What Chlorine Does To Your Hair & Skin (And How To Fight Against it)

Listen, if anyone knows what it is like to witness first-hand chlorine damage to your hair, skin and clothes, it’s me.

But I have (what I feel and have been told, at least) great hair, I smell good, and my suit is cute and has lasted forever. (But truth be told, sometimes my fiance tells me I have Pool Hair or that I do smell like chemicals).  But for the most part, I do not have any nasty pool usage backlashes:  no split ends, no fried or frizzed hair; I feel moisturized; and I do have a suit I have used 4-5 days a week for one entire year and is still in usable shape.  So here’s my secrets:

1. Always, always, always rinse your hair with clean water before you go in the pool. Unless you are 100% sure you aren’t going under, don’t take the chance. What happens is the dry shafts of your hair soak up whatever you give it, meaning chlorinated/chemicaled water, and that causes irreversible damage. Hair is dead — despite product claims, you cannot heal it or change it back so look out for it now.
2. You can also top your rinsed hair with conditioner or hair serum for an extra protector. But that’s just one more step you have to remember. Neutrogena and John Freida make a silicon serum found in any Target or Walgreens. Just pre-rinse your hair — I want to make the point twice.
3. Use an exfoliate for the face, a scrub glove for the body. I don’t wash, I scrub chlorine off my body. I like Jason Organic’s Apricot Scrubble.
4. Stop buying swim suits made of lycra or nylon and buy polyester suits. This is hard, because the industry mostly makes suits made of the first two mentioned materials. I wear Dolphin “Uglies” suits found here which are ironically, so cute, and so much cheaper.
5. Sunblock is the number one product you can use to fight wrinkles and signs of aging. I have researched and researched, and like you, I’ve bought my share of Hope in a Jar. The only true miracle product out there is UVA and UVB-resistance sunscreen. Wear it every single day. I recommend Dr. Hauschka’s SPF 15 Sunscreen Lotion; for a lower price point, I’m also happy with Aveeno’s Positively Radiant SPF 15 that also acts as a moisturizer.

Any product I have recommended, I promise you I have done tons of research on — I usually rely most on Paula Begoun, also known as the Cosmetics Cops. She’s been on Oprah recommending products and all that garbage.

I’ve written about his topic before here, but I wrote about it again because Squidkid has been getting a lot of searches lately on this topic.