Key Takeaways
- Chlorine can damage your hair and scalp by stripping protective oils and depositing heavy metals into porous hair that can affect its color.
- Prevent swimmer’s hair by wearing a swim cap, pre-soaking hair, and swimming outdoors.
- Choose haircare products that add moisture to the scalp, gently cleanse to remove harsh chemicals from the hair, and tone hair to maintain color.
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Post-Pool Haircare: How to Repair Hair Damage from Chlorine
If you’ve spent all summer in the pool, you may have noticed some differences in your hair. This common form of hair damage is called swimmer’s hair. Learn what happens when your hair is exposed to chlorine and how to care for it and keep it healthy after you get out of the pool.
What is Swimmer’s Hair
Swimmer’s hair is a nickname for the damage done to hair by repeated exposure to chlorine and other chemicals commonly found in swimming pools. While swimmer’s hair can affect anyone at any age, those with chemically treated, colored, dry, fine, damaged, or naturally curly hair tend to be more likely to experience the effects.
If you frequently find yourself in the pool, you may have noticed some of these effects on your own hair:
- Dryness
- Split ends
- Discoloration
- Brittleness
How Does Chlorine Damage Hair?
The chemicals in swimming pool water are there to kill bacteria. But these chemicals can wreak havoc on healthy hair. Chlorine strips the natural oils from your hair, leaving it unprotected. These natural oils protect the skin on your scalp and help nourish each strand of hair. Without this natural moisture, your hair can weaken, dry out, break, and split.
Will Chlorine Turn Hair Green?
Maybe you’ve heard stories about hair turning green after swimming in a pool or even experienced it yourself. The truthis that while hair lightening and color change can occur after long periods of time spent in a pool, it’s not entirely chlorine’s fault.
Metals like copper, iron, and manganese are often present in water. When chlorine is introduced to water containing these metals, they oxidize and turn green. If hair is especially porous, it can absorb these oxidized metals, giving hair a slight greenish tint. It’s especially noticeable in lighter-colored hair, whether it’s natural or chemically lightened.
Why does it turn green? Because that’s the color these metals turn when they’re exposed to oxygen. Think of an older penny or the Statue of Liberty. When these copper things were new, they were, well, copper colored. Continual exposure to oxygen has given them a green patina, just like the metals in water treated with chlorine.
How to Prevent Damage from Chlorine
If you’d rather not have to deal with the effects of swimmer’s hair, follow these tips to protect your hair from the effects of chlorine and keep it looking healthy and strong, whether the pool’s open or not.
Wear a Swim Cap
Unless you’re a competitive swimmer who already wears a swim cap in the pool, it might be worth trying one. These caps are meant to fit snugly along your hairline and reduce drag in the water. But they also keep your hair dry, which means it won’t come into contact with chlorinated water.
Swim Outside
Chlorine gas from the water will evaporate faster in an outdoor pool. This will reduce the concentration of the chemical in the water, which means that there’s less of it to be absorbed into your skin and hair.
Pre-Soak Your Hair
You’ve always heard that you should take a quick shower before entering a pool to remove any dirt and oils from your body. But this step can also protect your hair from chlorine. By pre-soaking your hair with water from the shower, your hair will absorb that water instead of the chlorinated water in the pool.
Repair Chlorine Damage
You’ll probably be able to recognize the signs of chlorine damage: it’ll look dry, frizzy, and tangled. This doesn’t mean your hair is ruined, just that it needs extra TLC with these steps:
Care for your Scalp
Exposure to chlorine can dry out the skin on your scalp. Use OLAPLEX N°.0.5 Scalp Longevity Treatment
™ to immediately hydrate and soothe your scalp and promote soft, shiny, visibly healthy hair over time.
Wash Away Harsh Chemicals
To reduce the immediate damage that chlorine and other swimming pool chemicals can do to your hair, use a shampoo intended to remove buildup, like OLAPLEX Nº.4C Bond Maintenance® Clarifying Shampoo. This deep-cleansing shampoo removes damaging, hair-dulling impurities like heavy metals, hard water minerals, and chlorine.
Get Rid of the Green
Green hair is a look, but if it’s one you didn’t sign up for, it might be time to take action. If your blonde or chemically lightened hair color has been affected by the oxidized metals in swimming pools, there’s hope. OLAPLEX Nº.4P Blonde Enhancer™ Toning Shampoo neutralizes unwanted brassiness to enhance color vibrancy on blonde and lightened hair. After washing with a purple shampoo like N°.4P, condition with OLAPLEX N°.5P Blonde Enhancer™ Toning Conditioner for root-to-tip toning, brightness, and weightless hydration.
When N°.4P and N°.5P are used together as a system, 91% of users agreed that their hair was less brassy.*
The right haircare products and routine can help ensure that your hair looks healthy and shiny. Take the Hair Quiz to get a personalized OLAPLEX routine.
*Based on an independent consumer perception study of 60 women with bleached/color treated blonde hair.
Sources
1. https://www.vogue.com/article/how-the-us-olympic-swim-team-deals-with-swimmer-hair