What Touches Our Skin Matters More Than We Think

What Touches Our Skin Matters More Than We Think

I've been a hairstylist for 25 years. This means I've spent a quarter of a century paying close attention to what people put on their bodies. I've watched clients spend money on good products, follow good routines, and still struggle with things like dry hair that won't soften, skin that flares up for no apparent reason and hair colour that doesn’t behave as it should.

 For most of those 25 years, I gave the same advice most of us in the beauty industry would. Try a different shampoo/body wash, switch to organic ingredients or go sulphate-free. Maybe add a mask/balm and drink more water. Try some supplements! Sometimes it helped, but more often than not it didn't. 

 I couldn't understand why, then I moved house.

My skin had been chronically itchy ever since we moved back to NZ and into our first home. I'd blamed everything for 10 years… hormones, diet, stress, the products I was using. I became extremely fixated on what went onto and into my body. I tried everything and nothing really fixed it. I'd just quietly accepted that itchy skin was part of who I was.

Once we moved house (further from the water treatment site) it improved a little. Slowly at first so I didn't really think much of it at the time. Then we moved again a few years later, more rural this time and it cleared up completely as there was no chlorine in our UV treated bore water. But then my blonde hair started going dull in a way it never had before. This was a familiar thing I’d seen in many of my blonde clients over the years (heavy metals in the untreated bore water)

A few months later we went to Canada for an extended stay. Within days, the itch was back. Then I noticed my 4 year old and 8 month olds skin was reacting too.

That's when the penny dropped. It wasn't my products or hormones. It was my water the whole time! I'd been a hairstylist seeing this type of thing on the daily for over two decades without ever making that connection out loud.

I started researching and trialing shower filters and started Süla, a NZ wellness brand built around the simple idea that filtered shower water makes a real, measurable difference to hair and skin health. Not a miracle or magic fix. Just reducing the chlorine and heavy metals that tap water carries to let your water cleanse you well, without adding anything your body doesn’t need.

 I've been thinking a lot lately about the things we assume are neutral.

 We don't usually question water. It looks pretty clear and clean in our ‘clean green’ country. It comes out of the tap and has mostly been treated so it's safe to drink. We tend to assume that means it's gentle. Chlorine (which is what we use to keep swimming pools clean) is in most NZ town water supplies at varying levels. And yes it's doing a great job keeping the water safe, but is also stripping the natural oils from your skin and hair every time you or your children shower, It's not dangerous but it's not neutral either. 

I had a similar realisation when I started thinking about fabric.

 When your skin is sensitive, which mine and my children’s are. You naturally start to notice what touches it. Not just what you put on it, but what sits against it all day. What you sleep in. What wraps around you when you get out of the shower. The things we think of as background, as just there are not always neutral.

 The crossover between what Süla and what Coops Clothing do is something I find really interesting. We're both working in the space of what touches skin. Süla in the water before it gets to you and your family, Coops Clothing in the fabric that sits on your children’s bodies after. Neither of us is claiming to be a cure. We're just paying attention to materials and how they interact with sensitive bodies.

 I think this feeling is what people with sensitive skin have always known, even if they haven’t been able to articulate it. When you or your children’s skin reacts, you stop assuming things are fine. You start reading labels and asking questions. You start noticing things as basic as your water, your linen, your everyday clothing are actually doing something to your body, one way or another.

 For me, the water was the answer I'd been looking for without knowing I was looking for it. My skin didn't have some mysterious condition. It was just responding to something it was being exposed to every single day. I do think a lot of people are in a similar position. Spending money on solutions for problems that are actually upstream of the products they're using. Blaming their skin type, age or genetics when the answer might simply be in the fabric they wear or the water they shower in.

 I'm not here to alarm anyone. Tap water in NZ is safe. Standard fabric is fine for most people. But if you're someone who has always struggled with skin comfort and has followed all the advice and still can't figure out why your skin won't settle it could be worth looking at the things you've assumed were neutral.

 Maybe start with the basics. What touches your family's skin every day?

The water you shower in. The fabric you wear. The sheets you sleep in. 

These things are not always the most exciting to talk about. But for people and especially children with sensitive skin, they can make more overall difference than any balm, body wash or diet adjustment.

I wish someone had told me this 25 years ago because I spent a long time looking in the wrong direction.

 If any of this resonates, whether you've been struggling with your or your children's skin, scalp, hair, or just a nagging feeling that something isn't quite right, pay attention to the basics.

What you wash with. What you wear. What you wrap yourself in.

The things we assume are neutral aren't always. And sometimes, the answer has been there the whole time.

Shop our organic collection here.

 Deb is the founder of Süla Water, a New Zealand wellness brand offering premium shower filters for healthier hair and skin. You can find Süla at sulawater.co.nz.