Swimmers share your experiences here

**Heidi_234** · June 1st, 2009, 11:15 AM

I thought it would be good to start a thread to concentrate all the swimmers among us, regarding how to protect our hair against pool water (and also sea water, for that matter). The topic is currently scattered between several threads, and hides inside others, so I thought it could be good to have it all in one place. Especially as it becomes more relevant as summer's here.

First of all, I'd like to share my swim cap experience here. Nothing can possibly save your hair in a chlorine swimpool if you don't wear a good swim cap that fits. For us longhairs this may be an issue. My hair is not that thick, not to mention the taper and layers, around waist length, and I had tremendous trouble finding swim cap that isn't small on me, that my hair fits inside and doesn't get me headache after an hour. I have bought dozen of different caps, and neither would do. So I finally caved in (and I'm glad that I did!) and got speedo's long hair swim cap sent to me from the US (I haven't seen other companies with similar products). I really really want to share this - as the cap lives up to its name. There's a space at the back where there's enough space for all my hair fit, and still more available (waiting for me to grow it longer

). It fits rather tightly around, but unfortunately it doesn't prevent leakage. My hair ends up being damp if I put the cap on dry hair. But this is much better than hair soaking wet with chlorine, and means much less damage.
This page also contain some info on various swimcaps.
On another note - club soda rinses. Ktani did a great research on the topic, and found out that club soda could possibly neutralize chlorine and prevent it from damaging hair. Club soda is slightly acidic, and contains diluted dissolved salts (which resembles baking soda rinse, something people use often to wash their hair. I only say that to give some perspective). The idea is to soak/dampen your hair before putting the swim cap on, and/or soak the hair after swimming before rinsing it, to further neutralized the chlorine.
Here's the article on hair and swimming.
As far as I can see, club soda is harmless, and therefore I can't lose if I do use it. If it works, all the better, if it doesn't - it's not even that pricey. And it is as good a distilled water rinse. Right now I try to do club soda and catnip tea rinse pre-soak - wanted to shoot two birds at once

. I'll post about it when I try it more.
That's about it for now. Hopefully more swimmers will join and share their ways to the battle evil chlorine monster.

**wackyredtangles** · June 1st, 2009, 11:23 AM

I'm not a big swimmer, so I don't have much to add to this. Your troubles with finding a swim cap made me think, aren't there ladies that cover up (Muslim, some kinds of Orthodox Jews) that also swim? Would it be worth it to look for a swim cap geared to those ladies?

**Madame J** · June 1st, 2009, 12:00 PM

I tried the club soda thing, and liked it. I've posted this elsewhere, but I'll repeat:

At the time, I was washing 3x a week with Terressentials Pure Earth Hair Wash, a rhassoul-clay-based hair wash, and clarifying once a week with Dr. Bronner's and an ACV rinse. That's for a baseline. So I went to the pool. I detangled my hair, french braided it, soaked the whole thing in cold water, and swam for 30 minutes (I was totally out of swimming shape!), alternating breaststroke with crawl, so my hair did get wet. Immediately after leaving the pool, I took my hair out of the braid under cold running water, and detangled after rinsing. I then went and got my shower stuff out of my locker. I applied one small bottle (10 oz., I think) of Canada Dry club soda to my hair, left it on for a minute or two, and then rinsed with warm water, letting the soda rinse over my body. I went about my shower as usual, but without washing my hair otherwise. I combed it wet, and left it down. When it dried it was smooth and shiny, and didn't smell. I would suggest applying oil to the ends afterwards, which I did not have with me.

I haven't been swimming regularly, so I don't know about cumulative effects, and I've changed my washing routine since then, but that was my experience, with a detailed methodology.

Wackyredtangles, I have seen suits for women who cover completely, and the headpiece did not look water tight. Women who wear these suits may want to wear a silicone cap under the scarf to keep water out.

**Heidi_234** · June 1st, 2009, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by wackyredtangles

I'm not a big swimmer, so I don't have much to add to this. Your troubles with finding a swim cap made me think, aren't there ladies that cover up (Muslim, some kinds of Orthodox Jews) that also swim? Would it be worth it to look for a swim cap geared to those ladies?

I haven't seen them myself, but as far as I know, they cover up with clothes (probably pool intended, but regular clothes like skirts and shirts), and cover their head with same kind of headwear as they do in daily life. Their need is to cover up, our need is to seal chlorine out (while wear the sexiest swimsuits

).

Originally Posted by Madame J

I tried the club soda thing, and liked it. I've posted this elsewhere, but I'll repeat:

At the time, I was washing 3x a week with Terressentials Pure Earth Hair Wash, a rhassoul-clay-based hair wash, and clarifying once a week with Dr. Bronner's and an ACV rinse. That's for a baseline. So I went to the pool. I detangled my hair, french braided it, soaked the whole thing in cold water, and swam for 30 minutes (I was totally out of swimming shape!), alternating breaststroke with crawl, so my hair did get wet. Immediately after leaving the pool, I took my hair out of the braid under cold running water, and detangled after rinsing. I then went and got my shower stuff out of my locker. I applied one small bottle (10 oz., I think) of Canada Dry club soda to my hair, left it on for a minute or two, and then rinsed with warm water, letting the soda rinse over my body. I went about my shower as usual, but without washing my hair otherwise. I combed it wet, and left it down. When it dried it was smooth and shiny, and didn't smell. I would suggest applying oil to the ends afterwards, which I did not have with me.

I haven't been swimming regularly, so I don't know about cumulative effects, and I've changed my washing routine since then, but that was my experience, with a detailed methodology.

Wackyredtangles, I have seen suits for women who cover completely, and the headpiece did not look water tight. Women who wear these suits may want to wear a silicone cap under the scarf to keep water out.

Thanks! I remembered you, and hoped you'll post. Thanks for joining in.
I don't swim regularly all the time, I'm on and off swimming depending mainly on how cold it is outside.

But last time when I was swimming, I just used regular SLS shampoo to get the chlorine out, and I have to say after a while my hair felt weaker and in worse condition. So There is improvement. Right now I employ the club soda rinse and COing. I was looking for coneless conditioner that cotains EDTA (a substance that neutralizes chlorine, and is actually very common in shampoos/conditioners/liquid soaps!), but I had no luck at. I don't use shampoo, so I don't want to chime into my routine something that will require me to clarify frequantly. I looked at every single bottle on the shelf - conditioners, deep treatment masks, leave ins - either they don't have EDTA or they do, but also some cones or mineral oil.

I think conditioner with EDTA could be a good add to the anti-chlorine routine. I just wish I had one.

I thought maybe it could be possible to purchase EDTA (it's a water soluble powder AFAIK) and add it to the mix or something. Hmm...

**ktani** · June 2nd, 2009, 12:19 AM

Thank you for the mention and the kind words.

EDTA is not something that I think you should add to a recipe without looking into measuring it very carefully. Here is a 2008 MSDS on the product at 100% concentration.

"The information available to the Agency indicates that EDTA concentrations in agricultural products do not exceed 5% (by weight) of a formulated product and concentrations in products that could be used in and around the home do not exceed 1% (by weight) of a formulated product."

The amounts used in cosmetics are not considered to be a problem but EDTA is not "readily biodegradable" and alternatives are being considered for many applications.

EDTA CHELATION THERAPY

**Gothic Lolita** · June 2nd, 2009, 12:33 AM

I've been a competetive athlete for several years and went swimming about 4-5 times aweek for 3 hours or more. While I never had any problem with damage from the chlorine, mates with dyed, esepcially bottle blondes experienced damage.

I always rinsed my hair before swimming and more a very tight silicone cap (from Speedo, I don't know wether Arena or Tyr is available in the US) . Ok, after 3 h of hardcore trainnig your hair is wet, but it's better than nothing and keeps the tangles at bay. Heavily oiling the hair before training was also nice. Because of the heat under the cap you'd get a free oiling treatment and as a bonus less damage from the chorline.

I believe these swim suits for Muslimas are called "Turkinis" at least, that's what they're called in Germany. The Turka covers head, parts of face and the entire body and so do these Turkinis. I don't know where you could buy one, but I just want to add that I've seen people in swimming pools who reacted very unfriendly towards (right preposition?) women wearing them, because they felt "violated" by it. I think that's extremly unfriendly, imagine we western people would go bathing in an eastern country, with hair open and just wearing a bikini. Then we would violate their religion. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that one could get some nasty looks when wearing a Turkini.

**amandasmith911** · June 2nd, 2009, 12:55 AM

I am so glad this thread was started. My pool should be open tomorrow! I have got to get my spedo swim cap ordered ASAP. Until then i will be wetting and spreading oil and conditioner on my hair and trying not to get too wet from the kids splashing. I have club soda also. So i will be trying out all of these suggestions.

Amanda

**manderly** · June 2nd, 2009, 02:34 AM

Good thread, just in time for summer

I've heard good things about using this cap over a "standard" type of swim cap....but I can't remember where I heard that

**ktani** · June 2nd, 2009, 06:23 AM

Originally Posted by manderly

Good thread, just in time for summer

I've heard good things about using this cap over a "standard" type of swim cap....but I can't remember where I heard that

Probably in the LHC swim cap thread, linked here or in the swim cap guide, also linked here.

**nicolezoie** · June 2nd, 2009, 07:29 AM

It really depends on your level of swimming.. in my case I was a competitive swimmer, practicing 6 days a week, 2 hours a day, and during the summer, it was 4 hours 4 days a week, and then meets.. What all us girls did was keep things as simple as possible. We wet our hair, some of us used conditioner, and we all used tight swim caps.

However, it's been yeeaaaarrrsss since I was a competitive swimmer, and I'm certain things have changed as far as product protection goes, but the basics remain.

Wet your hair with at least the shower beforehand so that its harder for the chlorinated water to get absorbed into your hair.

Use a swim cap - a latex or a silicone one, doesn't really matter - to contain and protect your hair.

Ocean swimming - I slathered length with Olive Oil, braided, and coiled the braid into some kind of bun that stayed put in the water. In the ocean at first I would use latex caps, but after while, the oil would deteriorate the latex, so I would just leave braid alone and let the water "get to" my hair.

All these things did nothing to protect my hair from getting bleached out by the sun and chlorine, but all things considered, I liked the color those made my hair.