Swimming help

[Angels+Eyeliner]

Hello long haired lovelies!

I've had a search around the forum and haven't found anything very helpful on this topic, so I started this thread to ask about swimming. I'm going on holiday in a few weeks with my fiance and our babba and we will probably be spending most (if not all) of our time in the pools. I'm not a strong swimmer personally, so I won't be doing laps underwater for hours on end, but I'm wondering how to protect my hair best from the occasional splash (and dunking at the end of a water slide). So far I was thinking that I would rinse my hair with normal water, oil it slightly, fishtail braid my hair (that being the braid that best encapsulates my unruly layers), probably bun that somehow and then try keep my hair out of the water where possible. Does anyone have any better ideas/want to tell me that I am going completely wrong before I ruin all my hard work growing? I was also thinking of doing a couple of hair masks or something during the week: does anyone have any ideas what might be best for protecting/fixing that kind of damage?

[LongCurlyTress]

Hi! As a lap swimmer, I wear a silicone cap every time, however I have coconut oil on my length that I put on my hair the previous night before sleeping, length to tips. I think your plans to braid it with maybe EVOO will work out just fine. Don't worry about your hair. Just have fun on your vacation, dunk your head in the water, enjoy yourself!! When you come home, a few deep conditioning treatments and wash your hair with a good moisturizing shampoo and conditioner everyday, immediately after getting out of the pool water, at the end of your day. Your hair might get a bit dry from the chemicals, but it also might get all sparkly from being in the sunshine and the water!! Also, put some EVOO extra virgin olive oil on your length, ears to tips at night and braid your hair before bedtime so the oil can soak up into your hair before getting in the pool again the next day. You should be fine! Hope you have fun!! :happydance:

[hairhair]

When I swim (normally at the beach), I put my hair in a braid, loop it up if it's long enough, and let it get wet. But then I refuse to touch it or remove it from the braid until I am already smothering it in handfuls of conditioner, because the saltwater sort of binds it together and it would get a lot of breakage from being removed from the braid, let alone brushed, without having it nice and wet with fresh shower water and covered in conditioner.

[meteor]

Here are my suggestions :) :

1) Preferably use unchlorinated swimming pools.

2) Get a special long-hair swimcap, like this, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czj4DOl6UO4
and/or try a two-cap combination: http://newlynatural.com/blog/2010/03...g-combination/

3) Coconut oil soak pre-pool to reduce uptake of water with minerals, and soak hair in fresh water and conditioner; presumabl, coconut oil helps chelate iron and copper.

4) Keep hair contained when swimming: e.g. braid and then bun hair and then put on a swim-cap (or two, to help prevent excessive water-logging).

5) After the pool, try to use a swimmers' or chelating shampoo or a chelating pack (e.g. Ion) periodically. And rinsing post-pool hair thoroughly with fresh water for a couple minutes before adding shampoo allows any water soluble chemicals from the pool to be rinsed away before you even start chelating. ;)

Also, check out these helpful quick articles on the subject:
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/...questions.html
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/...r-routine.html

[Entangled]

I usually rinse my hair and put conditioner or oil in it before I swim, which works for me as I don't swim too often. I second the suggestion to not touch it until you condition it in the shower. The other thing that I've noticed is that simple braids work the best for me for detangling purposes. The more strands a braid has, the more tangled it gets. I haven't had layers and I don't know how drastic the difference is between them, but I would vote for a simpler braid, even if hair sticks out.

[meteor]

The other thing that I've noticed is that simple braids work the best for me for detangling purposes. The more strands a braid has, the more tangled it gets. I haven't had layers and I don't know how drastic the difference is between them, but I would vote for a simpler braid, even if hair sticks out.

Definitely! :agree: The fishtail braid mentioned in the original post is not the best option for swimming, IMHO, simply because that hairstyle creates new "strands" at each new crossover. Fishtail/herringbone braid is probably the most tangle-inducing braid I've ever managed. And swimming tangles hair more. A standard English braid (preferably pinned up in a bun) is probably going to be safer. :)

[hennalonghair]

This is great advice. Protect before , during & after each swim with some oil which will help get all your hair under the swim cap. Great find- swim cap for people with long hair. I've never found one before :thumbsup:
Rinse and condition as soon as possible.
Great thread

[hennalonghair]

Definitely! :agree: The fishtail braid mentioned in the original post is not the best option for swimming, IMHO, simply because that hairstyle creates new "strands" at each new crossover. Fishtail/herringbone braid is probably the most tangle-inducing braid I've ever managed. And swimming tangles hair more. A standard English braid (preferably pinned up in a bun) is probably going to be safer. :)

I agree completely. Swimming and chlorine sticks hair together and makes it tangly so that might be the worst braid to do. I don't even do french braids while swimmimg because they just become a tangled mess from the water.