soaking hair in water before swimming in a pool

[earthnut]

So there's an often-repeated piece of advice that if you presoak your hair in plain water before getting in a chlorinated pool, less of the chlorine will penetrate your hair. Can anyone point me to where this advice originated? Is there a study that has shown this?

(The reason for my query: I doubt this advice. As a dyer, I know that presoaking wool makes the fiber soak up dye much faster and more evenly than if I put dye on dry wool. It seems to me that having water already in the hair would make osmosis of chlorine into the hair happen sooner, not later.)

[akilina]

I totally agree with your theory 100%.
I much prefer adding conditioner first, or oil.
I also try to avoid getting my hair wet. I usually get in the pool to exercise.

[pepperminttea]

I'd be interested to see where this originates from, too. I've searched but no luck. I do think it works though, but god knows the science isn't my strong point. It's helped my hair a lot, and I recommended it to a friend (someone who would have found pre-oiling a little too 'out there') and she said - obviously surprised - that it'd really made a difference for her too.

[MinderMutsig]

Hm, your theory sounds plausible.

[torrilin]

Well, for one thing, chlorine isn't a dye, it's a bleach. It's not necessarily going to be reacting to the same sites on the keratin molecule as an acid dye, just like acid dyes and fiber reactive dyes don't necessarily bind to the same sites.

Another factor is it can take quite a long time for keratin to absorb the maximum water it can. I get noticeably different results in wool if I do a dye presoak of a few minutes versus my preferred 12 hour soak. I haven't done extensive comparison of fine wools versus longwools, but I'd anticipate longwools have a more marked difference due to their lower porosity. With hair tho, I'd be shocked if any of us are managing a soak as long as my short ones... and even the kinkiest type 4 barely would qualify as a longwool if humans were sheep.

I agree with pepperminttea that getting my hair wet before swimming does help prevent chlorine damage. It's a small change. Swim caps and pools using less chlorine or alternate purification systems will make a bigger difference. If I can get back in the daily pool habit, I'll suck it up and deal with swim caps since they have a noticeable effect over one swim, whereas the wet hair beforehand takes nearly a whole summer of daily swimming to be noticeable. I don't have any pool options locally that are as low chlorine as I'm used to.

[Wildcat Diva]

I have not been swimming at all this summer, but our local pool uses salt water instead of chlorine. I have been dreading going. I'm now not sure which to try, water, or oiling. I was also thinking of doing filtered water, then conditioner, then braiding.

[stew]

Yeah, this is a problem for me too.. I grew up in a house with a pool and used to spend every day in it and my hair grew long and strong and was never dry. Two big thumbs down for growing up/hormonal changes. I would love to hear what everyone has had success with in reducing dryness.

[Iolanthe13]

I was also thinking of doing filtered water, then conditioner, then braiding.

That's more or less what I've been doing for the chlorinated pool my parents belong to. I'm usually cone-free, but if there's swimming to be done I soak my braided hair in water, then leave-in conditioner, then the coniest hair oil I can find. The braid goes under a silicone swim cap (which pulls less than the rubber ones, but also tends to slip off, annoying!).

When I get home I pour club soda all over my hair and skin (my skin is very sensitive to chlorine, too), shampoo and deep condition. So far, my hair is looking healthier than before swimming, though that could just be the cones. At the end of the summer, I will trim an inch or two and go cone-free again.

[bumblebums]

Good question, and I'm afraid I don't know the answer. The first thing that popped into my mind was to try a dye test with a stain like gentian violet on dry and wet hair, but torrilin's point is valid--it might not be informative about the behavior of chlorine.

I only have one constructive thing to add, and it is that oiling might be a better bet than just soaking. People who highlight hair (albeit with peroxide, not chlorine) suggest pre-oiling to minimize damage. You might get kicked out of a public pool, though, if you are followed by a giant oil stain wherever you swim.

[MinderMutsig]

Good question, and I'm afraid I don't know the answer. The first thing that popped into my mind was to try a dye test with a stain like gentian violet on dry and wet hair, but torrilin's point is valid--it might not be informative about the behavior of chlorine.

I only have one constructive thing to add, and it is that oiling might be a better bet than just soaking. People who highlight hair (albeit with peroxide, not chlorine) suggest pre-oiling to minimize damage. You might get kicked out of a public pool, though, if you are followed by a giant oil stain wherever you swim.This is what I thought at first too but people get in the water with sunscreen on all the time and that leaves an oily residue on the water too which no one seems to care about. A little more oil shouldn't be a problem, people will probably assume it's sunscreen too. :p

[heidi w.]

I always oiled my hair and then wetted my hair then put on a swim cap, the thick kind, not a latex one.

heidi wi.

[dwell_in_safety]

All I know is that I swam in the Atlantic Ocean for hours three times in the past week using coconut oil to keep my hair protected each time, and it is as soft right now as it would have been had I simply oiled and CO-washed it three times in the past week without also exposing it to salt water. I think oiling may be a better bet than pre-soaking hair with water, if the two cannot be combined.

[lmfbs]

I wet my hair with fresh water before getting in the pool and it makes the difference for me. When I get out of the pool, before I even rinse, it doesn't smell like chlorine, whereas if I didn't pre-soak, it would reek of it.

[kitten1986]

I ALWAYS presoak my hair before I swim but I have no idea where this advice originated and I cant even remember who told me to do it ?