I just got a hot tub and tried test strips my water seems to be hard water.... Is this why sometimes my lathers come out amazing and other times I seem to fight it lol? ....
Easy fix. Purchase distilled water for testing on the difficult ones. Then you will eliminate that as a variable.
The map came from a government site. Don't you trust the government? I sometimes wonder. Trust but verify?
Soft water is preferable (no matter the soap/cream brand), but, a good soap should lather well, even in hard (within reason) water, IMO. IME, hard water affects (increases) soap scum, to a greater degree than (decreasing) latherability. Btb, when I used Kent/MWF, it consistently (and quickly) developed copious, billowy lather in my moderately hard water.
The calcium in hard water will precipitate out the saponified fatty acids so you need more soap to get the same results. (You use up the calcium in the water by precipitating it out with the soap.) If the water is very hard, you will need a lot. The problem people encounter is when they use a sodium salt water softener. Due to the collegative property of solutions, and that capturing one calcium ion releases two sodium ions in exchange, you run out of "room" in your solvent and cannot dissolve enough soap to make a good lather.
I'm on a well with very hard water. I do have a softner unit hooked into the system but the water is still pretty hard. I find that some soaps lather far better than others. The best are Stirling, Captain's Choice, and Cella. I'm still trying different soaps, so there are probably some others out there that work well with hard water.
In my area, the water is about 17 gpg, where anything above 10.5 gpg is considered very hard. I've had no problem with my tallow based soaps (MWF, Tabac, Stirling, etc), but have to work a bit harder with some vegetable/glycerine based soaps. But most, if they're decent soaps, will eventually yield a lather I can shave with.
I live in Minnesota and have hard water. After doing some research, I found that using citric acid has been both cost effective and softens the water right up. Citric acid can be found in most health food stores. I fill my bathroom basin with hot water, the sprinkle a little citric acid in the sink and swish it around to dissolve it. Makes a world of difference in the quality of water, lather, soaking my boar brushes, keeping my skin hydrated, lack of hard water spots on razor blades, and makes my whole shaving experience more pleasurable. I also rinse my razors in cold water, then swirl them in 91-99% alcohol to ensure the blades are free of water spots. Please hit me with questions if you have any.
