I was a part of my high school’s swim team all four years I attended there. While it was nice staying in shape, getting great exercise and being in the sun, the huge downside to swimming is my hair took a severe beating. Luckily, most of all the girls on the team had a great routine that they kept up to make sure that their hair stayed healthy. I’ll be sharing with you some of the awesome tips I picked up. While you may not be swimming everyday for hours at a time, it’ll still be helpful for those lounging-by-the-pool afternoons.

Wet your hair first

Before you’re about to go into a pool, it’s a great idea to at least wet your hair first. Ideally, you’ll want to condition it as well, but if you’re in a rush or don’t have access to conditioner, you’ll want to wet it first. Using something like Alba Botanica conditioner is a great option because it’s highly moisturizing. The reason you want to condition your hair first is because your hair is porous. It naturally absorbs whatever is placed on, or in it. If hair didn’t do this, we wouldn’t be able to put hairspray or any product on it. While it’s great for styling, taking a dunk right into the pool can not only shock your hair, but have it soak up all the chemicals, like chlorine, which is known for making hair brittle, damaged and even discolored. Bottom line, put in something healthy before you take a dip.

Rinse and repeat

When you get out of the pool, you’ll want to make sure that you rinse off completely afterwards. The entire team would always take showers afterwards, and it was to not only save our swimsuits, but it helped our hair significantly. We used things like shampoo for swimmers which helped keep our hair healthy tremendously. What’s so wonderful about these shampoos is they are specially designed for swimming, so they help bring moisture back into your hair as well as remove the chemicals, in a safe way.

If you follow these tips then you’ll be sure to save your hair anytime you go into a pool. Let us know how your summer goes in the comments below!

Written by Jessamine Casia