Cold weather or warm, indoors or outdoors, swimming is a great physical activity to help you stay active while reducing muscle strain and impact on joints. Swimming helps keep you limber too, and can have the same aerobic fitness and weight loss benefits as walking and jogging if you swim regularly.

However, those with light brown and blonde hair, color treated hair, and damaged hair who spend any time in a chlorinated swimming pool, can attest to the fact that chlorine exposure from swimming can indeed cause hair to tint an odd green color. The more time spent swimming, the more intense the green hair chlorine effect will be.

Additionally, for many blondes, both natural and bleached blondes, regular city and well water with higher concentrations of chlorine or nickel can, over time, cause a dulling and green tint effect to the hair.

So let’s look at some simple ways to prevent green hair:

Green Hair Prevention Tip #1

Wear a swim cap when swimming or showering when you don’t need to wash your hair. It may not be the most attractive thing to wear, but if you are swimming for exercise, it actually can make your swimming easier, smoother, and as any professional or competitive swimmer knows, it reduces friction and allows you to swim a bit faster. Another benefit of wearing a swim cap is that if you wear it properly, your hair never actually gets wet, so you don’t have to worry about drying time when getting dressed after swimming.

Green Hair Prevention Tip #2

Wash your hair will tomato juice. I know it sounds yicky, but it will leave your hair soft and shiny, while the light acidic nature of the tomatoes in the juice will gently strip the chlorine and thus the green color from your hair.

Simple work the tomato juice into your hair completely, leave on for about 3-5 minutes, and then rinse it away and shampoo with your normal shampoo and conditioner.

Green Hair Prevention Tip #3

Make a paste of baking soda and water, and after swimming, wash your hair with shampoo first, then apply the baking soda and water paste to the entire length of your hair. Let this paste sit a bit longer than the tomato juice, for about 10-15 minutes, then rinse your hair, shampoo again and condition as normal. You can also add about a ¼ cup of baking soda to your regular shampoo and shake vigorously to mix it.

Green Hair Prevention Tip #4

Applying a paste of baking soda and water to your hair prior to swimming will actually help prevent the green tinting to your hair from ever happening, and then using the tomato juice after swimming will ensure any green tinting that did happen is taken care of completely. These products will not damage your hair in anyway, can be used repeatedly with no ill effects, and will leave your hair shiny and beautiful.

Green Hair Prevention Tip #5

Buy a clarifying shampoo that contains EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid) and wash your hair immediately after swimming. This chemical in the shampoo will remove any chlorine green effects from your hair when used regularly and immediately after swimming.

Green Hair Prevention Tip #6

Lemon juice works well to remove green tint from your hair and brighten hair that’s been dulled by certain chemicals. However, lemon juice can be harsh and drying on your hair if used too often and if not rinsed completely, lemon juice can actually bleach your hair, especially if you spend time in the sun after using it.

If you use lemon juice on your hair, don’t use it more than about once a month, never leave it on longer than 15 minutes, and always shampoo and condition your hair after using it.

Green Hair Prevention Tip #7

Ask your hair stylist or salesperson in your local salon. There are a variety of hair care products on the market that can help with green hair and other hair care problems caused by swimming or using harsh or hard waters to wash your hair. Some of these products are sold over the counter, and others you may have to buy directly from the salon.

If you have a problem with your hair already tinted green, many salons will shampoo and set your hair for a small fee, one local to me will shampoo your hair for only $5.00. If you want to be sure an expensive $45-75.00 plus bottle of shampoo really performs as desired, simply pay for a one time shampoo and see if it helps or improves your hair. If it doesn’t, you have only wasted a few bucks, and if it does, you have a great product you know you can trust.