Womze - Cross Cultural Parenting

My daughter had swim lessons all through last winter and I promised myself that I wouldn’t punish myself like that again i.e. dragging us out of bed early on Saturday mornings to brave the ice and snow.  But as winter approaches, I find myself reconsidering my position.  While that process goes on, I thought I would share a few tips on how I take care of my daughter’s afro hair while she goes swimming.  I have to confess that seeing the other kids with straight hair in the water leaves me with a little straight-hair-envy, however, natural kinky afro hair does just fine with a few precautions.

 

Unless the hair is already short and in a shrunken state, don’t let your daughter jump into the water with unrestrained hair.  It’s going to shrink up, may look unattractive and worse yet, may get badly tangled.  Plait, braid, cornrow or hold with hairbands and plait the ends.  For my daughter, cornrows work best especially when she’s swimming on a week night.  After swimming, her hair is still good to go to school the following day.  On occasions where I had her hair secured in bands with the ends plaited, her hair still looked good to go the following day, but when I take out the bands days later, I would notice excessive dryness around the bands. 

 

If there is one rule that must always be adhered to, this is it.  No matter the state of the hair, unrestrained, cornrowed, braided etc, as soon as she’s of the water, I slather conditioner all over her hair and send her into the shower.  Depending on your normal hair routine, you may want to use shampoo.  I have even heard about special anti-chlorine shampoos but do not know much about them.  I only co-wash my daughter’s hair (co-wash means washing with a conditioner only) and so far, have found that to be adequate.  The good thing about washing while the hair is restrained is that there is no combing or detangling necessary.  I skipped this step once because we were really in a hurry and I decided we would wash her hair at home.  By the time I got around to it, her hair stank of chlorine.  I am not worried that my daugher’s hair will turn green (from black), but afro hair is already prone to dryness and you want to avoid drying it out even more.

Hair is less likely to absorb the chlorine water from the pool if it is already wet.  So it is a good idea to run through the shower before leaping into the pool.  But because we often arrive at swim class with no time to spare, this shower is a luxury.  Instead, I pour some conditioner into my hands and massage into the hair.  Better still, I now plan to keep a spray bottle of diluted conditioner (some conditioner added to distilled water) in her swim bag for a pre-swim spritz.

 

Before stepping back out into a cold winter day, make sure the hair is dry.  But again, be careful that you are not over-drying the hair.  Also remember, use a warm (not hot) setting, hold it at least 6 inches away from the hair and move it around.  I also add some moisturizer oil like olive cream or shea butter before drying.  And make sure you have packed a nice, warm hat to cover the head before stepping out.  On warm, summer days, you can obviously skip this step and allow the hair to air-dry.

 

This is something I’m considering getting but I do not know if my daughter will want to wear it or if it will make a difference.  But I do imagine that keeping your hair covered will keep out some of the chlorine water, so it is definitely worth a try.