I, Like Most People I Know, Have Spent a LOT of Time and Money on Beauty Products.
And yet, no matter what I tried, I could never crack the code of what works for my skin. See, I have extremely dry skin, but the lack of natural oils on my face somehow leads to even more breakouts, which I then attempted to address by further drying out my skin with topical products… you get the picture.
I’ve tried the pricey, minimalist skincare routines. I’ve tried the 17-step K-Beauty routines. But everything just seemed to make my acne worse. So, when the skincare girlies on my FYP started preaching about filtered showerheads, I was both intrigued and guarded. How could a change so simple make such a big impact on your skin? Then, I tried Canopy’s Filtered Showerhead.
So Here’s the Problem With Water…
Over 85% of people living in the United States have hard water—essentially, water that is high in mineral content. Examples include iron, chlorine, magnesium, mercury, chloramine… scary. Each of these are proven to have detrimental effects to skin and hair: they’ve been known to dehydrate skin, clog pores, and prompt irritation and inflammation. What’s more, is that shower heads tend to be hotbeds of bacteria. So in addition to the moisture-stripping minerals, they breed (and spread) fungi and other harmful microbes. Obviously, this is less than ideal—particularly for a shower, aka what most people consider the starting place for their beauty routine.
And This Is What Canopy Is Doing About It
Canopy’s Filtered Showerhead uses a 3-stage filter to snag these contaminants from the water, and it was designed to fit all U.S. showers. It also complies with the NSF-177 filtration standard, which means it has 99% effectiveness in terms of dechlorinating water. I was a little worried that all that filtration would hinder the water pressure in my shower, but I was beyond excited to find out that I was wrong. Not only does the Filtered Showerhead have a perfect, spa-like pressure of 2.5 gallons per minute, but it also offers three different stream settings: wide, narrow, and dual. Oh, and it comes with felt diffusers you can hang on the shower head to release essential oils of your choice while you enjoy the steamy, purified water. I’m telling you, this thing is like upgrade on upgrade on upgrade.
To get into the nitty-gritty science of it all (just for a moment), part of the reason the Filtered Showerhead prompts such strong results is because it is conducive to protecting the skin barrier. A skincare buzzword as of late, the skin barrier is a very real and important structure. Well-protected skin will better absorb topical products and, as a result, reap greater benefits. The solution that Canopy presents is so easy it almost feels too good to be true: hydrate your skin with clean water. It’s not at all surprising that Canopy’s Filtered Showerhead is dermatologist-recommended.
Here’s What I Ordered
Canopy has a few different options available. You can choose between four different colorways: Polished Chrome, Matte Black, Brushed Nickel, and Brass. I went with the black one, and signed up for the Showerhead and Filter Subscription ($135), which includes the showerhead, a filter, and a free aroma kit, plus a subscription to a new filter that costs $25 and is shipped every 90 days. Of course, you can buy the Showerhead on its own for $150, but if there’s an opportunity for me to save 15% on anything… best believe I’m taking it. Plus, the filter needs to be replaced anyway, so there’s no reason not to sign up for the subscription.
I ordered my Filtered Showerhead on a Tuesday, and by Friday evening I had a cute little Canopy box on my front door. Installation took under five minutes (it screwed on easily) and I knew that even if I didn’t see any changes in my hair or skin, the way it looked in my bathroom was more than enough for me.
Here’s What Happened
Before trying it, I read that people experienced some pretty powerful results with Canopy’s Filtered Showerhead. In a group of people who used it for 30 days, 87% experienced skin with an overall healthier appearance and a reduction in dryness. Plus, 90% of people said that their hair felt smoother. I was skeptical about my own results, but soon realized that I was wrong about that as well (are you sensing a theme?).
As the days passed on, I could visibly see a difference in how hydrated my skin was. Slowly but surely, my breakouts mellowed out, and my skin just started to look and feel… healthy again. The area under my nose is usually a dry, irritated mess from November to April, but after about a week with the Canopy Filtered Showerhead, I could barely notice it. Basically, if this thing can help strengthen my skin against the freezing wind of a New York winter… I can’t imaging how much my face will be glowing when it’s not 30º outside.
The skin on my face wasn’t the only thing that benefitted from this shower swap. Within a week, my scalp was less itchy and I didn’t notice as many embarrassing flakes of dandruff. After I hit one month, essentially all of my dandruff was gone. My hair also felt much softer, and seeing as I hadn’t changed a single thing about my (intense curl product) routine, the only plausible explanation was my new showerhead. It was as if my hair was taking to my products even better just because of the improved water quality.
If this is what all showers are supposed to feel like, I’ve been doing it wrong for a long time.
In Conclusion…
If I could go back in time, the only thing I’d do differently is get the subscription with the aromas, because it comes with *three bottles* of Canopy Signature Aromas. That equates to six months of softened hair, treated skin, and scented showers—something I didn’t realize I needed until I tried the free aroma sample included in my order. It really makes you feel like you’re at a fancy spa.
Canopy’s Filtered Showerhead changed the way I understand beauty care and self-care. All this time, I’d been buying the serums and scrubbing my face while the very water I “cleaned” myself with was reversing my efforts. A five-minute install process for months of self-investment was more than worth it in my eyes.