As you probably know, a big part of living a greener life (and saving money) is cutting down on your water usage. Great ways to accomplish both goals includes not leaving the faucet running when brushing your teeth (a no brainer), washing your clothes and dishes on the lightest cycle possible, and using things like a rain barrel to collect water so that when you give your gardens a drink, you’re reusing water.

Because everyone showers you can make a huge dent in your water usage by changing how you wash yourself each day. I guess a grody way to help would be showering every other day, but I’d rather not smell that first hand.

Of course, you can save a lot of water if you take shorter showers–something I’m trying to convince my 10-year-old daughter to do. She thinks that it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to expect her shower to last as long as an iTunes playlist.

Another way to affect change in the shower is to change out your shower head. Did you know that the average shower head pushes out 2.5 gallons of water per minute? That means that in one, 10-minute shower, you’ve washed 25 gallons of water down the drain and, really, what do you have to show for it?

One of the biggest trends in greening your shower head is to switch to a low-flow kind. This is exactly what it sounds like–a shower head that has the water flowing out at a lower per-gallon rate. But if you’ve ever used one of these, then you know that your shower experience will never be the same again. I mean, it isn’t hard to keep your shower on the super-short side when the water pressure coming out of your shower head sucks so much that you don’t even want to bother getting wet. But you do–and it’s in, shampoo and soap up, rinse off and you’re out. That may be good for the earth but that’s just no fun.

Recently, I received an email from a reader of this blog who was wondering what she could do to find a happy medium between a great shower and a low-flow shower head. Here’s what she wrote:

“We have two showers in my house, one with a low flow shower head and one with a regular flow shower head. I have been hesitant to give up the regular flow one because it’s powerful and it seems to be easier and faster to rinse my hair with it. Do you have any recommendations for low flow showerheads with some power to them?”

Turns out I do have some recommendations so that you can have both a water-efficient shower and a pleasant bathing experience, too.

I did a little research, and here’s what you want to look for in a low-flow shower head. The trick is to find one of these low-flow shower heads that mix in air or have another way of delivering the water so that even if the water is coming out at 1.6 or 1.7 gallons per minute, on your head and the rest of your body, the water pressure still feels like it’s at that water-guzzling 2.5 gallons per minute.

Here are some details on a few specific shower heads that fit this criteria:

* Delta’s Low-Flower Shower Head with H2Okinetic Technology
It uses 36% less water (1.6 gallons per minute) while delivering a shower that feels like 2.5 gallons per minute. How does it do this? Larger droplets provide more water coverage, creating a more saturating, drenching experience; droplets are delivered at a higher velocity; and a dense spray pattern provides more complete water coverage.

* Hansgrohe Shower Head with EcoAIR technology
It creates a stronger water feel by pulling surrounding air into the shower head. There, it mixes with water to create thousands of drops rather than a “noodle” spray. The drops are bigger overall and feel like a natural rain. With this technology, the 1.7 gallon per minute shower head saves 30% on water usage, yet the feel you get is the same as you would get from a shower head delivering 2.5 gallons per minute.

* Moen’s Water Saving Shower Heads
Like other shower heads, this flow of 1.75 gallons per minute allows you to enjoy a one-third reduction in the water used during each shower. The shower head features a so-called “optimized” spray pattern to preserve the powerful stream that consumers are accustomed to from full-flow shower heads, making it feel the same as a 2.5 gallon per minute shower head.

* American Standard FloWise Shower Head
A small turbine inside this shower head is what allows the water stream to feel much the same as standard 2.5 gallons per minute shower head, although FloWise uses only 1.5 gallons per minute. That’s 40 percent less water used than with a standard shower head.

I’ve still got some Lowe’s gift cards left over from Christmas. Looks like I’m going out this weekend and treating myself to one of these low-flow shower heads. And I think I’ll sneak one into my daughter’s bathroom as well. This way, even if I can’t win the battle over shorter showers, I will have won the war over excessive water use.