Swimming With Natural Hair
When it comes to swimming with natural hair, there are some measures that can be taken to prevent damage to your tresses.
Even if your hair has not been chemically processed, the chlorine or salt in the water can still damage your hair! Here are a few tricks to prevent damage during water play.
BEFORE YOU SWIM:
- Apply a leave-in conditioner or conditioner to your hair prior to getting into the water. The conditioner will act as a coating to your hair strands to help protect your strands. DO NOT RINSE OUT! Be careful on the type and amount of conditioner you use because it may get into your eyes and or mouth. Yuck!
- Soak your hair with clean water before getting into the pool. Your hair is like a sponge so if you can get it filled with clean water, the less chlorine/salt water it will be able to absorb.
- Seal your hair with an oil. Before getting into the water, we suggest you seal your hair with coconut oil. It not only keeps your strands moisturized but it will also penetrate the hair and helps keep the chlorine/salt out.
- Tie your hair up to prevent tangling and matting while you are in the water. A braid, a ponytail, a bun…anything will be better than loose hair.
- Wear a swimming cap. We all know that swimming caps do not prevent your hair from getting wet but they do help to minimize how wet the hair gets as well as keep the hair from getting too tangled. The problem is, some swimming caps are so tight that they may contribute to breakage. If you soak the hair in clean water or a leave-in conditioner, seal it with oil, tie it up THEN put on a swimming cap, you would SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the amount of damage and breakage caused by chlorine/salt.
AFTER YOU SWIM:
- Immediately rise, shampoo and condition your hair. If you are unable to wash your hair immediately, at least thoroughly rinse all of the chlorine/salt out of your hair.
- MOISTURIZE! Chlorine/salt is very drying to your hair AND skin. Be sure add moisture back to your hair and your scalp.
- BE GENTLE! After your strands have been exposed to chlorine/salt, they are very fragile so any extra handling will cause breakage (This is why it is very important to tie the hair up while swimming, to minimize tangling). The hair should also be allowed to air dry instead of being blow dried.
We all have different hair so one method may work better than the other while some may require ALL of the methods. Be sure to pay close attention to your hair after each swim and don’t be afraid to change your method(s) accordingly.
