you live in a hard water area or swim a lot, a chelating shampoo will give your hair a really deep cleanse.

But it’s important to remember that whether you choose a clarifying shampoo or chelating shampoo, both of these treatments are pretty strong. They will also remove excess oil from hair strands, which can dry your hair out if you use them regularly.

So make sure you have a deep conditioning treatment, hair mask, or moisturizing conditioner ready to use after you’ve washed your hair with a chelating or clarifying shampoo

Does Chelating Shampoo Damage Hair?

Although chelating shampoos are very effective at removing mineral deposits from your hair, they can also be very drying if you use them too often. Overuse can lead to the natural sebum being stripped from your hair strands.

You can avoid this by not using a chelating shampoo or clarifying shampoo too often and always applying a good conditioner afterward. This will minimize the risk of your hair being stripped of its natural oil and will restore essential moisture to keep your locks feeling soft.

How to choose a Hard Water Shampoo

If you’ve decided that you need a hard water shampoo to chelate hair, there are a few things you need to look out for.  

Mineral-Targeting

Make sure that the detox shampoo you choose will target mineral buildup. In particular, it needs to target calcium, copper, and iron. 

Gentle Formula

Try to choose a gentle formula that will remove minerals without stripping the natural oils from your hair. If your hair gets too dry, it could lead to excess oil production and an oily scalp.

Contains EDTA

EDTA (Ethylamine Diamine Tetraacetic Acid) is a synthetic amino acid that dissolves limescale. All chelating shampoos have to contain EDTA, and a higher percentage means it will be more effective in removing minerals from your hair.

But just because a product contains EDTA doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a chelating shampoo. Low levels of EDTA are used as a preservative in clarifying shampoos and other products, and it won’t have a chelating effect at low concentrations.

Ingredients

Here are the key ingredients and chelating agents to look for:

• Tetrasodium EDTA
• Disodium EDTA
• HEDTA
• TEA-EDTA
• Trisodium EDTA
• Trisodium HEDTA
• Citric Acid (Vitamin C)
• Sodium Citrate or Trisodium Citrate
• Tetrahydroxypropyl Ethylenediamine
• Diisopropyl oxalate
• Disodium EDTA-copper
• Oxalic acid
• Potassium
• Sodium oxalate
• Pentasodium Pentetate

Natural Clarifiers and Alternatives

A chelating shampoo containing EDTA or citric acid will give the best results on mineral buildup, but you might want something a little gentler on your hair.

Natural ingredients like apple cider vinegar (ACV), charcoal, and phytic acid are less drying than chelating shampoo, but they are not as effective at removing mineral deposits. Baking soda and bentonite clay are other natural chelating ingredients, but they can dry and damage your hair.

Here are some natural alternatives you could try:

• Briogeo Scalp Revival Shampoo – contains apple cider vinegar and charcoal
• Kinky Curly Come Clean – contains phytic acid
• AG Hair Balance Shampoo – contains apple cider vinegar

The Signs of Needing a Hair Chelating Shampoo

If you live in a hard water area, you’re probably used to seeing your kettle and shower head covered in a film or white scale. That is caused by minerals like magnesium and calcium in the water. 

And, although you can’t see it, these deposits also build up on your hair. It makes it hard to get a good lather off your shampoo and leaves your hair limp, dry, and hard to manage.

Installing a shower filter can help to filter out minerals from the water, and a chelating shampoo will help to remove any build up on your locks. 

If you have low porosity hair, use the Curly Girl Method or only co-wash your hair, you may also find that you get a build-up on your hair. A chelating product will help eliminate any rich emollients, styling products, or dry shampoo deposits that have built up on your hair.

When to Use a Hard Water Shampoo

Several common hair issues can indicate that mineral buildup is forming on your hair. These include:

• Dry hair
• Limp hair
• Frizzy hair
• Itchy scalp
• Unexplained shedding or breakage

If you live in an area with hard water, frequently swim in salt water or chlorinated water, or use a no-lye relaxant as part of your haircare routine, you could also get mineral buildup on your hair.

How Do You Use Hard Water Shampoo?

You use a chelating shampoo in a similar way to your usual shampoo. Wet your hair and then apply the shampoo, massaging it into your wet hair and scalp to help loosen the mineral deposits. 

Leave the shampoo to work on your hair for about three minutes before rinsing it out. You can apply a conditioner afterward as usual, especially if you find that using a chelating shampoo makes your hair feel dry.

Frequency

Chelating shampoo is not designed for daily use, and if you use it too often, you could find that it strips the natural oils from your hair. Think of it as the equivalent of a deep clean facial for your skin, compared to daily washing.

To avoid drying your hair, you should only use chelating shampoos when it’s really necessary. Some experts recommend once per week, while others say you should use chelating shampoos twice per month at most. 

In between, you can switch back to your usual shampoo, chosen to suit your specific hair type and condition.

If you have color treated hair, it’s also a good idea to use chelating shampoo on the wash day before you color it. This will help you to get a more even result from your hair color.

Chelating Shampoo Recommendations

If you would like to try chelating your hair at home, here are our recommendations for the best shampoos to try out:

Best Chelating Shampoos

Bumble and Bumble Sunday Shampoo, Ion Hard Water, Malibu C Hard Water Wellness, OUIDAD Water Works Clarifying Shampoo, and Kenra Clarifying Shampoo are among the best choices for chelating shampoos overall. Any of these would do a great job removing mineral deposits and they are all highly rated. My personal favorite is the Malibu C.

Best Chelating Shampoo for Curly Hair 

EDTA and sulfate-free cleansers help Pattern Cleansing Shampoo removes mineral residue effectively. At the same time, the shampoo hydrates curly hair with nourishing ingredients like aloe and panthenol. This product is ideal for curly hair types that need occasional chelating treatments.

Best Chelating Shampoo for Color Treated Hair

Color Wow Dream Filter Pre-Shampoo Mineral Remover is a treatment you can use before shampooing to remove mineral residues without stripping your hair color. You spray it onto dry hair and wait three minutes before using your regular shampoo to rinse the minerals away. 

More great chelating products to try

The Malibu C: Natural Protective Hard Water Wellness Kit has over 12,000 ratings on Amazon, and the reviews speak for themselves. The kit includes a shampoo packed with chelating and clarifying ingredients, a rich conditioner to restore your hair’s moisture levels, and four packets of the Malibu C Hard Water Wellness Hair Remedy pre-shampoo treatment. You can also buy each of these products on their own.

Living Proof Perfect hair Day Triple Detox Shampoo is one of the best shampoos for dealing with mineral deposits from hard water, product buildup, or environmental pollutants. But this Triple Detox Shampoo is also free from both sulfates and silicones, so it’s safe for curly and coily hair types as well as dry or color-treated hair.

MopTop Detox Shampoo is sulfate-free and contains a mix of EDTA, clarifying cleansers, and moisturizing oils. It will break down the mineral deposits and product buildup on your hair without completely drying out your locks, so it’s ideal for damaged hair or chemically treated hair that needs a little extra TLC.

FAQs

If you’re still unsure about chelating shampoos, here are answers to some of the questions we get asked most often:

Can You Use Chelating Shampoo With Extensions?

Yes, it can be used on natural hair or extensions, but be sure to follow the directions carefully to get the best possible results.  

Is Apple Cider Vinegar a Good Chelating Clarifier?

An Apple Cider Vinegar rinse may help to remove mineral deposits from your hair, but the results will be unpredictable. It would be better to use a chelating product containing EDTA or one of the natural alternatives listed above.

How Long Does It Take To Chelate Hair?

It will only take a few minutes longer to chelate your hair than if you washed it with your regular shampoo. After applying the chelating product, you just need to leave it to work for about 3 minutes before rinsing it out.

Will Using Chelating Shampoo Remove Toner?

Chelating Shampoos are designed to remove minerals and other deposits from your hair but won’t remove toner. However, if you use them regularly on colored hair, you may find that the color fades sooner than expected.

How Expensive Are Chelating Shampoos?

The price varies from brand to brand, so you should be able to find a product that fits your budget. Overall, they are a relatively inexpensive way to improve the look and feel of your hair, and they’re widely available wherever you buy your hair care products.

The Bottom Line

Now you know what a chelating shampoo is, how it works, and how to use a chelating agent to remove mineral deposits from your hair. They’re an easy and inexpensive alternative to visiting the salon to get your hair chelated.

And with so many great chelating products on the market, you can experiment with these deep-cleansers to help wash away build-up and restore the shiny, healthy hair you love.

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