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Cdh256
May 30th, 2015, 11:50 AM
I'm a guy who is in the process of growing my hair out. (Had a buzz cut for the past 10 years and I want shoulder length or longer now!) My hair is still relatively short (about 2.5 inches in the front, a little over 3 inches in the back), but I still take care of it as if it were long, which I think is helping me tremendously. I'm in the beginning of what most guys refer to as the "awkward phase" and I honestly feel like this hair length looks very good on me so far. I attribute this to me following good tips for keeping my hair healthy and whatnot. I actually watched youtube videos of girls talking about their hair care routine and pretty much do what they do.

Anyway, my apartment's swimming pool just opened, and I have heard terrible things about how badly chlorine can damage your hair. I'm going to be spending a lot of time at that pool, but I am not... repeat, am NOT going to wear a swim cap out there in front of my bros and the girls that I will meet. I've never seen anyone out there wear a swim cap (male or female), and I don't plan on starting any trends. I will gladly let my hair be damaged a little bit to avoid wearing a swim cap. Besides, it's still fairly short. It will have plenty of time to repair after summer as it grows longer.

-I've looked everywhere on the internet. But every article or video I've seen says to wear a swim cap. But I've already made it clear that for better or worse, I'm not going to wear one.
-A lot of them suggest soaking hair in water before and after swimming. and washing immediately after. I'm ok with this. Are there any shampoos that are better than others at rinsing out chlorine?
-A lot of articles and videos mentioned leaving coconut oil or conditioner in your hair. I use coconut oil as a hair mask once a week. But once again, this seems like it would be something extremely noticeable, and something I am not willing to do when I'm hanging out at my apartment's swimming pool.
-Alternatively, I saw some articles that said to put a leave-in conditioner in your hair before swimming. I use the "It's a 10" and like it pretty well. It doesn't seem like something that would be extremely noticeable and I think I would be okay with that.

As I said, I am willing to take a little damage to my hair to avoid swim caps and drenching my hair with coconut oil in front of everyone. But does anyone have any additional tips to protect my hair from chlorine that are relatively unnoticeable in a social pool setting? I'll probably only be swimming like 2 or 3 times a week, so it's not like I have to worry about damage as much as an olympic swimmer. But if there are steps I can take to minimize this damage, I will gladly take them.

Sorry for the long post!

snowyx
May 30th, 2015, 12:11 PM
Hello!

I would suggest wetting your hair before you get in the pool water. Also, leave in conditioner is great too. I'm not sure how oils would react in the water, but if you want the least amount of fuss, I would do the water wetting before the pool + leave in conditioner. I know that 'its a 10' is not very cheap, so I would get a lower-priced leave in.

After you are done swimming it is important to wash your hair. If you are planning on swimming often, there is a swimmer's shampoo you can get.

Hope this helped and good luck!

Cdh256
May 30th, 2015, 12:15 PM
Thanks, snowy! Anyone else is still welcome to share advice!

Chromis
May 30th, 2015, 12:44 PM
So aside from mentioning that they do make dude swim caps too, I would suggest if you aren't doing "serious" swimming to just keep your head above water most of the time. You can do breaststroke without getting you head wet quite easily and still get a reasonable workout. You just won't be as fast at it, but given that it isn't a speedy stroke to begin with, that isn't a problem unless you are competitive.

cathair
May 30th, 2015, 01:13 PM
Sounds like you've pretty much made your plan already, don't think there's much else you can do if you've ruled all those things out :p

You need proper swimming shampoo or chelating shampoo to get chlorine out. I don't think it matters which one, as long as it's designed for swimming. Use a lot of conditioner when you get out, maybe use it twice.

Coconut oil I think in theory could keep pool water out, since it penetrates hair, but it also feeds pool bacteria. Some people care, some people don't. Depends how community spirited you are feeling! Same with conditioner. I've done both (under a swimming cap). I like conditioner better, hair is super slippy afterwards.

I think Spidermom uses super coney leave in for swimming, never tried that but it couldn't hurt.

I would at least wet it before you go in with non-chlorinated water. I read somewhere on here carbonated water works best, was never sure why.

Seeshami
May 30th, 2015, 01:14 PM
Swimmers shampoo as already mentioned and paying attention to your protein and moisture content of conditioners.

I have swam with hip length hair for half of a summer regularly and I have damage but people constantly tell me my hair looks gorgeous. It just means more maintenance down the road.

Nique1202
May 30th, 2015, 01:19 PM
I will gladly let my hair be damaged a little bit to avoid wearing a swim cap. Besides, it's still fairly short. It will have plenty of time to repair after summer as it grows longer.

I just want to highlight this and point out that hair that's already grown out of your head cannot be repaired. It can be patched up with protein and/or silicones from wash to wash, but there is no way to truly repair damaged hair. The best that can be done is trimming out damage, but if you're only looking at shoulder length then honestly even daily chlorine exposure might bleach it out a bit but it's not likely to cause really bad, visible damage unless your hair is incredibly weak.

Even if you're quite tall and you want your hair to grow all out to one blunt length, shoulder length is probably only 12 (down the sides) to 18 (down the back) inches from your front hair line. Even at the outside, that's just 3 years of average growth, and if you're not planning to swim the rest of the year, just in the summer, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just wet your hair before you go in, and enjoy the water.

spidermom
May 30th, 2015, 04:29 PM
As mentioned, the most protective thing I've used for swimming/sunning has been generous application of a coney serum (CHI Silk Infusion). You can wet your hair first and comb this through. I've tried drenching my hair in conditioner or oil and braiding, but the coney serum worked far better and allowed me to wear my hair loose.