Any swimmers out there? What about your hair?

[WingingItMam48]

Hi all, I have recently started swimming 2-3 times per week, mainly on lunch breaks as pool is near mez I work from home and can walk down to the pool, have a quick half hour swim and get back home in an hour. On days I swim, I wash hair on the morning bit don't dry it as it seems pointless if I'm getting it wet again in the pool. I them just let my hair dry naturally and don't wash it again till the next morning.

I feel like my hair is suffering a bit, it feels a bit drier and woolier. I have naturally fine hair that goes fluffy quite easily.

Looking for advice from regular swimmers, do you use anything to protect it or look after it against the chlorine? Are specialist products worth the cost or effective, or does a regular deep conditioning hair mask any goods.
Thanks

It isn't nice swimming through any product- deodorant/sunscreen etc, it seems to make the chlorine even stronger.

The main way to protect your hair is to wear a tight swimming cap, even though they are unpopular. If I swim in the morning, I don't have time to wash, dry and style before work so I sweep as much as I can upwards and put the cap on top of dry hair. Only a little gets wet this way (and I'm a face in swimmer).

I tried all sorts of shampoo but the cap is the best way. I actually dislike swimming without one now.

As others have said:

• wear a cap, ideally a tight-fitting silicone one. It won’t keep your hair dry but does offer some protection.
• wet your hair before getting in the water, as this prevents it absorbing lots more chlorinated water.
• wash your hair AFTER swimming; I don’t really know why you’re washing it that morning. Washing it after swimming, with plenty of conditioner as well, gets rid of the chlorine and adds some moisture back in.

Please do NOT add any conditioner or oil to your hair before swimming. Despite what PP say, it does affect the pool chemistry and makes the water nasty, so don’t do it please (you or anyone else!).

I swim most days. I wash my hair every time with an anti-chlorine shampoo. I let it dry naturally in the summer, in the winter I have to dry it as I have a 3 mile walk home from the pool and it's too cold to have wet hair.

It's a bit of a faff and my hair is a bit on the dry side but really not too bad. I think it's just a downside of swimming.

You can't go into the pool with conditioner on your hair! Even with a cap on that's going to introduce loads of soap and chemicals into the pool.

All of this. Don’t be sticking stuff in your hair prior to swimming, that negates the whole shower before swim process for a start!

Yes I can, and I do. I have a very well fitting cap and very little escapes. Saying “loads” is such a silly exaggeration. And that’s what the chemicals in the pool are for anyway.

How can you tell you’ve swum through hair product? In all my 37 years of swimming regularly I have never done it as far as I know.

‘Nasty’ in what way.. ? My local pool had fantastically clean water, despite me using product on my hair to swim.

This. You need to wash the chlorine out after your swim.

I wear a swimming cap. Sometimes I put a hair mask on before the cap, if my hair is due a wash, and then rinse it out when I get home and have my shower.

Hi all, can I ask those of you that put conditioner on under your swim cap... how on earth do you stop your cap sliding up due to your hair being slippery with the conditioner? I tried this yesterday (soaked hair, deep conditioner on then silicone cap over) and I was driven mad by the cap keep sliding up! I had to cut my swim session short.

I don’t understand putting conditioner under the swim cap to be honest. If, as you say, your cap is watertight enough for no product to escape into the water, surely no chlorinated water is getting in either? So why the need for the conditioner?

I have absolutely swum through trails of perfumed hair or body products from the person in front (not always women - swimming behind a man using strong aftershave who didn't shower beforehand is rank). It is absolutely horrible, it is like you can taste it. And as someone else notes it reacts with chlorine and so makes the chlorine smell more strongly. There is a reason that all pools want you to shower before swimming: to rinse all that off.

Oh so you mean you’ve swum passed someone and smelt product, not actually through it in the water? I wasn’t sure when you said youve ‘swum through product’

As a PP said, you can smell/taste cosmetic products in the water. Plus when I’ve been resting in between sets, I’ve very occasionally noticed a kind of oily sheen on the water, very possibly someone’s moisturiser, make up, or indeed conditioner, that’s been washed off as they swim.

Also as PP said, these kind of products react with the pool chemicals, and create that chlorine smell. The more stuff in the water, the more chemicals are needed, and the stronger the smell. So if people actually followed the rules of showering first, and no products in hair etc., fewer chemicals would be needed and that chlorine smell that everyone hates, would actually be less.

I should also add, that no swim hat keeps hair completely dry. Not even silicone ones. When people ask about caps for swimming, I always try to make that clear. So even if you’re wearing a good silicone cap, if your head is going under the water, your hair will be getting wet. That means if you have conditioner or some other product on the hair, some of it will escape into the water, as the silicone cap cannot, and is not designed to, keep everything either in or out.

It’s just good manners to rinse all the products/sweat etc off your hair and body before going in a public swimming pool. Sadly a lot of people don’t have good manners.

Wow I have never come across this.. especially not an oily sheen on water !

You probably just get out and leave it in your wake, completely unaware 😉. It’ll be the people who get in after you who notice.

No, not smelling it like you would in the air - it's passing into the water and so trailing behind them. It passes after they've been in a water a while, because at that point it's all washed off into the water.

It’s all new to me 🤯

Every day is a learning opportunity, embrace it!