swim caps

No. Swim caps do not keep water out of your hair. They keep your hair out of the drain, and your face. Coating your hair with conditioner before jumping in helps keep pool chemicals out (while adding more stuff to the water). Swim caps add buoyancy and keep your head warm during cold-water swims. I feel it is courteous to other swimmers to wear a cap, but unless there is a pool rule about length (usu. shoulder length or longer = cap), it's up to you. VB i swim three times a week and stay in the pool for a maximum of 2 hours, my cousin tells me that chlorine can do damage to my hair big time if i don't wear a swim cap, do i really need to wear a swim cap?

i swim three times a week and stay in the pool for a maximum of 2 hours, my cousin tells me that chlorine can do damage to my hair big time if i don't wear a swim cap, do i really need to wear a swim cap? I'm no hair expert, but I know that if I don't wear a cap, my hair feels stringy and turns a strange shade of greenish-blonde, when I wear a cap, it doesn't. I solve that in the summer by cutting all my hair off, then I don't have to worry about stringy, blondish-greenish hair or a swim cap!

VB, I have never seen someone talk about this before... "Swim caps add buoyancy" How do they add your buoyancy?

VB, I have never seen someone talk about this before... "Swim caps add buoyancy" How do they add your buoyancy? I'm not sure if this is what VB meant.... I swim with a cap and sometimes air gets trapped underneath making it feel like I'm swimming with a balloon on my head. I make sure my hair is wet before I put on the cap and still have to "squeeze" out any excess air once in a while. Here is my plea to all the swimmers with shoulder length (and longer)hair... PLEASE WEAR A CAP!!!!!!! Just the other day I had to pull a foot long hair blob out of my lane, DISGUSTING!:rant3:

I usually swim 5x/week with no cap and never have any problems with my hair. Although I know we're supposed to shower before swimming, I never see anyone from the group do so (neither do I).

I always were a cap - sometimes I will double cap.

Jason I take it your a young guy. If your hair is short ..no you dont need a cap. Wet it in the shower before swimming and rinse well after your swim. Older guys however who have hair loss I can't see how chlorinated water is good for you. Also it will rinse out any products like Rogain. A cap wont hurt as long as it does not pull hair off with it. For gals a cap is a must if the the hair is color treated, permed, or long. Most stores sell only three types of swim caps silicon, latex racing and lycra. All these will leak so the conception of many swimmers is that no swim cap keeps out water. Double capping with a more watertight cap however does a great job at keeping hair dry. See this page for simple swim hair care tips and double capping that really keeps hair dry. www.geocities.com/.../teamswimcaps.html

Older guys however who have hair loss I can't see how chlorinated water is good for you. Also it will rinse out any products like Rogain. If you're an older guy swimming... baldness is not an issue. You don't have a big huge beer n pizza gut so you're ahead of the game. Save your $ and crop your hair. :applaud:

I shave my head so its not an issue for me now. Back in the day I hated them too hot.

How much time will a cap save in a 100m race in a pool? How much in a mile ocean race? I've been a swimmer for almost 40 years, and have always gone cap-less. My daughter swims with cap. My son swims without cap. He is about 0.1 seconds of a USA Swimming (Hawaii) state qual time in 50 free and 50 back. Could a cap make up an entire 0.1 seconds. Anyone have real data???? I don't have any real data, but I really love sharing my (mostly worthless) opinion! At the speeds that even elite swimmers move through the water, I seriously doubt that a cap reduces the drag around a swimmer's head enough to make a tenth of a second difference. I doubt that a cap could make more than .05 seconds difference. It would be interesting to model a head with different hair types and lengths and a head with a swim cap on in some CFD and seeing what the difference is. My guess is that the difference is nearly negligible. Oh boy, who let the Engineer out of his box?!?!?