- You should wait three to four days to swim after dyeing your hair.
- That’s how long it takes for your hair to absorb the dye pigments.
- Otherwise, the chlorine from the pool, the salt water, and the sun will fade the color and you’ll have to renew it before forty-five days.
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If you colored your hair yesterday, you won’t be able to swim today. If you do, the color will wash out and lose intensity and luminosity.
Therefore, you’ll have to recolor your hair much earlier than planned.
The same is true if you bleached your hair. You can’t swim immediately after bleaching your hair.
I’ll tell you what I tell my clients: let’s use common sense.
I recommend my clients wait at least two days to wash their hair after dyeing their hair in the salon. The hair needs to recover its natural moisture. Also, the hair color pigments take two days to settle.
Now, if I recommend you wait two days to wash your hair with tap water after dyeing it, what could I say about swimming the day after?
Exactly! I ask my clients to wait three or four days because seawater, chlorinated water, and the sun are much more damaging to the dye than tap water.
When you dye your hair, the cuticles of your hair fiber open for the dye to penetrate and change your hair color. This process doesn’t end when you rinse the dye out. Your hair continues to absorb the pigments deposited in the hair core for 48 hours.
In addition, the hair cuticles close two days after coloring the hair. When they are closed, the color doesn’t escape.
If you swim immediately after coloring your hair, or the next day, the cuticles will still be open and the color would quickly escape.
Also, seawater and pool water contain other elements that can make your color fade more easily.
- Pool chemicals like chlorine, calcium, and lithium hypochlorite can ruin your hair color if you don’t wait three to four days to swim after applying the dye.
- Sea minerals such as sulfur, bromine, lithium, magnesium, phosphates, potassium, and sodium can also damage the color.
And, of course, don’t forget the sun, heat, and sand.
By the way, it’s also crazy to dye your hair after swimming because you could severely damage it.
Now that it’s clear that you can swim for three to four days after coloring your hair, let’s see how to protect it so that the color lasts longer while you’re enjoying the water.
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Hair care while swimming in the pool or the sea
Let’s imagine it’s been three or four days since you colored your hair. It’s time to prepare your hair before you go in the water.
The first thing I recommend is to comb and gather your hair. If you have it tied up in a bun it’ll be harder to get all your hair wet.
Also, you should apply a color protector with UV filter such as MOROCCANOIL PROTECT & PREVENT or JOICO DEFY DAMAGE.
Apply sunscreen all over your hair, but focus on the roots and the front of your hair, which is always the most exposed to the sun.
If you’re swimming in the pool, wear a latex cap to keep your hair dry.
Once you finish swimming, don’t dry your hair in direct sunlight , because the sun’s rays wash out the color of the hair dye.
Every time you get out of the water, I recommend you renew your hair sunscreen. The spray absorbs quickly and forms a shield so the sun doesn’t damage your color or dry out your hair.
Finally, after swimming, rinse your hair with tap water to remove chemicals from chlorinated and salt water.
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Hair care after swimming in the pool or in the sea
After enjoying a day at the pool or beach, the first thing you want to do is take a shower. And understandably so. You need to remove chlorine, salt, and sand from both your skin and your hair.
It’s important to wash your color-treated hair after swimming with sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner.
The sun, pool, and seawater plus the sulfates, which are detergents, will fade your hair color.
It’s also important to moisturize your hair with hair masks at least once a week.
Finally, don’t use a blow dryer, flat iron, or curling iron.. There’s no point in exposing your hair to the high temperatures of these tools if you’ll be swimming again the next day.
Conclusions
After coloring your hair, you should wait three to four days before swimming in the pool or in the sea.
One last piece of advice? Don’t use oils such as coconut or argan oil when enjoying the pool or the beach. The oil will raise your hair’s temperature and generate a “frying effect.”
