3 Ways To Protect Black Hair While Swimming

Welcome back to authentically amber today we're going to be talking about a topic: that's really important um for black women, and that is hair care in the summer time when it comes to swimming, whether you're in the pool or at the beach. It'S something that i've personally struggled with for years: it's how do we maintain our care and keep it healthy in the summertime, and so today i have brought with me a key expert. This is my hairdresser cece. She is with naturally gifted hair studio and cece has done a tremendous job of just getting my hair healthy again, i um i started seeing her about two and a half years ago i had a lot of heat damage, um, and so she has gotten my hair Back thick cool and healthy and last summer i was in the pool all summer long with my boys, swimming um in a chlorinated pool and my hair is still healthy, and so i brought her on today so that we can talk about how to be able to Have the opportunity to get into the pool enjoy it enjoy swimming while still protecting your hair, because i know that that is a barrier for many of us in terms of swimming or learning to swim or just being able to enjoy the water. So first, so i've got two questions for cc: first off: how does chlorine impact black women's hair chlorine impacts black hair by removing its natural oil and moisture from the hair? It also can remove the natural oils causing the hair to be more dry damaged. It can cause cuticle damage over time, so you really want to make sure that you are staying on top of your moisture and hydration, and all of that really starts from the inside, so making sure that you are you're drinking um, a good amount of water. That'S going to keep your hair uh healthy and hydrated before you even get in the water all right, so you shared with us cc how we can protect our hair right you're, going to talk us through that, because what you said is hydration is really important. So um, what else can we do as black women to protect our hair? I am going to share with you guys three things that i do throughout the summer, but first and a lot of that came from discussion with cece, but first um in general. How can you know what are what are the things that you would recommend as an expert that we do to protect our hair while swimming regularly um for my um black women who are or black people in general, who are swimming regularly? I recommend that you um, if you can get a swim cap on wear a swim cap. It'S okay! I know they're, not the cutest thing and you really want to look cute when you're at the pool but protect your hair first um. So may look over a few sometimes that we have recommended for you guys now, if you can't wear the swim caps and you just really want to wear your hair out um. The best thing that you could do is go ahead and saturate your hair first with water. Your hair is going to absorb um the water once inside the pool. So you really don't want your hair taken in all that chlorine so to prevent your hair from absorbing. So much of that chlorine, the chlorinated pool you can first start by drinking your hair in water or aloe vera juice is really good um. But if you always jump in the shower and do it go ahead and get your hair with the water um, you would then apply a leave-in conditioner or a regular, cheap conditioner. I wouldn't use your good stuff because you'll just be washing it right out after the pool you want to um saturate your hair with the conditioner. After that, you want to go ahead and apply your favorite oil. A light oil such as sweet almond oil, avocado oil argan oil, is really great. You can saturate your hair with those oils. After that, your hair will be considered locked. That much will be locked into your hair. Once you answer the pool, your hair is going to be protected by that conditioner and oil that you've already put on your hair, okay, so based on what cece just shared with us on how to protect our hair. What i did want to share are three different things that i do throughout the summer um and what i you know call those are my three different protection options and again a lot of this. I got from just discussion with cece as she and i put together a plan for my hair and how to best, protect it in the summer. Time being that, i would be in the pool almost every day so based on those three different options: um. What i do, first and foremost, i call it school protection, and this goes back to the swim cap that stacy spoke about, so for that full protection. What you'll first need is a disposable swim. Cap you'll put this on your head and then afterwards you will get one of these. This is a swim band. Okay, it's really tight, so you will then um cover that swim cap with the swim band after that you'll put on your actual swim cap. So that's three layers of protection: that's really going to stop that water from getting into your scalp. This is a standard size, swim cap from speedo, but if you have longer hair like i do or if you have braids anything like that, i got this one off by amazon. It'S called laptop and you can get a swim cap like this, a bigger one and it um just gives you a bit more overhang so um. That is what i do if i am trying to really go swimming in the water, and i want to protect that hair. What i will say about this method, which is also great if you have like a little girl, that's taking this one um. You can also do that and get you know just a little girl, scythe cap um, but with this method i would not recommend doing it if you are, if you've got your children in the pool with you. The reason being is that it is really tight on your head and it will impede your hearing, so you'll be able to hear. But you won't be able to hear as clearly and so just in terms of swim safety and making sure that everyone around you is safe and protected um. That'S not a method, i would recommend. If you are, you know um watching or monitoring in one. I would use this method if i am out. You know, swimming um, you know by myself with other adults that um that you know know how to swim. The second method - and this is actually what i do quite frequently - and i call this splash protection, so i found these caps online. The link is in the description, um and i just was really cute. It looks like a shower cap inside if you can see that so um, it's water resistant and then on the outside. It'S just a soft cap. So what i do is, i usually just pin my hair up and then i put this over it. So what that does is it just really protects my hair from water being splashed? My children like to splash a lot longer with them, so i'm not going to dump my head under water with this cap, because if i do, my hair will get wet. But what it will do is that it will just protect from any splashing that anyone's doing in the pool um and keep your hair dry. And then the third option is really that no protection and that's you know when um we're just going to be carefree and so we're going to do the steps that cece talked about just in terms of conditioning the hair before moisturizing the hair, making sure that hair. Well, before we get into the pool um and that is going to help um, you know ensure that we're not fully dredging our hair in chlorine or really getting that chlorine um. You know into our scalp and then afterwards, of course, we're going to wash um and then deep condition, our hair. So, with these three methods, what i do so that i am able to consistently get into the pool with my boys and also continue to get my hair done is i you know i kind of taco back and forth. So if i've just gotten my hair done um, i know i don't want to get it wet, but my boys want to get in the pool. I will pin it up and i will put on this cap if it is the week that i'm going back to get my hair done then um i may go ahead and just you know allow my hair to get immersed in the water and just make sure I'M washing it and conditioning it afterwards, so you know going back and forth so that i'm not necessarily getting wet every day, but you know just throughout um cycle or time. Distance of you know between or the length of time between when i'm getting my hair done. Um is what i tend to do, and also just more in the summer. I do focus on more natural styles, which cece is an expert at so that way, if i do have this on, i'm not you know sweating out, um my press and then it's just. It'S a lot easier to maintain um, but continuing to get your hair done regularly is still really important. So that's just one last thing: if you want to talk about even if you're good, even if you're going swimming and things like that um, it's just it's important right. I remember last summer and i'll that you talked about last time. I remember like, in the middle of the summer, when you started to see some dryness, you gave me some tips of what i could do um, because i had to rip so much yes um. So after let's talk about real quick after you get out of the pool, let's say you're going to go to before fridays that advance sunday throughout the weekend, you're going to be consistent with getting in and out of the pool and you've done your lock method with Drenching your hair with either um water or aloe vera juice, then you're going to apply that conditioner to your hair. After that you're going to apply that oil to your hair, that's going to be your lco method before you get into the pool! If you've done these things, then you can wait till sunday when you're done swimming in the pool for good to shampoo your hair, because you are going to have to clarify your hair. Paul mitchell has a great um clarifying shampoo that removes the chlorine from your hair. That would be my recommendation, we'll link that at the bottom, after you've done these things make sure that you are clarifying your scalp with the clarifying shampoo. I would clarify your hair after you've done all of these recommendations. Um. It is a good thing to go ahead and add some steam hydration to your hair care regimen. If you are natural, you have to have seen. I don't know how you're living with natural hair without a singer always laughing, because we talk about it. So so much um, but that is a really good thing to do to hydrate your hair um steaming your hair before before you get in the pool and after i would really seem i'll, recommend you steam your hair at least once a month, um, semen and also Oil and please oil, your scalp and all your hair after you've, steamed and hydrates your hair. It'S very important that you lock in that moisture with some oil um and, like i mentioned earlier, you can have like grape seed oil avocado oil. Sweet almond is one of my all time favorites for anybody. I think it would be great all right. So if you have any questions, we would love to hear them. Please drop them and thank you so much for watching, and we just want to encourage you as black women. Let'S get in the pool yeah, you don't know how to swim but enjoy the summer, enjoy the water and um yeah. Thank you. So much cc for helping us. Thank you thank you and enjoy that hair. You can still go out. You do not have to stop yourself just because your hair is natural. You don't have to stop your everyday living. We are here to just help. You make it a little bit better. Yes, thank you. You