Swimming and Natural Hair: What to do to Save Your Hair from Chlorine

By Tenisha Mercer
www.HairNista.Blogspot.com

Swimming with natural hair requires a routine

It's summertime --- prime pool season. If you're like most with natural hair, you don't want the chlorine and salt water to wreak havoc on your strands.

Chlorine and salt water can severely damage the hair. They weaken the hair over time by stripping away hair's natural oils.

Here's a fool-proof guide to protecting your natural hair while you're swimming at the beach or at the pool.

1. Wet your hair before your go into the water. I know it seems counter intuitive: My hair is already going to get wet anyway, right? This is true, but wetting it before hand creates a barrier between your hair and the chlorine. Your hair absorbs the good stuff -- the water -- and not the bad stuff.

2. Use conditioner and oil to coat your strands. I'd rather leave a cloudy mess in the pool than to dip my hair unprotected into chlorine. Use a rinse out conditioner and coat your stands with conditioner after wetting it. Follow it with a light coat of oil (coconut, olive, grapeseed) for extra protection.

3. Immediately after you finish in the pool, rinse your hair with water. Follow up with a Swimmers' shampoo. This will strip the chlorine from your hair, protecting your strands.

4. Detangle and follow up with a deep conditioner. Make sure you add protein to your regimen, if your hair isn't protein sensitive.

How do you protect your hair during swim season?

Teen/Tween Hair: How to Wear Natural Hair and Swim?



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It's not quite pool season yet, but it's mighty close. My girls like to swim AND have natural hair, but how to style natural hair while swimming is usually always a challenge.
In the past, we did the ponytail thing and braid thing when they swam 3-4 days a week. That usually worked out OK, but now the girls are so over the ponytails and braids... My 13-year old says they are a kiddie style and hates the curly look. My 11-year-old is OK with lots of twists.

All of which don't leave a whole lot of options when it comes to styling and swimming. The girls have worn Dominican blowouts since December. They've worked out well -- they've experienced straight hair without all of the chemicals. One bad trim later, we've had no major damage that I can tell. But swimming and Dominican blowouts don't mix and are an absolute waste of money.

This year, I have no idea what to do. I'm ready to tell them throw in the swimming towel (pun intended), but then I'd be letting their hair get in the way of an event they'd like to do. Twist outs are cute, but aren't a "pool" style because the hair is left loose.

Usually, I load their hair down with cheap condish and oil to protect it from the chlorine and they go swimming sans swimming caps (those don't work well for them). I wash it out with a shampoo for chlorine and follow up with a deep conditioner.
That has worked well for years -- but now that they are teens/tweens ... Not so much.

Trying to find a style that holds up well with swimming AND that they like is starting to be a bigger challenge than I thought.

What are your styling ideas for swimming and teens/tweens?