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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU about swimming pool rules?

99 replies

PearTree123 · 10/12/2021 20:07

Went to an Aqua Zumba class at my local leisure centre, showered as usual then walked round to the pool.
Got stopped by a staff member who refused me entry to the pool as I hadn't washed my hair in the shower and insisted I had to wash my hair for 30 seconds before being allowed in the pool.
Note: my hair was up in a bun and at no point does it go in the pool as the water only comes up to below shoulder height. Normally it stays completely dry throughout the class, as does my face. I told the staff member this but he insisted!
AIBU to be annoyed at this?! Does anyone have similar rules at their pool?

OP posts:

Kanaloa · 11/12/2021 14:43

@PuffinShop

To be fair that poster was responding to a pp who said in Iceland they have people ‘watching to check you wash EVERYTHING.’

The implication wasn’t that it was a normal changing room attendant/helper but that there were sentries posted watching people wash their feet. It was a bit odd.

rifling · 11/12/2021 14:45

I think some people on this thread either believe pool water is changed much more frequently than it actually is or they don't mind swimming in dirty water . Now I know why British pools smell so much more of chlorine than they tend to abroad!

StuntEgg · 11/12/2021 14:53

Oh dear. I've just started swimming again and the chlorine is killing my hair. Hairdresser advised putting a leave-in conditioner through it before swimming for protection, so I only shower my body first, not my hair.

After reading this, guess I'm going to have to buy a cap instead.

Original poster

PearTree123 · 11/12/2021 15:17

@StuntEgg maybe check what the policy is at your pool as I've never in all the years I've been going been told to shower my hair when I shower my body, so usually my hair is never wet at all and it's never been an issue?! Going to ask my pool to clarify too.

OP posts:

StuntEgg · 11/12/2021 15:26

@PearTree123

I swim backstroke so my hair is always in the water, and have recently been swimming with the conditioner through it. I have wondered if it's so bad that I probably leave a greasy trail in my wake, and this thread seems to confirm that it is. So it looks like a cap is all I can do to protect my hair, regardless of showering rules. I hate swimming caps

Original poster

PearTree123 · 11/12/2021 15:29

@StuntEgg same, reminds me of school! Hopefully there's a bearable one you can find. For me tho I am so reluctant to wear one as my hair doesn't get wet in the first place

OP posts:

fakereview · 11/12/2021 15:32

A lot of other countries have much stricter rules on wearing caps/having a shower.

In our local pool you are supposed to shower. I usually don't because then it's too cold hanging around to get in (I have a lesson so have to wait for the teacher to be ready for us) although I give my bottom half a cursory splash. However, I do wear a cap.

The pool's rules are a bit inconsistent on caps. If your child is having a lesson they have to wear a cap but they don't if they are just using the pool for fun. And the adults don't at all, although most do.

fakereview · 11/12/2021 15:33

If you wet your hair before you go in the pool, the chlorine isn't absorbed by the hair as much. I do wet my hair when I've recently had highlights done, and along with the cap, it seems to prevent my hair going green.

Simonjt · 11/12/2021 15:41

The urea in your skin reacts with the chlorine, if your eyes sting in a pool/you cough its because dirty people are/have used the pool. Rinsing your hair also reduces chlorine damage.

If personal hygiene was better pools wouldn’t need as much chlorine.

If there were two pools, one for people who have showered, one for people who have you would both see and smell the difference.

dizzydizzydizzy · 11/12/2021 17:34

Oh don't be embarrassed OP. I work in a pool and we don't have that rule but there will be a good reason for it, which in the end will be partly for your benefit. Surely the pool has signs telling you about this? At my pool we have a gigantic sign at the entrance to the changing rooms to remove outdoor footwear and you'd be amazed at how many don't bother.

fakereview · 11/12/2021 17:39

At my pool we have a gigantic sign at the entrance to the changing rooms to remove outdoor footwear and you'd be amazed at how many don't bother

Oh yes, us too!

rifling · 11/12/2021 17:44

Hairdresser advised putting a leave-in conditioner through it before swimming for protection
That's really terrible advice. Imagine how scummy the pool would get if anyone did it. In my pool everyone has to wear caps. They don't really protect your hair though!

mogsrus · 11/12/2021 17:52

Somr people just can’t bear being asked to do something so small can they, always have to make a fuss,

Chocolatewheatos · 11/12/2021 18:19

Showering is supposed to wash off lotions and sweat I thought because it then floats in the water. You can tell in hot tuns when someone has cream on because it makes the water like frothy like how the sea gets foam in it. I only run water over my body though as a token "there I showered". In other countries its standard to have a proper wash before getting in the pool.

Obviously there was no point washing your hair in a bun. But I guess it's one rule for everyone

cansu · 11/12/2021 18:22

That is ludicrous . I never wash my hair and nor do most people going into the pool. A quick dash through the shower is the most I will do.

Tal45 · 11/12/2021 18:27

Ridiculous. As if 30 seconds under running water gets anyone clean.

MajorCarolDanvers · 11/12/2021 18:29

Your body and hair may have products in or on them or you might just need a wash.

You are asked to have a quick shower before swimming so that those substances o down the shower drain instead of into the pool thereby reducing the “yuck factor” for everyone who shares the pool.

In addition the pre-swim shower helps minimise the irritating, smelly substances formed in pool water when impurities introduced on the bodies of swimmers combine with chlorine.

Essentially you are reducing the amount of perspiration, body oils, cosmetics and traces of urine and fecal matter on the body and reducing the amount your fellow swimmers will ingest.

Have a shower its minging not to.

mogsrus · 11/12/2021 18:32

There is a very good clip on YouTube from a guy that looks after pools, in one of them he opens one of the filters for maintenance, inside it is like looking at a ton of white lard, and that is as he describes the residue of sun screen, hair lotion & general body dirt, it’s quite disgusting & takes him ages to get rid of it, just a thought.

Toadsinholes · 11/12/2021 18:40

Funny how none of this mattered when all the showers were closed for months & months cos of covid 🙄🙄
Did the pools turn into filthy cesspits then?

Simonjt · 11/12/2021 18:41

@Toadsinholes

Funny how none of this mattered when all the showers were closed for months & months cos of covid 🙄🙄 Did the pools turn into filthy cesspits then?

The poolside showers didn’t close at the gym I use or the leisure centre where my son swims.

Toadsinholes · 11/12/2021 18:44

Didn’t they? You’re lucky. They did at all 3 of our local pools, which was a proper ballache. Maybe depended on the centre than a blanket rule then (all 3 run by the same operator)

Askingforfriend · 11/12/2021 18:49

If everyone went to the toilet and showered off before using the pool less chlorine would be needed and less chloramines (the stuff that smells and stings your eyes) would be generated. Ob. a thorough soapy shower would be best, but a plain water rinse gets plenty off.

I would think that a tight fitting swim cap would be a good alternative to rinsing your hair. I'd rather rinse my hair.

Askingforfriend · 11/12/2021 18:51

@Tal45

Ridiculous. As if 30 seconds under running water gets anyone clean.

it gets people cleaner than they would without a quick rinse.

mogsrus · 11/12/2021 18:54

I desperately trying to understand why the op is so uptight about what is absolutely trivial

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