How Damaging is Chlorine to Your Hair? And Damage Control Tips

If you expose your hair to chlorine too much, the following are going to happen to it, and they are all bad news.

• Chlorine makes the hair dry
• Can cause split ends and fritz
• Prolonged exposure might lead to slight discoloration

But I just don’t want to show you the main reasons why pool chlorine is bad for your hair. I will also share tips for protecting your crown of glory while swimming in the pool.

In the past, I published articles on why chlorine is bad for your eyes, and in it, we saw that exposing your eyes to chlorine can cause conjunctivitis, discharge, redness, and itching.

I also brought you an article on why chlorine is bad for your skin. Now, to complete this “series,” I want us to see why chlorine is bad for your hair.

Contrary to what many people think, chlorine is bad for blonde hair only; it is not. It is bad for every type of hair, as I will demonstrate in this short post.

Chlorine reacts chemically with your hair

Chlorine is a pool chemical that is used for cleaning and for keeping the water bacteria-free. When you need to clean a pool after it has been neglected for a long time, you use chlorine to shock the pool.

Both chlorine and saltwater pools contain chlorine, with the saltwater ones containing it in high quantities. BUT PLEASE NOTE – while chlorine affects skin, eyes, and hair, it is not recommended to swim in an untreated pool.

In the pool, there are all types of microbes. Besides, people pee in pools, they also leave feces traces in the water. Algae and other organic matter also grow in the water, and chlorine is added to sterilize the water.

Back to the topic: Yes, chlorine reacts with your hair, chemically! Remember, it is used as a bleaching agent, so there is a possibility it can affect the color of your hair.

If chlorine is such a “bad” chemical, why is it used in pools? When added in low quantities, it cannot cause harm to your hair, skin, or eyes.

But then, there is a question of how little or how much you add to the pool. It is recommended that you add 1 to 5PPM (parts per million). After shocking the pool in summer, you might add too much chlorine, and this could end up harming your hair.

When chlorine is added to the swimming pool, it alters the pH balance of the water by making it more acidic. This means that if you add slightly more chlorine than necessary to the water, it is going to become more acidic.

It is this acidity that reacts with your skin, and hair and causes harm to your eyes.

Chlorine strips away the hair’s natural oil

Hair and skin have their natural oils, which boost moisturization. However, these oils do not react very well to chlorine.

While you can wear leggings for swimming, gloves for swimming, and even a wetsuit for swimming to protect the skin, the hair will always absorb chlorine, even after wearing a swim cap.

When chlorine gets to the hair, it breaks the hair’s natural oil, and then the water strips the oil away. The same way that chlorine makes the skin dry, it makes the hair dry too.

If the hair becomes too dry, it starts to split at the ends and soon after that, the hair starts to break and fall off. Okay, this will not happen too soon, but there is a possibility.

Besides, once the hair’s oil has been stripped away, you cannot know what will happen when you expose it to other elements.

I recommend taking a shower, getting in the pool while you are still wet, and also making your swimsuit wet. I also recommend that before you wear the swimming cap, make the hair wet.

This will prevent the hair from absorbing too much of the chlorinated water. However, this is still not enough to protect the hair from chlorine damage. So, when you get out of the pool, you should rinse the hair thoroughly under fresh water, and then apply your treatment.

Chlorine also causes scalp issues

Chlorine will affect your mane and scalp as well. This is why you should rinse your head longer when you get out of the pool, so the water can get to your scalp.  Just be careful so that the water does not go inside you through your ears.

The scalp skin is usually thick, but exposure to chlorine and hair treatment products. The scalp is sensitive, so it reacts with many things.

Another thing is that most people hardly give their scalp the treatment it deserves. They mostly worry about polishing and treating their mane, and they forget the scalp.

If you experience itching in the scalp every time you swim, or you feel that the scalp is too tight, it is definitely the chlorine that is affecting you.

The scalp can also start turning red, and the skin becomes dry and brittle. When you scratch it, you will see dandruff falling off, only that this is not the usual fungal dandruff. It is the brittle, dry skin flaking off.

How do I protect my hair from chlorine water?

Just because you want to protect your crown of glory, it does not mean that you should avoid swimming. Neither does it mean you should swim in untreated water!

Here are a few things that you can do to protect your hair from chlorine damage:

1. Wear a swim cap over wet hair

This is the first precaution to employ. Always gather your hair gently, tuck it inside a latex or silicone swim cap and swim.

A swim cap has many benefits. For instance:

• It prevents hair from trailing behind you and creating drag
• It prevents hair from breaking and clogging the swimming pool filter
• Your hair can’t get in the eyes of other swimmers

When you need to swim faster in a pool, wear a cap. It can streamline your profile, and boost your speed, albeit slightly.

By making the hair and swimming cap wet with fresh water, you reduce the capacity of the hair to absorb the pool water.

2. Apply a leave-in conditioner

After rinsing your hair with fresh water before getting into the pool, apply a leave-in conditioner to your hair.

This will coat the hair strands, and it will prevent the water that the hair absorbs from escaping. It will also minimize contact with chlorine.

It is good to check whether the leave-in conditioner you want to use is safe for the swimming pool. By safe, we mean that it will stay intact on your hair while you are in the water.

In the same way that swimming can wash away sunscreen, it can also wash away leave-in conditioner. You don’t want that to happen.

3. Clean your hair when you get out of the water

To prevent pool chlorine damage to the hair and the skin, get in the shower as soon as you get out of the pool. No matter how well protected you were, including wearing socks for swimming, your skin will have absorbed chlorine. That is why you must clean up under fresh, running water.

It is also a good idea to clean your swimsuit to protect it from chlorine damage. Also, if you swim in the pool with a yeast infection, take a shower after swimming.

Give your hair special attention so that you can rinse all the traces of chlorine out. After that, give the hair and scalp their befitting treatments to keep them moisturized.

4. Go to the salon regularly

After your hair has been exposed to elements such as the sun, rain, pool water, chlorine, and wind, it needs regular care.

Go to a salon so that if there is anything wrong with your hair, they can fix it with the best products. Treating your hair at home should be temporary. For instance, some hairs do well with coconut oil, but others do not.

Some problems, like frizz, split ends, and others, can be easily fixed before they escalate.

Wrapping it up

Chlorine, even the small amount that is found in pool water, is not good for your hair. Therefore, take some preventive measures before jumping in the pool.

Pre and post-swimming hair care is very necessary. There are no shortcuts; you must put in the work to protect your hair from chlorine damage.

You can also ask your hairstylist which products you should use on your hair when the swimming season kicks in. They will advise you on the must-have haircare products for swimmers.