I'm in the pool a little bit almost everyday. How bad is the chlorine in the water for my hair? After being in the pool a lot my hair feels almost sticky from the chlorinated water and I have to use a lot of conditioner to ease out any tangles. Anyone know if it does any long term damage?
Very bad. The best thing you could do is to wear a bathing cap to protect your hair. If others laugh, so what. You are protecting your long hair that you have invested so much time in growing. Don't let the chlorine destroy it.
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Chlorine is very bad for your hair, Garth. Bleach out of the bottle will dissolve hair. How well does it dissolve hair? Next time you have a hair clog in your drain just pour a half a cup of bleach into your drain and let it sit for 20 minutes. The clog will be gone.
Swimming pool chlorine is like diluted bleach. If you expose your hair to it for a long enough period of time it will do a lot of damage to your hair.
My advice is to swim in a lake or river or the ocean to avoid chlorine.
Scott
Thanks for the advice. I only have access to swimming in a pool, being a pool manager. I usually just do some flips off the diving board to cool off in the water. I don't spend a lot of time in the water so I'm hoping it won't be too bad. I'll try to spend less time in the water though, knowing how bad it is for my hair.
Quite bad, I think.
If you can't wear a cap for swimming, the best advice I can give you is rinse your just after swimming, with chlorine-free water.
Vivien
I was a swimmer forever and yes, chlorine can do major damage to your hair. And swim caps can be JUST as bad, since they rip your hair and leave you with, what my friends called, "fuzz head", since all the little hairs stick straight up!
My advice, and this is from someone who spent hundreds of hours in the pool and still has long, long hair - V05 Hot Oil conditioning treatments. We used to do them once or twice a month as a team and it really helps to restore your hair and protect it!