Summer’s heat, for me, means swimming pools…but swimming pools are not ‘Blond Friendly’!
I still can’t believe that summer came and has almost left already! Maybe that’s because in my neck of the woods, the northern Midwest USA, our summer weather made it’s appearance very late this year, Sure there were a few warm days here and there…but they were few and far between, up until mid-July.
But now it’s early September, and fall seems to be here…most kids have even started school already…how depressing :-(
In anticipation of this summer’s reticent heat and humidity, I took the necessary precaution of a Brazilian Keratin treatment. This seemed really necessary to prepare my newly-colored blond-white-grey hair for summer’s arrival. The ‘going blond‘ process was really hard on my hair.
As a new blond, the one thing that I totally didn’t anticipate was swimming pools are not very blond hair friendly!
My family and I love swimming so much that we decided to build our own pool in the backyard maybe 10-15 years ago. Having our own pool is so great on many different levels. Imagine my dismay when my Hair Sytlist Pedro, cautioned me as I was walking out the door following my Keratin treatment to “remember to stay out of the swimming pool’!
As the shock and horror of his words set in I asked him why. He said that both chlorine and salt, the main methods used to keep swimming pool water clean and clear, will strip the Keratine from my hair faster than anything else. The great effects of my 3+ hours and $300+ treatment would be completely reversed.
As this sad realization set in I began to research how I can safely enjoy my pool for the remainder of ‘summer‘ without trashing my Keratin treatment.
My research took a turn for the worse when I discovered that stripping the Keratine from my hair might not even be my biggest concern. My hair might turn green too!
Woe is me :-(
Happily I think I’ve found a solution to the ‘green hair’ problem.
A cool website that I discovered today called Hair Romance, provides tons of great tips, tutorials and inspiration for hair styling…especially for long to lob-lengthed styles. The website’s author also has a great YouTube channel called Hair Romance TV for video tutorials. I only had time to watch a few videos, but I gotta say “I love Hair Romance TV!”
I learned why blond hair actually becomes green in swimming pools…it’s not the chlorine but apparently it’s the copper that’s in the water that causes this effect. I also learned how to prevent it from happening.
Preventing Green Hair
- Get your hair wet before swimming with ‘regular’ water
- Wear a swimming cap
- Coat your hair with a ‘barrier’
- Combine 2 and 3 for the greatest protection
- Rinse, or better yet wash you hair, asap following swimming
- If green appears, use a tomatoe ketchup hair mask to remove it
Here’s another ‘entertaining but not entirely successful test’ video: YouTube Video Testing Ketchup Technique by someone else who tested out the tomato ketchup removal technique.
vsatrends 