I'm having swim cap issues. I normally wear a silicon regular normal cap, and have worn latex in the past. However, I put my cap on dry and put my hair in a couple of ponytail holders underneath, then the goggles on top. During my workouts my cap slides up so my hair starts falling out of the bottom and then gets in the way. Plus it's uncomfortable and starts pulling on my goggles. My hair really isn't that long--not even to my shoulders. And it's not majorly thick, either--a little, but not very thick. (OK, no big head jokes :D )
I have to constantly pull it down during my workout which wastes time and does no good anyway. Short of getting out to redo it all, how can I get the cap to stay on so everything stays where it is supposed to? Should I put it on wet head, pull my hair up differently, try another brand, any ideas? Please help!
Former Member
Also - the first thing I do in the pool is press on the top of the cap to get rid of the air bubble inside.
Rinse off all hair products before you swim....face cream can make cap slippery around edges too. Pull cap down on your forhead and well over ears too. High ponytails work best for me. Split straps mold to head better than a single strap.
Yours is a common problem, look around the pool you will see others doing the same pulling and tugging after each other lap. The silicon caps are somewhat small otherwise they would come right off. There smooth on the inside and have no edge or seal to hold them in place, You can try a silicon "swim band" under your cap or over it overlapping the two to form one cap. Theres a long hair cap from Speedo which has a bit more room. Or you can try a retro bubble strap cap that comes in head sizes and lots of colors in the regular size these work very well and are the easiest caps to put on and take off. Any of these ideas may solve your problem. But trying different silicon caps probably will not. Theres only a couple places on earth that actually make them and dozens that sell (market) them with their name, the difference in size is not much.
See
www.geocities.com/.../swimband.html for ideas on the home made swimband
Guys wear caps too, and sometimes face the same issues ladies do. I've been wearing caps for years. I have short hair now, but I started wearing caps when I had long hair for a couple of years.
When it was long, I would always pull it back into a ponytail, and then wet it thoroughly in the shower before going out to the pool. I would twist the ponytail so that it all was going in the same direction (and it all got a little shorter from the twisting), bend forward in the shower so that the ponytail layed over the top of my head and then put the cap on. (Didn't matter if latex or silicone, but latex was a bit easier to work with.) It's easier to manage if the cap is also wet when you put it on. When I'd stand up, I would have a ponytail ridge along the top of my head. (Think Worf if you are a Star Treck fan. Hey, we aren't in a beauty contest when we're swimming, OK? Swimming beauty is in our stroke, not our cap!) Working it this way, I never had a problem with the cap moving much (if at all) when I swam with long hair.
I've long since moved beyond my long-hair days. I actually sport a buzz cut now, but I still wear a cap. Once I got used to the feel of a cap in my hippie days, I couldn't go back. I think the major reason I still wear a cap is that it holds my ears back. I don't have big ears, but I still don't like the feel of water behind my ears (and, if I'm going particularly hard, I don't like the feel of my ears bending down from the force of the water.) So I wear a cap, no matter how short my hair is.
I find that some caps are better than others. I'm not big on spending a lot for caps, but I find the varions "grab bag" offers from catalogs get me cost-effective caps. Keifer has the cheapest that I have ever found. But I find them a little sloppier that others, and they tend to split quicker. I tend to get latex caps at "The Finals" grab bag price.
Once I got a great deal on Silicone caps from some catalog (can't find where it was from now...) They were "misprints", and they were only $2.50 each. Silicone caps! They last as long as any other silicone cap, but they just have some misprint from some high school's team logo. I really don't care what's on my cap. Wish I had bought more.
I have this same problem. The Speedo Long Hair cap solved it until the darn thing ripped a while back. I've been making do with the regular one but my hair is getting longer and this cap thing won't last much longer.
All these tips are great. But for a sure fire thing...get a long hair cap. My hair right now isn't that long..just touches my shoulders and is of medium thickness and the long hair cap works great. I'll be ordering myself another one this week.
