Swimmers hair (any swimmers in the house?) - Page 2

i dont see anything wrong with the cap.

one reason is that it is easier (faster) swimming in salt water and converting pools to salt would make all existing records void.

I never did it to the frequency to cause hair trouble, but for skin I would always put jojoba or apricot oil on my face, and that made a huge difference in how brittle and irritated my skin would be. Try the same with your hair? I bet if you used an oil based pomade, kept on washing infrequently, and rinsed your hair with tap after every swim, then there would be no problems.

Making sure your hair is good and soaked in the shower before you get in the pool will help. Your hair soaks up the unchlorinated water instead of the chemical chlorine water. But the chlorine will still soak in over time and do its damage. A cap is really the only way to go. Either you are self-conscious about how you look during your morning swim for 30 minutes a day, or you are self-conscious about your shitty, ugly hair for 23 hours and 30 minutes a day. I used to be in a pool 2+ hours/day for 7-8 months of the year and it absolutely destroyed my hair. I didn't much care at the time but one day someone showed me a photo and with the way the light was reflecting my hair, which is naturally dark brown, was dead green. Embarrassing.

You need to use a better shampoo and conditioner. Also, you need to clarify your hair with a clarifying shampoo to get the pool's chemicals out of your hair and follow it with a good moisture (or protein) conditioner. The reason that people's hair looks "disheveled", gets coarse, changes to a lighter color is because the pH of the chemicals in the pool (and the heat from the sun) open the hair's cuticles and release all of the moisture and alter the hair's chemical composition causing it to be dry and lighten the color. The cuticles stay open (since crappy products don't have a lower pH to re-close the cuticle) and the hair looses it's sheen, feels course, and the color lightens. A clarifying shampoo will get the harmful chemicals out of the hair and then a moisturizing conditioner will replace the moisture lost and also seal the cuticle. Cheaper conditioners have a higher pH and use heavy humectants which don't penetrate the hair and just weigh it down. They also don't seal the cuticle and lock in the moisture. Also, if you swim a lot (like daily) you might want switch to a shampoo and conditioner for chemically treated hair. This will be more gentle on your hair since you ARE in a way chemically treating your hair (chemicals in the pool - not necessarily from hair color or perms) and you'll be able to shampoo more often than you would if you were using a regular shampoo and conditioner. When not in the pool another effective treatment would be (depending on your hair) a very light leave in conditioner. This will help with keeping the moisture in your hair and some leave in conditioners also have SPF so it will help if your out in the sun a lot. There's more you can do but without knowing the texture and style of your hair it would be hard to explain.