Dry skin. Salt or borates?

[y_not]

I agree, drop that CL down into the normal range and see what happens with your skin. Just simply as an experiment.
I would also be curious as to the following. Measure your PH both right before you get in and right when you get out. Do this round of tests at least 2x.
That is what most people are sensitive to. I know I am.

My skin sooooo hates our dry climate here. Just simply taking a shower and my skin gets all itchy afterward. I usually have to pop some Benadryl for it to subside, creams just really don't do it much good.
The pool however actually makes my skin feel better. Probably because of the prolonged CL contact. At least it did last year on the BBB method, IIRC. Just haven't gotten the pool up this year due to complications outside my control. Hopefully this week.

 

[Haley]

JohnN, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes if I add anything. :-D

Dickeystorm, you lucky duck! Glad you're able to proceed with the borates now!

Chem Geek and Y_not, I range, depending on the weather and bather load from 4-7 and have always noticed the dryness. (Maybe we just have really dry skin?) These two posts were what inspired me to ask about salt and borates in my water:

dry-skin-t63812.html
dry-skin-t35825.html

 

[JohnN]

One more thing I want to add. For me, personally, I don't think it is chlorine, because I get the same effect after I take a shower, which has no chlorine. Overall, though, I feel better after getting out of the pool, probably because it isn't as acidic as my well water. So maybe upping the pH to higher 7's might help. I might have to try that and let you know how it goes.

 

[duraleigh]

I am out of my pay grade here because I don't experience dry skin.

That said, I thought "hard" water was drying and "soft" water was not???? That's a function of CH, not chlorine.

OP, do you have a water softener in your House? What is the CH in your pool?

 

[Haley]

JohnN, I'll be interested to know what you find. My pH doesn't like to go below 7.3 (which is a good thing) unless I really drop it with MA to 7.1. I think it's because of the weaker MA that I use that it's not very effective. Once I use it up, I'll switch to the stronger stuff.

Hi Dave, last I checked (beginning of July) CH was 120 and falling and no I don't have a softener in the house, though I would love one. :-D If I can get my TA down enough, I think I'm going to try borates. It'll be some effort, but I'd like to try it. I'll let you all know how it goes in a couple of weeks. Thanks, everyone, for all your thoughts and advice!

 

[JohnN]

It's not a hard water problem (at least for me) because my CH is around 20 (no softener). Right now my pH was 7.6, but I didn't go in today. Maybe I'll try raising it to around 7.7 or 7.8 and see how it feels. My pH tends to fall, so I am not very concerned with raising it too high.

 

[y_not]

Curious as to whether you're effected by taking a bath in your home, from the same water source as your pool. Not just a shower, which isn't as much exposure, but an actual bath.

I'm almost betting It's something in your local water source, not your pool itself. Ie. what you put in it for chemicals and such. If you can figure out a link there, should be pretty easy, maybe Chem Geek can help you out with your local water report data.

 

[chem geek]

Keep in mind that tap water often has either chlorine or monochloramine, though if you take a bath the chlorine won't last very long so might be a better test to compare against. Also note this link on bathing & moisturizing from the National Eczema Association where they note that if you bathe in water and do not put on a moisturizer afterwards, then the water evaporates and the skin becomes dry. Adding a moisturizer creates a barrier to keep the water in the skin.

Note that water alone will dissolve chemicals in sweat, some of which are natural moisturizing factors, but chlorine does more by reacting with some amino acids and proteins though with Cyanuric Acid (CYA) present in the pool, the active chlorine level is lower and therefore such reactions are slower. See this link for more technical detail on skin physiology, dry skin and the use of moisturizers.

 

[JohnN]

Raised my pH to 7.8 from 7.6 with Borax before I went swimming, and the water felt nicer, and I would say it was less drying. I still had to use lotion after, but I really think it felt nicer.