To think swimming pools are utterly disgusting?

[clutchingatpearls]

Just that really. I love swimming and can swim in a warm sea. But I find swimming pools (posh spas are a possible exception) literally make me feel sick. The plasters, hair, bodily excretions... truly a human soup.

Am I unusual?

@brightdoodles I think people should be made to wear hats. As others have said, swimming through a cloud of someone else’s non-tied-back hair is ick, and I imagine could also be a safety issue, getting caught etc. I don’t think it’s a cleanliness issue per se, but I do think making people wear hats would relieve some pressure on pool filters & drains. There’s a bit of info on that here:

www.yourswimlog.com/why-you-should-wear-a-swim-cap/amp/

Much as I disagree with the way leisure services from local authorities are provided, I think it has always been the case.

Hygiene is too low on many people's priorities, and whilst some people have conditions making things worse, that does not excuse many.

I was a competitive swimmer as a child and teenager; I love swimming and have swum in public pools more or less regularly for over 35 years. I'm generally very healthy and can't think of a time where I might be able to trace an illness back to a public swimming pool. Always wear a cap myself because otherwise my hair gets in the way, but do not care remotely whether anyone else does. This thread is like a window into an alternative universe!

I am the same. It's like getting a bath with loads of strangers. It makes me feel sick. I literally just will not go.

There’s all sorts of stuff in the air as well, OP. Viruses and spores and bacteria that’s been expelled from one body just hanging around waiting for yours!

Seriously, swimming pools can be grim (as can the sea) but that’s why there are cleaning systems, so the grimness can be reduced to an amount our bodies have brilliantly evolved to deal with pretty well.

I love swimming. Last time I went I got strands of someone else's long hair tangled up around my hand. That was grim.

Why is a pool at a posh spa better lol do people not pee in the pool because they are posh

Swimming hats can be pretty and fun. I have one like this. Feel quite glam in it, reminds me of one of Liz Taylor’s hats.

www.amazon.co.uk/CHEX-Thermal-Stunning-Swimming-Generous/dp/B09PT2X1VQ/ref=sr_1_174?crid=3GC24HU5OBNO0&keywords=swimming%2Bhats&qid=1673631146&sprefix=Swimming%2Bhats%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-174&th=1

You’re not wrong….but don’t discount spas, I got cryptosporidium from a spa which definitely classes itself as very posh. Lives in water so odds on it came from the pool 🤮

Good points!

It's a better sort of people though. They don't get verrucas or bad tummies and their hair only leaves their head at socially acceptably times.

I knew someone who would only swim when the gym opened at 6am because she felt the water was cleaner then and all the “old people hadn’t dirtied the water” as they would arrive later in the morning to swim and so Aquaaerobics.

Often seen it said on here that learning to swim is an essential life skill so if parents are forcing their DC into public pools for this reason, and pools are so disgusting and germ-ridden, why aren’t we seeing high levels of illness as a result?

Answer is Chlorine. Any visual contamination like hair and plasters is just dirt - pretty disgusting but won’t make you sick.

Centre parcs in the winter is the worst! I don't mind once I'm in the water but the changing rooms give me the ick. Hundreds of families struggling to find a changing room, traipsing forest mud through with every step. The staff try to keep on top of it but when it's at its busiest it's grim!

I like to think of my swims as a homeopathy session. Whatever germs are in my local area, are all in there in a diluted form. So a little bit of diluted 'ick', is probably doing me good.
And the plasters on the floor give you something to look up when you're up and down the lengths.

Do you know what fish do in the sea??

I put aside the gross factor and just get in. The worst bit in our pool is that it has lights in the side but otherwise isn’t brightly lit in there at all, the lights at the side literally throw a torch on all the flaky skin cells bobbing about in the water with you. It’s Gross but then they are constantly monitoring the water for some kind of level of chemicals and I’ve never been poorly as a result of poor water sanitation so I guess it’s fine really.

All the sea is joined up and full of pollution everywhere. You should see what some countries pump out of their rivers.

Lidos somehow always feel cleaner that indoor public pools (though of course they’re not). But the fresh air surrounding them is so much better than the musty fug of an indoor pool.

Our lido strongly encourages swim hats and most people wear them.

I love to swim but I cannot find it enjoyable simply because of how gross public pools are. We went to the Center parcs pool and I swear someone had crumbled a load of sausage roll pastry all over the floor of the changing room. I can sort of forget about it in the open air pools abroad because you don’t get that gross, humid, sticky, filthy feeling.

You all need to watch the episode of Motherland with the pool party.

Yep I hate pools, nearing on a phobia. People's hair on the floor and in the showers. The smell of pee. I wear my flip flops up until the edge of the pool. I'm fine with outdoor holiday pools though for some reason...go figure!

You have to get naked and wash your vulva in front of other people?

I agree. That's why I have my own.

You do know what chlorine does, right?

I know this wasn't a reply to me but:

Chlorine kills the bacteria, it doesn't make dandruff/faeces remnants/snot evaporate! I still don't want to breathe that shit in😂

Central Europe here. Pools are pretty strict with people cleanliness before entering pools.
All shoes removed at pay desks, into your pool shoes/ flip flops. No outdoors shoes or prams etc beyond there. Pool provides indoor prams and travel cots for people to use. Every one, even small toddlers wear crocs, flip flops or other pool shoes

Showers compulsory before pool. Instructions about using the provided shampoo etc as well. Lifeguards will not let you enter pool area if hair is dry.

All saunas are naked only. Dressing gown worn between each and left outside door. So yes you sauna baked with strangers.

After swimming, in the showers almost everyone strips naked to wash. Although many places also have private shower cubicles now.

This.

And as for public transport, 😱 When I was student we took swabs from tube trains and grew cultures in petri dishes.

OMG. I haven't been on a tube since. Yet no-one dies of ghastly diseases. Most Londoners survive quite successfully.