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Every swimmer remembers their first case of swimmer hair. Olympic swimmer Claire Weinstein, for example, first dealt with it during her summers as a pre-teen, practicing and competing for both her year-round club team and summer swim team. Morning practices outdoors followed by indoor competition, her days were spent mostly in chlorinated water. The hard work clearly paid off, but the long hours in the pool also resulted in an unintentional beauty side effect: blonde highlights and a change of color in her normally dark curly hair.
“This was from all the chlorine and sun damage to my hair,” Weinstein, who will be making her Olympic debut in Paris, tells Vogue. “My school friends thought it was cool because I basically got my hair bleached without going to the salon. However, in reality, it was just completely dead. It didn’t bother me at the time, but the majority of my ends were dried up and straw-like.”
Whether you’re an Olympian or complete novice, pool water can be very harsh on strands. Discoloration of hair color (both natural or fake), dry hair, and excessive damage are all results from swimmer hair and if not treated, can cause more problems later. But the good news is there are easy ways to treat—and prevent—the chlorine damage that has done a number on our hair.
What Is Swimmer Hair?
As Marisa Garshick, MD, board-certified dermatologist at MDCS Dermatology explains it, swimmer’s hair is the damage that is caused by repeated exposure to chlorine and other chemicals found in swimming pools. “This damage manifests as dry and brittle hair that is more prone to breakage and split ends,” Garshick says.
This can affect all hair types, but those who have chemically treated, colored, or naturally curly hair tend to be more vulnerable to it. “[Chlorine] penetrates the hair shaft more easily due to the condition of the hair cuticle, causing dryness, brittleness, and increased porosity,” says Kari Williams, certified trichologist and director of education Cécred. “Curly hair, in particular, is more susceptible because its natural shape makes it more porous, leading to increased dryness and damage.”
Causes of Swimmer Hair
Swimmer’s hair is pretty easy to spot. Garshick and Williams list the following as signs that you might be dealing with this: dryness, brittleness, split ends, and tangling. Another dead giveaway is discoloration—often a green tint, especially on blonde hair—to colored hair.
“Chlorine can cause color to fade and change,” explains Williams. “The chemicals can strip away the protective layer of hair, making it more porous and susceptible to further damage and color loss.”
How to Keep Hair Healthy as a Swimmer
Does this mean you must avoid all pools at all costs? Of course not. Both Garshick and Williams stress the importance of finding products that will infuse moisture into strands. They also recommend small habit changes such as a pre-swim rinse to reduce chlorine and pool chemical absorption or wearing certain hairstyles, such as a braid or bun, underneath your swimmer’s cap to minimize chlorine exposure.
As for other hair care tips, who better than the U.S. Olympic swim team to break down how they actually deal with swimmer s hair. Below, past and present Olympians share their most helpful tips and favorite hair products they actually use to keep their strands healthy.
“I need moisture and volume,” says Regan Smith, three-time Olympic medalist and member of the 2024 U.S. Olympic swim team. “My curls love moisture and my hair is very long and thin so it gets weighed down easily. I have little baby hairs that stick out of my cap and they get bleached and crunchy and break off. All of the hairs are a mess in the back of my head because of my swim cap.”
Garshick explains that a big part of treating swimmer’s hair involves removing that chlorine build-up and restoring moisture. She recommends looking for moisturizing ingredients such as oils, butters, and glycerin and for proteins like keratin to strengthen strands. To remove chlorine, she says to look for sodium and citrate and sulfates, though it can be controversial, can be used for deep cleansing.
“I try to stick to my same routine while I’m traveling for meets [and] the Olympics. My hair always struggles when I change up my routine so I gotta stay consistent,” says Smith. Her daily routine includes shampooing and conditioning after she swims, as well as a hair mask and a clarifying shampoo once a week and a hair oil after each training session to nourish her curls and tend to those split ends. Her favorite brands include Kristen Ess, Dae, Aveda, Olaplex, and Ouai. “I bounce between these brands a lot, but they have never done me wrong,” she says. “My biggest tip is to rinse off immediately after getting out of the pool and putting a leave-in product in.”
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Ivan Puskovitch remembers dealing with swimmer’s hair as early as 6 years old, when he was on his first competitive swim team. But Puskovitch, who will be swimming for the U.S. in the 10k open water event in Paris, learned early on how to combat it from none other than his mom. “She always brought a blowdryer and leave-in conditioner to my training sessions,” he says.
To care for his long, moderately curly wavy hair now, he too focuses on moisture and says that conditioning is the most important part of his hair-washing routine. “I have to be careful not to overly shampoo my hair because it will exacerbate the dryness it suffers from due to the chlorine,” he says. “I also have to be careful not to use too much conditioner or put conditioner in my hair too close to a race because then it makes my swim cap slippery.”
He rinses his hair post-swim, after every workout and always conditions whenever he showers. The product he swears by: Pantene’s Curl Perfection Conditioner. “Been using Pantene my whole life (not sponsored),” he says. “[The conditioner] is good for my curly hair; it maintains a healthy level of moisture.”
Garshick says that using a swimmer’s cap helps provide a barrier between hair and the chlorine that can damage it. But while conditioners are a key staple in any swimmer’s hair regimen, for Abbey Weitzeil, the four-time Olympic medalist who will be making her third Olympic appearance for the U.S. in Paris as team captain, says it’s important to use the right amount so that it doesn’t interfere with it. “Using too much can be hard as a swimmer because your cap will slide off as you re practicing,” she says.
To care for her fine wavy and curly hair while she trains, she focuses on products that will boost hydration and tame frizz. “I rinse my hair every time I get out of the pool and sometimes wash it depending on how many times I have that week, but I always make sure to put in conditioner and serum on my ends every time I get out of the pool,” she says. She goes back and forth between different brands of leave-in conditioners, but her one constant for her shampoo, conditioner, and hair serum is Kerastase’s Resistance Line.
Split ends, dryness, breakage from wearing a cap all the time, and chlorine-bleached tips—Katie Grimes has experienced it all with swimmer’s hair. “Swimming definitely keeps me dedicated to a deliberate hair care routine,” says Grimes, who was the first American to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I am more conscious of when and how often I wash my hair and what kind of products I use.”
For her moderately wavy hair, she focuses on combating the constant dryness she experiences from the chlorine. Her “holy grail” go-to is Moroccanoil. “I make sure to always pack the frizz shield spray and a hydration mask,” she says. “The hydrating shampoo and conditioner are two of my faves.”
Another pro tip: wear a soft silicone cap. “I try to stop wearing latex swim caps as much,” she says. “They can be rougher on your hairline.”
Garshick recommends getting regular cuts to keep hair healthy, something Weinstein has adopted in her hair care routine. “This helps keep the hair that I have healthy by getting rid of dead ends before they become bigger problems,” she says. “I also found that keeping it at a shorter length makes it easier to maintain and keep hydrated.”
For traveling to and from competitions and for her first Olympics this year, she brings these essentials for her thick curls: the Ouai Shampoo and Conditioner for Thick Hair and Detox Shampoo, Function of Beauty Curly Hair Leave-In Conditioner and Super Shape Curl Cream, Moroccan Hair Oil Treatment, The Ordinary Multi-Peptide Serum, and Dae Styling Cream. “This ensures that I can keep my hair healthy while traveling, practicing, and competing,” she says. “It also keeps it looking nice for one of my favorite parts of the trip: the girl nights out.”
Lydia Jacoby has been lucky that her hair has stayed relatively healthy throughout her years as a swimmer, but her thick hair does get dry and frizzy thanks to the chlorine. So daily hair washing is a must. “I know you’re only supposed to wash every couple days but I always wash and condition my hair every time I get out of the pool to make sure there are no chemicals left in it, which works really well for me,” Jacoby says.
Williams suggests looking for ingredients like hydrolyzed proteins to strengthen strands and rebuild hair structure as well as oils and emollients rich in vitamins and antioxidants to nourish and hydrate hair (her personal recommendation is Cécred Moisturizing Deep Conditioner).
For Jacoby, the two-time Olympic medalist who was on the U.S. team for the 2020 Tokyo games, her favorite shampoo and conditioner is the Native Moisturizing set in Coconut and Vanilla scent (“I’m all about smelling good,” she says) and she uses the Ouai treatment Mask twice a week for an added boost of hydration. She then finishes with a spritz of the Pantene Miracle Rescue 10-in-1 Multitasking Spray to detangle hair.
