Protect Your Hair While Swimming With These Tested and Proven Tips
There are many benefits of knowing how to keep hair dry while swimming. Here are the most outstanding ones:
- Chlorine and other pool chemicals cannot ruin your hair, or its color/dye
- Keeping it dry means covering it with a swimming cap, so it won’t trail, creating drag
- Covering the hair to keep it dry prevents it from breaking and clogging the swimming pool filter
- It protects your hair from absorbing water
- You protect your scalp as well
Wearing a latex or silicone swim cap is the simplest way to keep your hair dry when swimming. However, even wearing a swim cap requires style.
If you don’t wear the swim cap correctly, it is not going to keep water outside. This doesn’t mean swimming caps keep your hair 100 percent dry.
Some water will get in through the seams, but it won’t be too much to cause chlorine damage to your blonde hair.
How to keep hair dry while swimming
What comes to mind when you think of keeping your hair dry in the swimming pool is a swim cap.
There are several other ways to keep your hair dry:
Using a swim cap
If you have long hair, you will be apprehensive about letting it get soaked in the saltwater or chlorine pool.
Using a swim cap is one of the best ways to protect your hair. It is going to let in a minimum amount of water, so there will be no damage to your hair.
Choose the right swim cap
Swimming caps are not the same. They come in different materials. There are polyester or Lycra, neoprene, silicone, and latex swimming caps.
Go with the latex or silicone swimming caps. They do a great job of keeping the water out of your hair.
Neoprene does not keep the water out, since it is made of the same material that is used to make a wetsuit for swimming.
This material absorbs water and keeps a thin layer on the skin. This layer is the buffer zone. No cold water can get in and your body’s warmth will not escape.
Lycra or polyester absorbs water, so it won’t help when you want to keep your hair dry.
Silicone caps cost more than latex ones, but they are breathable and don’t feel grippy on your skin.
How to wear a swimming cap with long hair
Having chosen the best swim cap for swimming, it is time to wear it. There is a way to do it.
Put up the hair. You can do it in a bun, since that will keep the hair strands organized and in one place. If you are an African American, you can try Bantu knots. They will keep your hair together.
Wear a swimming cap over your hair and ears. It is best to choose a silicone swim cap because it offers a better seal.
Besides, you can also wear two silicone caps over your hair, if they will fit. That should give you a better seal to keep the water out, but still, some will find its way in.
Using a shower cap
If the weather is not too hot, you can slip in a shower cap under the swimming cap. Shower caps are completely waterproof.
Please note that by design, shower caps are big, and they slip off easily. On their own, they cannot stay attached to your head.
If you have a latex or polyester swimming cap, it cannot keep the water out completely. However, you can wear it over the shower cap.
Tuck in the shower cap completely under the latex swim cap. Both of them should do a good job of keeping the water out of your hair.
Using swimming headband to keep hair dry
There are two ways to wear a headband to keep your hair dry when swimming. First, you can wear it on its own; just organize the hair so there are no loose strands.
Secondly, you can wear the headband with your swimming cap. Swim caps allow water to pass through the edges.
After wearing the swim cap, you can wear the silicone headband around it to keep the edges tighter. That can keep your hair completely dry.
Headbands also help to keep your ears protected. You can compliment the look with a pair of anti-fog swim goggles.
How to keep your hair dry while swimming with a swim cap
It is possible to keep your hair completely dry in the swimming pool with a swimming cap. However, one silicone cap is not enough. You can wear two of them and make sure they fit tightly.
Wear a shower cap under the swimming cap. A shower cap is completely waterproof. However, since it will slip off your head, the silicone cap will keep it in place tightly.
When you have your hair in a bun that sits too high, the cap might slip off easily, especially when you jump in the pool. To prevent this, apply talcum powder on the interior of the cap before you wear it.
Another way you can keep your hair dry using a swimming cap is to apply your oil of choice on the hair before going into the pool. That way, the oil creates a protective layer that the pool water cannot penetrate.
You should use a leave-in hair conditioner. It will protect the hair from damage from the chlorine.
How to keep your hair dry while swimming without a swim cap
It might look as if there is no way to keep your hair dry while swimming without a swimming cap.
However, there are a couple of things you could try:
Silicone headband for swimming
Use a swimming headband to keep hair dry. It will cover your hair, albeit halfway. Tuck your hair in a bun and hold it in place with clips.
Make sure you order a silicone headband. It is more waterproof than latex. Others such as polyester and neoprene, will let water go inside while swimming.
You cannot use the swimming headband alone to keep your hair dry. However, you can use it with latex, silicone or other cap.
Silicone headband with a shower cap
Swimming with a shower cap alone is not recommended. You don’t know whether the chlorinated water can cause damage.
However, if you wear it under a silicone headband, a lot of water is not going to get to the shower cap. You will wear the headband tightly over the shower cap to keep the water out.
Please note, that even with the methods we have discussed here to keep hair dry, we recommend you not swim underwater. When submerged in water, it will definitely find its way in.
How to keep black hair dry while swimming
As white hair, black hair is also easy to keep dry in the swimming pool. First, start by shaping it into a bun if it has been treated.
If you keep it natural, it can be hard to shape into a bun. You can do flat twists. This is going to reduce the volume of your hair. It will be easier to wear a swimming cap with flat twists than with a volume of Afro hair.
You can also make the hair into bantu knots. These are small knots of hair on your head. They too reduce the volume of your hair so you can fit a swimming cap easily.
Once you have managed to tame your beautiful hair, wear a silicone swimming cap to keep it dry. To be on the safe side, you can order a waterproof swim cap for black hair.
By the way, there are swimming caps for different types of hair. Even if you have plaited hair, or you keep dreadlocks styles, there are swimming caps to hold all of it in place and keep it dry.
Why do swimmers wear 2 caps?
Professional swimmers wear two caps not to keep water out of their hair, but to reduce drag in the water.
Water has high resistance. That is why it gives the best aerobic workout. For a competition swimmer, they want to eliminate as much drag as possible. Everything counts!
When you choose to wear two swim caps, make the inner one latex. It is grippy, so it will sit intact on your head.
The second one should be a silicone swim cap so that it can smooth out any bumps that the latex cap formed. Your head stays as smooth as a cone and you can swim faster.
Don’t wear neoprene caps. Like the swimming gloves made of neoprene, they will absorb water.
Swimmers also wear two swim caps to protect their hair from getting wet. Swimming pools sometimes have high amounts of chlorine. This and other pool chemicals can damage hair.
Wearing one or two caps also keeps long hair more organized, which is better than leaving it trailing in the water, creating unnecessary drag.
Final thoughts: How to keep hair dry while swimming
It is easy to keep hair dry while swimming with the tips we have shared here. After a costly hairdo, you do not want to have to wash your hair again too soon and undo the good job.
You need to protect it from water. The swimming cap also protects your scalp against infections from swimming in the ocean or swimming pool. Ocean water is more contaminated, so yes, it is appropriate to cover up.
If you are swimming in open water, a swimming cap will keep you warm and dry at the same time. It serves more functions than just keeping you dry. Besides, they are cheap to buy so you should definitely have a few in your swimming attire.