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Say 'So Long' to Swimmer's Hair
Posted on Jul 8th 2009 3:00PM by Kristen Seymour
If you have light hair and have ever spent much time in a chlorinated pool, you're likely far more familiar with swimmer's hair than you'd like to be. The green-hair look is prevalent in plenty of summertime pictures from my childhood, and often there were other green-haired children there, too.
While it's tolerable as a kid, as an adult, it's far from funny. Fortunately, it's easy to avoid, and there are plenty of options for treating it.
Obviously, you can wear a swim cap -- the tighter it fits, the better it will keep the water out. However, sometimes it's hard to keep all of your hair tucked underneath. Plus, you know, if you're just goofing around in the pool (not doing serious laps), it's kind of dorky.
Another option for prevention is to wet your hair, coat it generously with conditioner (a cheap one is fine), and then swim away -- this fills in the pores of your hair, making it less likely to absorb the copper, which is what makes your hair green.
Erin Anding of Salon La Di Da: The Hair Coloring Salon, in Gainesville, Florida, had some suggestions for great products. To prevent your hair from turning green she said, "Profound Priming Spray is designed to keep everything out. But really, just wetting your hair down [with tap water] before diving in will be a big help."
Sometimes, though, green hair just happens. So what do you do once your hair (or your child's) is green?
You can go the natural route. An aspirin rinse is a popular option -- just put eight regular aspirins in a glass of warm water, and allow them to dissolve. Saturate the hair with the aspirin and water, give it 15 minutes, then rinse away the aspirin along with the green tint. Wash and condition the hair as usual. Many also recommend rinsing hair with lemon juice or vinegar. Or, you can try tomato juice -- really!
Anding recommended Bumble and bumble's Sunday Shampoo for detoxifying hair, albeit with some reservations: "It works really well, but almost too well -- it leaves your hair a little squeaky."
For a top-10 list of hair and skin products for swimmers (because your hair doesn't just get green -- it gets dry, and so does your skin), check out this article. It lists Swimmers Solution and UltraSwim as top picks, and a search online shows that many agree.
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| Photo: swimoutlet.com |
Obviously, you can wear a swim cap -- the tighter it fits, the better it will keep the water out. However, sometimes it's hard to keep all of your hair tucked underneath. Plus, you know, if you're just goofing around in the pool (not doing serious laps), it's kind of dorky.
Another option for prevention is to wet your hair, coat it generously with conditioner (a cheap one is fine), and then swim away -- this fills in the pores of your hair, making it less likely to absorb the copper, which is what makes your hair green.
Erin Anding of Salon La Di Da: The Hair Coloring Salon, in Gainesville, Florida, had some suggestions for great products. To prevent your hair from turning green she said, "Profound Priming Spray is designed to keep everything out. But really, just wetting your hair down [with tap water] before diving in will be a big help."
Sometimes, though, green hair just happens. So what do you do once your hair (or your child's) is green?
You can go the natural route. An aspirin rinse is a popular option -- just put eight regular aspirins in a glass of warm water, and allow them to dissolve. Saturate the hair with the aspirin and water, give it 15 minutes, then rinse away the aspirin along with the green tint. Wash and condition the hair as usual. Many also recommend rinsing hair with lemon juice or vinegar. Or, you can try tomato juice -- really!
Anding recommended Bumble and bumble's Sunday Shampoo for detoxifying hair, albeit with some reservations: "It works really well, but almost too well -- it leaves your hair a little squeaky."
For a top-10 list of hair and skin products for swimmers (because your hair doesn't just get green -- it gets dry, and so does your skin), check out this article. It lists Swimmers Solution and UltraSwim as top picks, and a search online shows that many agree.
