CO or WO and chlorinated pools

[Eireann]

All this talk about no 'poo has me very interested, but I swim 3 to 4 days a week and I'm worried about chlorine damage. I know I read something here a while back from someone who said she swam every day and CO'd and her hair was fine, but I did a search and couldn't seem to find it. :-( On the suggestion of the article here about swimming, I slather on coconut oil under my swim cap (which ALWAYS lets in water no matter what I do), then shampoo and condition after, but I am curious whether it would be okay to just CO (I'm not sure I could do coconut oil and CO, but I suppose I could try.) Does anyone have any thoughts or experience to share?

[catfish]

I have heard of many here that swim and CO just fine. Some use a conditioner that contains EDTA, it helps remove the minerals and chlorine. I imagine that you could get by with WO and maybe a good herbal/acid rinse as long as you rinse very thoroughly. I personally use poo but I don't need the poo every time I swim, rinsing in plain water is fine.

[Islandgrrl]

All this talk about no 'poo has me very interested, but I swim 3 to 4 days a week and I'm worried about chlorine damage. I know I read something here a while back from someone who said she swam every day and CO'd and her hair was fine, but I did a search and couldn't seem to find it. :-( On the suggestion of the article here about swimming, I slather on coconut oil under my swim cap (which ALWAYS lets in water no matter what I do), then shampoo and condition after, but I am curious whether it would be okay to just CO (I'm not sure I could do coconut oil and CO, but I suppose I could try.) Does anyone have any thoughts or experience to share?

That might have been me, but honestly, I don't remember.

I haven't been in the pool since I toasted my shoulder, but when I was swimming 3 days a week or so here's what I used to do:

Get hair very wet in the shower. Coconut oil or apply thick conditioner to the ends. Braid and stuff up under the swimcap.

Swim.

After swimming, I would rinse like mad, then CO and rinse again, apply leave-in conditioner to the ends and damp bun. On wash days, I used a shampoo specifically for swimmers, diluted, and did a CWC.

It worked okay and seemed the best I could do. I have a pretty significant amount of damage from old chemical color on the canopy of my hair, below my ears. It's not any worse from swimming and it's not any better from not swimming. So....?

Hope this helps.

[Heidi_234]

You'd be also interested in this article:
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=115

[Eireann]

Cool! Thanks. I did read that article, which is where I got the idea for the coconut oil pretreat. Does the CO get the oil out? Should I oil just the ends? Since I swim in a public pool, I'm a little shy about the club soda rinse (I'm probably excentric enough as it is with my bright blue bathing cap and my "swimP3")

Also, for CO, I'm considering VO5 Tea Tree Vanilla Clarifying conditioner. Is this a good choice? I've heard many say that VO5 is a good way to go because it has cleansers in it, but there are so many to choose from!

Thanks again! I love this site!!

[akurah]

Depending on where you are swimming and how much you care about putting others out, I would hesitate on putting coconut oil in hair pre-swimming, even if it is under a swim cap.

Many pools require swimmers to shower prior getting in, and for a reason--to wash off oils and what.

Soaking your hair in unchlorinated drinking water (such as from showers) should be sufficient for keeping chlorine from your hair, especially if you wear a swimcap.

[ratgirldjh]

i used to swim a lot when i was WO. swimming in chlorinated pools would seem more cleansing than WO - and when i would swim i would counteract the basic nature of the chlorine when i got home by first water rinsing and then using a very diluted ACV or lime juice rinse and then rinsing again. my hair would be non-waxy and beautiful for days after a swim and rinse!

[Heidi_234]

Cool! Thanks. I did read that article, which is where I got the idea for the coconut oil pretreat. Does the CO get the oil out? Should I oil just the ends? Since I swim in a public pool, I'm a little shy about the club soda rinse (I'm probably excentric enough as it is with my bright blue bathing cap and my "swimP3")

Also, for CO, I'm considering VO5 Tea Tree Vanilla Clarifying conditioner. Is this a good choice? I've heard many say that VO5 is a good way to go because it has cleansers in it, but there are so many to choose from!

Thanks again! I love this site!!
CO is reported to remove oils from hair even better than shampoos, so you have nothing to worry about. But the point made in the article is that pre-treatment is not the best choice, because it doesn't effectively block out the chlorine, but spoils the pool water quite much.
If you don't want to go with the soda club bottle, you could always pour the soda water into an empty bottle, or even empty conditioner/shampoo bottle to disguise it well hehe. You're not under the looking glass there, I suppose nobody would care what comes out of your bottle when you shower. :flower:

[Heidi_234]

i used to swim a lot when i was WO. swimming in chlorinated pools would seem more cleansing than WO - and when i would swim i would counteract the basic nature of the chlorine when i got home by first water rinsing and then using a very diluted ACV or lime juice rinse and then rinsing again. my hair would be non-waxy and beautiful for days after a swim and rinse!
ktani quoted sources saying that acidic rinse can be actually more harmful than helpful, because it does something with the chlorine. I can't remember the details, or have the time to find the post, it's somewhere in the "possible way to protect hair from peroxide damage" thread.

[FallenAngel]

Hmm... this thread pretty much answers the question I just posted. Too bad I didn't read this before posting my question.

Ahh, well. :shrug:

I found some good advices here. Thanks!

[Eireann]

CO is reported to remove oils from hair even better than shampoos, so you have nothing to worry about. But the point made in the article is that pre-treatment is not the best choice, because it doesn't effectively block out the chlorine, but spoils the pool water quite much.
If you don't want to go with the soda club bottle, you could always pour the soda water into an empty bottle, or even empty conditioner/shampoo bottle to disguise it well hehe. You're not under the looking glass there, I suppose nobody would care what comes out of your bottle when you shower. :flower:

I guess I just skimmed the article . . . :o Okay. . .so I'm going to start trying the CO tomorrow! I only wash my hair on pool days, and tomorrow is a pool day. I'm going to stop and pick up some VO5 on my way home tonight. :cheese:

[Eireann]

Update:

I went swimming this morning. I had dutifully purchased VO5 conditioner for my CO experiment but forgot it at home (it was 5:30 a.m. What do you want from me? ;) ) I had a bottle of ultra swim conditioner in my pool bag, so I used that instead. I slightly chickened out by using a little bit of very diluted ultra-swim shampoo just on my bangs (because I was afraid they would be too stringy and stick to my forehead) but otherwise did CO on the rest of my hair and my scalp. I then blowdried my bangs and left the rest of my hair to dry naturally with a little aloe vera gel. Can I just say that I LOVE my hair today! In fact, I wish I hadn't shampooed my bangs, because they're actually a little too fluffy. My hair looks super shiny and my waves have come back (it had gotten less wavy some time after BSL). I even got my first unsolicited hair comment today by an acquaintance I ran into on the street who hadn't seen me in a while. Thanks everyone for all the help. I love this website!!! :cheese: