THERE’S nothing worse than a bad hair day when no amount of styling can tame your locks.

If you struggle with hard-to-manage hair you could have your postcode to blame.

The Solid Bar Company – experts in luxury vegan haircare – has studied 120 UK towns and cities, looking at how they perform across seven categories: water hardness, bad salon reviews, humidity, online searches for common hair concerns, air pollution, wind speed and UV levels.

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Reading finds itself in 9th place overall when compared against 120 other UK towns and cities.

Residents are among the most likely in the country to suffer from frustrating bad hair days thanks to very hard water, high UV levels, bad salon reviews and poor air quality.

Three other areas in the South East are also ranked in the top 10 towns and cities for a bad hair day – Portsmouth, Slough and Canterbury.

But Londoners are the most likely to have hair woes.

Scotland dominates the list of the best places to live for a good hair day, with six towns and cities in the top 10.

Inverness comes in first place, thanks to its soft water, low UV and humidity levels, clean air and quality hair salons.

The Solid Bar Company said of the environmental factors studied, water hardness is the worst offender when it comes to hair health.

It explained “hard water” means it has high levels of certain minerals (mainly calcium and magnesium) and just like in your shower, kettle and iron, it leaves a scaly build up on hair strands.

To combat the effects of hard water and other environmental pressures, the company said to avoid sulphate formulated shampoos that have high pH levels and look out for hydrating products rich in hydrolysed proteins (from rice, oat, wheat, quinoa and silk), oils high in essential fatty acids (coconut oil, argan oil, baobab oil) and Pro Vitamin B5.

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Rebecca Bennett, haircare expert and Founder of The Solid Bar Company commented on the findings: “Having a bad hair day can be extremely frustrating.

"Alongside genetics, environmental factors can play a huge role in how your hair looks and feels and it’s really interesting to see how these conditions differ throughout the UK.

“But it isn’t just environmental factors that can cause a bad hair day.

"So too can products that are too harsh on your hair and over-styling.

"If you’re worried about your hair’s condition, try switching to gentle, pH balanced, salon quality shampoo and conditioner bars, and reducing your use of heated styling tools.

"Eating a balanced diet and drinking plenty of water will also help support healthy hair from within.”