You may be thinking: “how do they protect their hair from chlorinated pools?” “Every time I go for a dip, my hair turns green or dry…” 

Well, the answer is simple; they use a swim cap!

But a swim cap isn’t the most handsome thing to wear and it looks quite silly if you’re just going for a dip – even though using a swim cap keeps your hair dry and prevents it from making contact with the metals in pool water.

So how do you protect your hair from the pool water?  Well, guys let’s take a look..

Who is Particularly at Risk for Chlorine Damage?
Everyone who regularly exposes their hair in chlorine water, risks damage, but some hair types are more at risk than others. If your hair type meets the following criteria, you’ll have to take extra care…

    1.    Color Treated hair (especially if your hair is blonde)
    2.    Dry Hair
    3.    Thin or Fine Hair
    4.    Previously Damaged Hair

Rinse Your Hair with Clean Water Before…
We spend all spring plotting our perfect summer hair color, only to have it turned to green, dry og frizzy the first time we go swimming, but shower before can solve the problem. Showering before entering the pool sounds a little silly, but really if you rinse your hair with clean tap water it’ll be harder for the pool water to work its way in and cause damage.

Wet Your Hair, Don’t Shampoo it
It’s important to avoid using shampoo before jumping into the pool. Shampoo reacts negatively with chlorine water and causes your hair to dry out. So remember, the only thing you have to do is to rinse your hair with CLEAN WATER before hitting the pool!

Apply Oil or Conditioner
Apply a thin layer of coconut oil or conditioner in your hair before swimming to protect it. Oil will act as a barrier between your hair and chlorinated water. The silicones in the conditioner will keep chlorine and other chemicals away from your hair. It will also keep your hair tangle-free.

After Swimming: Rinse Your Hair Immediately
Rinsing your hair with clean water after swimming is also very important, because the longer the chlorine remains in your hair, the more damage it will cause.

If it’s possible, it’s a good idea to use shampoo and some conditioner immediately after you exit the pool. Some shampoos are specially made to help remove chlorine and is a great solution for regular swimmers. If you want to bring a shampoo and conditioner in your swim bag, get By Vilain Skyline Travel Duo. Or use a Leave-In Conditioner – just work the conditioner through your hair after swimming, then gently detangle with the comb.

Let Your Hair Air-dry

If you use a blow dryer right after a pool day, set on a low or a medium temperature – OR EVEN BETTER – let your hair air-dry!

Even though we always recommend you to use a blow-dryer while styling your hair, it’s much better for your hair to air-dry after swimming in pool water. Let your hair dry slowly and use a wide tooth comb!

Tip if Your Hair is Already Damage

TALK TO YOUR HAIRSTYLIST! 
If your hair is already chlorine damage, go to a pro. He or she will recommend products or treatments to help. Remember, you can always get a haircut to remove the ends that have suffered the most damage. 

(Secret tip) USE KETCHUP!
If you’re blonde and your hair has turned green after swimming a tip is to use Ketchup as shampoo to correct the green tones.

YES we know – it sounds weird and disgusting – BUT it helps! 

What to do: Shampoo your hair and rinse it out. Apply ketchup in your hair and leave it in for a couple of minutes, then rinse it out. Shampoo your hair again and use conditioner if needed. If you already have tried this secret tip, let us know if it worked! ​

This article first appeared on SLIKHAAR

Is your hair looking a little rough around the edges? Do you feel like you need to put your hair on a damage-control regimen? Not-so-healthy hair can take a toll on our self-image. Thankfully, most causes of breakage and frizz are preventable by changing some of our bad hair behaviors.

Hair damage happens when hair bonds are broken due to stress on the hair. In this article, I’m going to give you the tools to keep your hair healthy and supple by reducing hair stress. I’ll explain how you can prevent damage, repair using treatments and conditioners, and protect with the right products.

With extra care and a little prevention, you can get your locks back on the path to strong and lush.

Here’s the List:
1. Over-lightening and Frequent Hair Color Damage
2. Texture and Smoothing Treatment Damage
3. Damage From Over-Washing Your Hair
4. Heat Styling Damage
5. Hair Damage from Environmental Stressors
6. Damage From Too Much Tension On Your Hair
7. Damage From Being Too Rough On Wet Hair
8. Damage From Under-Nourished Hair

Read here how to Fix - Care - Repair >>

By Julyne Derrick

Coconut oils and milks are great for both your skin and your hair. In the tropics, women have been moisturizing their hair with coconut milk for generations. And for good reason, coconut milk is wonderful for keeping hair soft and shiny.

Here, I include 3 coconut milk masks for the hair and as an extra bonus, I've included a recipe for making your own homemade coconut milk.


Simple Coconut Milk Hair Mask
Coconut oils and milks are great for both your skin and your hair.

This recipe is a favorite and leaves hair silky and smelling fabulous.

What's best about this hair mask is how absolutely simple it is. Plus, there's no need to use all the milk. You can cover the bowl and use again after a few days.

Ingredients

• 1 can of unsweetened coconut milk
• a few drops of essential oil if you like (totally not necessary, but if you have them on hand it can be luxurious).

How to Use
Pour a can or bottle of unsweetened coconut milk in a bowl and refrigerate overnight so it hardens. Section hair into 3-5 sections and section, by section, apply the milk from roots to ends of your hair (hair should be dry when applied). Cover head with a shower cap and leave the mask on for about 20 minutes. Rinse hair in the shower and comb out. If you have dry ends but your scalp tends to get oily, apply this mask only to the bottom 3/4ths of hair, keeping it off the scalp.


Coconut Milk & Avocado Hair Mask
I love the effects of avocado on dry, frizzy hair. This recipe is for shoulder-length hair. Add more if you have long hair.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp unsweetened coconut milk
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 tbsp honey

Throw the ingredients in a blender to combine. Add another tablespoon of milk if it's not runny enough.

How to Use
Wet your hair thoroughly, then comb the mask through from roots to ends. Cover with plastic and a towel or a shower cap if you have one and let the mask sit for 10-30 minutes before rinsing thoroughly.
I have found that even 5 minutes helps with these masks, so if you're in a hurry, you can rinse after a few minutes and you won't have to leave the shower.


Infused Olive Oil and Coconut Milk Hair Mask
You've heard of hot oil treatments, well you can make your own with an infusion of rosemary and olive oil. The milk is added for extra moisturizing benefits. Don't have time to make an infusion? No worries. Just skip that part. Olive oil and coconut milk are wonderful together even without the herb.

Olive oil infusions will last for 6 months.

Ingredients

• 1 cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp dried rosemary leaves
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk

To make the infused olive oil, combine the oil and rosemary leaves in an airtight Ball jar for 4-8 weeks. If you don't have time for this, make the infused oil by gently heating the rosemary in the oil for 2-4 hours in a water bath or double-boiler. Whatever you don't use on your hair, you can use for meals. Rosemary-infused olive oils are wonderful brushed over focaccia breads or used for dipping.

Once you have your infused olive oil, you'll make your hair mask by combining 1/2 cup of the infused olive oil and 1/2 cup of the coconut milk.

How to Use
Apply to hair, cover with a shower cap and let it sit for 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly. You may feel you need to shampoo your hair after a hot oil treatment, which is fine.


How to Make Your Own Coconut Milk
While you can buy coconut milk in a can, there's nothing better than homemade just-off-the-coconut milk.

Here's how to make your own.

Ingredients

• 1 coconut
• 4 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Find the eyes on the coconut (they are always the 3 spots on one end of the coconut). You need to pierce these with an ice pick or a sharp skewer. This is to allow the heat to penetrate the coconut.

Drain the coconut water into a cup.

Place the coconut in a pan and bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on a large wooden cutting board or other solid work surface. Break the coconut apart with a hammer. Rinse the coconut meat and slice the coconut into small pieces (no need to break the shell away from the meat).

Place the coconut pieces and the reserved coconut water in a blender and blend until finely chopped.

Put the chopped coconut into a glass bowl with the 4 cups of boiling water. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 30-45 minutes.

Using a strainer or cheesecloth, strain the mixture into another bowl. This is your milk. You should have enough for 3 treatments. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This article first appeared on About Style

Happy Healthy Hair – Vitamins and Supplements
from Kala Kilshaw

Our hair and nails are the last place to receive the benefits of vitamins and we rarely eat as much of the good stuff as we need. As hair is 91% protein, in order to repair it from the inside out, a regular hair masque is the solution. Many masques available are moisture based so make the hair feel soft and smooth but don’t actually do any internal good. A simple homemade protein based masque is all you need.

These 2 examples are perfect for all hair types, they are a great blend of proteins and fatty acids exactly what we need for Happy Healthy Hair.

Ingredients for Banana Hair Masque
• 1 banana
• ¼ cup of almond milk
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp honey

⚛ Cut banana into small pieces and place in a bowl
⚛ Add ¼ cup of almond milk
⚛ Add 2 tbsp coconut oil
⚛ Add 2 tbsp honey
⚛ Blend or mash until smooth

Ingredients for Avocado Hair Masque
• 1 pitted avocado
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp of either coconut, olive or almond oil

⚛ Place the avocado and egg yolk in a bowl
⚛ Add 2 tbsp of either coconut, olive or almond oil
⚛ Blend or mash until smooth

Directions of use:

★ Apply to freshly shampooed, towel dried hair (squeeze water from the hair don’t rub, this prevent roughing the cuticle and causing damage)

★ Cover with a plastic shower cap or bag and a warm towel if possible

★ Leave for 20 mins

★ Comb through gently with a wide tooth comb from end to roots so as not to stress and damage the hair

★ Give your scalp a lovely massage – see details of the benefits above

★ Rinse thoroughly


⚛ 20 mins is perfect timing for treatments and don’t sleep with them in as there are no extra benefits.

⚛ You can add a couple of drops of your favourite essential oil if you want a more fragrant indulgence.

⚛ Drying your hair thoroughly instead of leaving it damp and tying it up will prevent, fungus, scalp problems and breakage.

This article first appeared on UKHairdressers.com

It's that time again...

Avoiding Pool Hair

Summer is approaching and many of us will be hitting the pool!  To avoid the damage chlorine can wreak on the hair, simply wet your hair with tap water (with a one tablespoon per pint of leave-in conditioner) before you jump in.  This will prevent the hair from soaking up pool water and reduce the damage!  

Summer’s here and so are swimming pools and Chlorine
Summer is here and many stylists are getting this lovely shade of swimmers green sitting in your chair. Remember your childhood as a white blonde who’s hair turned green each year. Leaning over the kitchen sink pouring tomato juice over your head, catching it in a basin and pouring it over again, and again. The tomato acids worked to remove the copper minerals (blue/green) but was very drying on fragile blonde long hair.  YES, Catsup works, too

Always remove the minerals causing the green (use Malibu C), rather than trying to cover them up (darken or tone) with haircolor or worse bleaching the minerals out of the hair.
 
Aspirin and Water Can Get Rid of Chlorine Green
Taking aspirin with water won’t help, but rinsing your hair with aspirin dissolved in water will, according to Manhattan dermatologist Amy Wechsler. It’s actually the copper in chemically treated pools, not chlorine, that makes blonde swimmers’ hair go green. The acids in aspirin and water, as well as in tomato and lemon juice, can neutralize copper, helping get the green out.

To prevent further greening, before swimming rinse hair in cold water to tighten the cuticle, then put on conditioner and a swim cap. After swimming, wash hair with swimmer’s shampoo, which binds to the copper on the hair to remove it.
 

From the archives of "The Beauty Blog"
7 Excellent Ways to Protect Your Hair when in the Pool

Have a great summer!