Hair care for swimmers?

Mamapicklejuice

My six year old swims once a week before attending afternoon kindergarten. Due to the timing of the lesson, she is unable to shower after her lesson, and I've noticed that her hair is getting rather brittle, snaggly, etc.

Moving forward, how can I improve her haircare? One thing I've read is to have her wet her hair down ahead of time so lessen the amount of pool water soaked up by her hair. Any good drugstore products that are suitable for children? I try to get her hair trimmed every so often, but they only spray the hair down, they don't shampoo/condition/treat. I wonder if that's something I can request?

Thanks for any advice!

ETA Just found this product: Loreal Swim Shampoo For Kids - sounds good. I'm ordering it now.

13 years ago

General

8 replies

Latest reply was from Mamapicklejuice

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Veteran

When I was swimming a lot in the community pool last summer I bought UltraSwim shampoo but after reading into it, apparently those chlorine rinsing shampoos don't molecularly do anything different to the hair. I'd instead look for low or no sulfate shampoo and definitely wet the hair first before swimming when you can. A swim cap is great, too.

13 years ago

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Having her soak her hair down and then putting a swim cap over her wet hair will help to keep the chlorine damage out. I'd strongly suggest a shower right after swimming, but if there just isn't time then there isn't. I use a spray on conditioner after swimming that I quite like- I think it's called Miracle 10 or something like that. It's easy because you just spray it on and leave it in- and it really works well.

13 years ago

Anonymous

I too recommend the use of a swim cap but rather than soaking the hair with water I would just mist it lightly and then put in a fair amount of conditioner. The conditioner will not only fill the hair shaft so the chlorinated water can't get in, it will also repell the water being that it is waxy/oily.

13 years ago

ManidipaM

Veteran

Definitely have her wet her hair pre-swim, and yes, as Tracina said, add a conditioner or hair mask at that stage. It will wash out in the water, but will protect to an extent. I'm not sure what effect it will have on the swim cap, though --- you might find they are relatively easy to damage when conditioned! Maybe a fabric swimcap (the kind made from the same fabric as swimsuits are), rather than the silicone kind, would survive better?

13 years ago

Anonymous

I have a friend who teaches water aerobics and she swears by wearing conditioner in the pool. She wets her hair and applies it before getting in the water.

13 years ago

fashionista

Veteran

Well I also love swimming but dread the fact that the chlorine in the pool is causing my skin to be blue after being black and my hair is like a wired fence. Then I heard somewhere and applied this formula and it works.
Wet your hair, apply some oil on hair (any oil) and then some treatment cream or conditioner (and put on shower cap if you can). Otherwise its ok without the shower cap at least the damage will be a little less.
Immediately after swimming don't shampoo only wash the hair and condition it again. The longer the chlorine remains in the hair more damaged it gets. If you don't like putting conditioner or anything in hair of a small child you could use oil and shower cap only. But be sure to tightly braid the hair since water will enter each hair shaft less with braids than on a open hair.

Maybe this helped you MPJ (sorry for the short name)

13 years ago

Elly

Veteran

Hmmm . . . I'm surprised that you have managed to go this long without issue. Even kids without sensitive skin can get very irritated by pool chlorine.

Even if she just stands under the shower head for 3 minutes rinsing the chlorine off should make a big difference, especially if you are protecting her hair beforehand as other ladies have mentioned. If she wears swim goggles she will probably like the swim cap, especially if you go with silicone or a fabric one since the goggles will be more comfortable and easier to put on. Goggles are notorious hair-pullers. Actually, even carrying a big water bottle or keeping in in the car and pouring it over her hair and skin straight out of the pool is enough to make a difference.

If you can fit in a 3 minute rinse and strip shower then you can use a detangling spray afterwards. My hair is very tangly and when I swam as a child we used this because most of the damage for me came from trying to comb out hair that had been penetrated by chlorine, which can not only make hair dry, but it can also break down the shaft and make it more likely to break (kinda like coloring or perming does-- temporarily weakening the bonds of the hair shaft, so tugging and tying up make it more likely to break and the roughed up shaft makes it more snaggly).

13 years ago

Mamapicklejuice

Veteran

I decided to skip the "swim" shampoo, but did pick up a Suave shampoo for kids that is supposed to be moisturizing...it's like a miracle! Instantly better! I do normally braid her hair before lessons, but I'll make sure I really wet it down first (or she takes a bath beforehand).

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions...I'm all set now!

13 years ago

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