Thanks for the comment. You are right in saying that the skin will naturally be softer if the oils have been on longer without being washed off.

However, I have went a period of about 5 days before without showering. My skin was very oily feeling, and after the shower in the hard water, it felt terribly dry and itchy. Not so this time, and it felt much more smooth and so much less itchy.

So the water definitely has something to do with it. Furthermore, water softeners are very well known to give a slick and slimy feeling, leaving the skin feeling much more soft and supple due to no minerals being left on the surface (as opposed to the hard water).

If you could see my shower and feel my water, you would know just what I mean. It is just terrible here. The water department even got a really bad rating a couple of years ago during testing, and so the water quality is just terrible.

I will try to post more picks in the future showing how bad it is here. Even my family that lives just a few miles away (but they have a different water supply), is in utter shock when they see the pics I show them.

Again, I don’t know if this is the cause of my hives, but in the very least it can’t be helping them.