Swimmers: Protect Your Hair at the Pool

If you've spent much time at the pool, you've probably asked, "I'm in the pool all the time — what is it doing to my hair?"

Like swimming in the ocean — which I wrote about in my note about beach hair — swimming in a pool, especially a chlorinated one, has some real implications for your hair, and if you swim competitively or spend a lot of time in the water year-round, it matters even more. I'm not a competitive swimmer myself, but I do have two kids, so I'm in the water a lot.

What chlorine does to your hair

Chlorine doesn't dissolve hair the way some product blogs like to put it, but it does rough up the outer layer of each strand and make it more porous — the same texture change saltwater causes, just from a different source. Porous hair is drier, frizzier, and breaks more easily when you comb it, and if you have color — a balayage, a gloss, anything chemically treated — that same porosity is what lets the color fade faster than it would on virgin hair, especially on blondes and lightened hair. One swim won't undo a color service. A whole season of laps, three or four times a week, is a different story, and it's worth mentioning at your appointment if that's your routine.

Just had your color done?

Give it extra room. Lifting or depositing color leaves your hair's cuticle open, and it doesn't fully close back up right away — so hair is at its most absorbent, and most vulnerable to chlorine, in the days right after a service, more than it will be once the color's settled. I generally tell clients to wait a few days before getting back in the pool — longer, up to a week, after a permanent color or a bigger lift like balayage or highlights. If you've got pool plans on the calendar, mention it when you book, and we'll time the appointment around them.

Wait — does chlorine turn hair green?

Not exactly. Chlorine gets blamed, but the actual culprit is copper — usually from the algaecide keeping the pool clear, sometimes from older plumbing. Copper binds directly to the protein your hair is made of, and it's been shown that hair exposed to copper alone turns green, while hair exposed to chlorine alone, with no copper present, doesn't. What chlorine does do is raise your hair's porosity, which lets more of that copper stick. So chlorine is more accomplice than culprit — worth knowing before you blame the wrong chemical.

Chlorine is more accomplice than culprit.

How to protect your hair before you swim

Wet your hair with clean water at the pool shower before you get in — hair that's already saturated has less room to soak up the chlorinated water, the same logic as a beach day. Comb a leave-in conditioner (my pick is ELEVEN Australia's Miracle Hair Treatment*) or a light oil through it afterward; a thin coat on the strand gives the chlorine less to grab onto, the same principle as oiling before saltwater. Braid it or twist it up and out of the way, and if you swim seriously, or just don't love "pool hair," a cap is a real physical barrier — no half-measures needed there.

Pool hair care after you swim

Rinse with clean water the moment you're out — the pool shower counts. That rinse is a start, not the finish: chlorine sitting in your hair keeps working on it, so wash and condition properly that same day rather than letting it air-dry. If you're in the pool several times a week, add in an occasional clarifying wash — once every week or two, not every day — followed by a good conditioner, just to clear out what's built up.

Extensions and chlorine

If you wear extensions, the guidance is the same one I give for saltwater: avoid chlorinated water altogether. That's not a reason to skip the pool — it's a reason to plan around it. Tell me about your swimming before your appointment, and we'll build the maintenance schedule, and the timing, around your actual routine, at my chair in Santa Monica.

A pool day, like a beach day, is one of the better reasons to live here, and protecting your hair from it doesn't take much: wet it first, give it something to coat it, rinse the second you're out, and do a real wash that same day. None of that costs anything beyond what's already in your shower.

Anna

* Affiliate link: if you buy through it, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only link products I'd recommend to you at my chair.