Effects of Soap in Hard Water
Hard water contains calcium and magnesium ions. Water softeners remove those ions by exchanging them for sodium or potassium ions. The slippery feeling experienced when using soap with soft water occurs because soaps tend to bind to fats in the surface layers of skin, making soap molecules difficult to remove by simple dilution. In contrast, in hard-water areas the rinse water contains calcium and/or magnesium ions which form insoluble stearates (or their equivalents), effectively removing the residual soap from the skin but potentially leaving a coating of insoluble stearates on tub and shower surfaces, commonly called soap scum.
Read more about this topic: Water Softening
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