Damaged Hair

[SWinkleblech]

I was just wondering what others do for their chlorine damaged hair. My daughter has beautiful hair that is just getting damaged to the point that it is unmanageable. She goes swimming while I work out, three times a week and won't wear her cap. It looks great when I brush it but by the time we get to school it looks wild. I have joke with the teachers at the school about how crazy her hair can get.

[lapswimmr]

The best thing to do..? No the only thing really she can do if she wants to swim capless is to wet her hair in the shower first, swim ,then shower rinse shampoo and condition. The first wetting in the shower fills the hair with non chlorinated water, makes it harder for the chlorine to get in there.
Caps are the best protection but if she does not want to wear one shes not alone. Conditioners?? what ever one she likes .

[tjrpatt]

Wear a cap. When I did wear a cap, my hair would get white from the chlorine. Plus, she needs to wash it after she swims. I swim all the time now and I don't have to highlight look to my hair that you get with the chlorine.

[SWinkleblech]

She does take a shower before she goes into the water and I do shampoo and condition her hair right after swimming. She is six and doesn't really care or understand what the water can do to her hair. I was just wondering if there is some product out there that can help damaged hair.

[Karen Duggan]

I love the Aqua Swim shampoo. You can feel the difference, no chlorine, and then I use whatever conditioner. :)

[clyde hedlund]

I just buy the kid's shampoo with conditioner in it, which seems to work great and doesn't sting the eyes. Once the hair is damaged, it is damaged, and all you can do is keep going to the styling shop for more frequent trims. All the conditioners in the world only mask the damaged, and eventually you got to trim out the damaged ends etc.

[CCSR79]

Coming from experience -- I too took a long time to wear my cap, finally gave in on October (and I'm 25!!) the best thing I found to get my hair back in shape (aside from the obligatory haircut) is coconut oil. Wet her hair before the pool and spread some coconut oil on it. Oil is much more resistant to the chlorine than conditioner, and coconut oil is great for the hair (just make sure to wash it all out after swimming!)

[etrain]

I have tried everything under the sun and nothing has worked. If all else fails, shave and start over. That was what I did most years... I have tried putting conditioner in before you swim, as well as wetting the hair, but the pools that I swam in had really bad chlorine levels. The one I swam in in High school basically had double the levels because the measuring gauge was way off. They have since fixed the problem, good thing that green was a school color for me because my hair would get a greenish color to it (blonde hair). I have also tried the hot oil treatments you can pick up, but they didn't seem to help very long.

etrain

[craiglll@yahoo.com]

Infusium leave in hair conditioner works wonders. for soem reason few swimmers know this. My oldest sister is a hair dresser. She suggested it a long time ago. It keeps my hair soft & manageable. I have curly, thin hair. It really works on everybody I've suggested it to. also, it is relatively cheap. Women can put it in their hair, put on a cap and then go swim.

[Kae1]

I use a product called Rusk "Smoother" leave-in conditioner after swimming. You only need a little dab, and it has lots of good things in it (including sunscreen) and cuts down on the frizzies. The down side is that it's only available in salons and can seem expensive (I buy the liters when they go on sale, and a liter bottle can last me over a year).

When I was a kid and swam constantly (at least once a day), the only real solution to the hair problem was to keep it cut short. Anything else wouldn't work until I was old enough to appreciate the work that goes into keeping your hair healthy while swimming.

kae

[lapswimmr]

Well thats about all you can do. it may be possible that the cap she has is too tight..there are many others available and the traditional bubble style comes in sizes. You can also hot glue decorations on the cap or help her do it if she would like something she made. Ultra Swim is a shampoo but you are already wetting her hair shampooing ect. Or see whats on Ebay search swim cap

The Swim Cap Guide: Hair Care for Swimmers

http://www.geocities.com/lapswimr/scg.html

[ande]

wear a cap
cut it off

my son did an experiment for science fair on how to keep hair from turning green
ultra swim worked well
but what really got the chlorine and copper out of hair was "Fruit Fresh" not a hair product, it has citric acid

maybe for the wild hair a conditioner and a hair gel
personally I like to keep my hair so short I don't have to comb it

ande

Originally posted by SWinkleblech
I was just wondering what others do for their chlorine damaged hair. My daughter has beautiful hair that is just getting damaged to the point that it is unmanageable. She goes swimming while I work out, three times a week and won't wear her cap. It looks great when I brush it but by the time we get to school it looks wild. I have joke with the teachers at the school about how crazy her hair can get.

[Swimmy]

I like "Chlorifree" spray after I swim. You can find it at www.worldwideaquatics.com. Of course always shampoo and condition right away.Ultra Swim and Swimmer's Solution shampoos are good. I also deep condition once a week with Aussie 3 minute miracle reconstructor.

Happy Swimming!

Swimmy :)

[dorothyrde]

Having gone through this with my daughter, it is somewhat a losing battle. My daughter now wheres a cap most of the time, but she is almost 12. At 6, no way. There is a product called ION crystal gel treatment that you can buy at Sally's beauty supply. It comes in little purple packets and is a powder that you mix with 2 ounces of warm water. It forms a very snotty like substance which you put in her wet hair, and then put a plastic cap on it. Heat the hair for 20 minutes with a hair dryer, then wash it out, and condition it really good. Infusion is a good product and so is VO5 hot oil treatment. If you can, get her to sit still for this at least once a month. I use it for my own hair once a month, and it really makes a difference.

[clyde hedlund]

Coconut oil is used to give hair a reddish tinge in Hawaii. The natives dab a little on, then go out in the sunshine. Within an hour or more, you've got red hair or ehu.

[thisgirl13]

I used to have the same problem when I was a kid. I hated wearing my cap, and went without whenever I could get away with it.

I swim five times a week now, and I've found some things that really work for keeping hair from getting damaged:

first, rinsing your hair before you swim is a good idea, as mentioned in the previous posts. I use L'oreal Kids Sport shampoo, it's inexpensive, and smells like oranges. Then I use a deep conditioner, like Aussie, or whatever, and then I put L'oreal Kids detangling spray in my hair. Air dry overnight, then when I get up for class in the mornings, I just wash my hair again (most of the time) with regular shampoo and conditioner. My hair isn't damaged yet, so I must be doing something right.

Good luck, Shannan!

Steph

[CCSR79]

Originally posted by clyde hedlund
Coconut oil is used to give hair a reddish tinge in Hawaii. The natives dab a little on, then go out in the sunshine. Within an hour or more, you've got red hair or ehu.

I have blonde hair, swim in an indoor pool and wear a cap -- my hair isn't getting red anytime soon. This is probably for people with darker hair, since it tends to get reddish when you lighten in the sun...

[CCSR79]

I see a lot of people mentioning Ultra Swim. I have tried it and hated it. Not only it didn't take the green out of my hair, but it also made my hair feel funny, it seems like it coats the hair with something. I read somewhere that to avoid that use first the Ultra Swim then instead of "repeating" use regular shampoo to wash off the coat.

I got a Brazilian shampoo from L'Oreal called "Solar" (my mom sends it to me from Brazil) and that has done WONDERS for my hair, both the shampoo and the conditioner make my hair look so great that I end it up using it even when I don't swim.

Growing up in Brazil the trick was to put milk (really, just regular milk) on the hair, let it dry and wash it off. It used to work for the green (the milk used to drip a blueish tone). Haven't tried that in at least 10 years though!

[craiglll@yahoo.com]

Ultraswim didn't work with me either. Abnohter cheap product is to take Clairol heat treatment hair conditioner. Once a week put it on under your cap then go swimmikng.