Category: Hair

Girl stuff: Hair care for divers

On a good weekend I do four dives. This isn’t nearly enough, but it goes a little way to getting me sane through the week. The result, however, is that my hair spends a lot of time submerged in salt water. This isn’t healthy.

There are a couple of ways to make this less of an issue, and ensure that my hair stays at least reasonably healthy. I really am the last person you should take grooming advice from, since my idea of a hairstyle is a folded-over ponytail using a hairband I found in the bottom of my gym bag and all the make up I own I got as hand me downs from my mother, but here goes…

Soft hair accessories

Use fabric hairbands instead of elastic ones. Elastics can tear and break the hairs, especially if you put them in and pull them out when your hair is wet.

Wet your hair

Wet hair doesn’t absorb water. Wetting your hair with fresh water before going in the sea prevents it from getting too salty. It also helps with putting your hoodie on – no fly-away strands!

Leave-in conditioners

Philip Kingsley Swimcap
Philip Kingsley Swimcap

My favourite solution is to use a leave-in conditioner designed especially for swimmers, called Swimcap. It’s manufactured by British hair care guru Philip Kingsley, and it used to be available at Woolworths for about R400 a tube. One tube lasts about six months, or longer if you don’t dive so often.

To apply Swimcap, wet your hair in the shower and towel dry it slightly. You can either comb the product through with a wide-toothed comb, or work it through with your fingers. (Your hair will probably look a bit funny after that.)

When I rinse out my hair after a day of diving, it feels soft rather than totally crusty, and an application of Swimcap lasts all day if I don’t shower and rub my hair between dives.

You do need to wash it out of your hair after diving, and then shampoo as per normal – preferably using one of the shampoos below…

Clarifying shampoos

Clarifying Shampoo Three
Clarifying Shampoo Three
GHD Purifying Shampoo
GHD Purifying Shampoo

Use a shampoo that’s specifically designed to remove salt, product build-up and chlorine residue from your hair. These shampoos deep cleanse the hair without stripping it of its natural oils.

My favourites include GHD Purifying Shampoo (which seems to have been discontinued) and Paul Mitchell’s clarifying Shampoo Three. Both of these leave hair feeling squeaky clean but not dry.

You can follow these shampoos with another shampoo for moisture, otherwise conditioning on top of either of these works really well.

Happy hair! Happy diving!

Girl stuff: Hair

Sometimes I wish I was bald. It would make a lot of things much easier, and life would be less expensive. No GHD, no expensive shampoos, no styling products (not that I have the talent or patience to use much of those!), no hair clips or hair bands. I would also be able to provide entertainment to my fellow divers: as Gerard pointed out in Sodwana, Goot’s bald head turns all manner of different hues at depth, like an angry octopus.

Goot demonstrates the joy of baldness
Goot demonstrates the joy of baldness

Fact remains, however, that I have hair, and quite a lot of it.

Why is this an issue? Well, hair gets in the way when you dive. The chief problem is that if a hair – even just one hair – gets between the silicone skirt of your mask, and your skin, your mask will leak. It’s why Tony shaves before a dive, and why girls (or boys) with long hair need to keep it out of the way in the water.

If you’re learning to dive (at least with Tony), you’re going to be taking your mask off – a lot. Putting it back on is going to be a pain in the nether regions if each time you have to push aside waves of free-floating locks. And getting all that hair off your face so your mask can seal is going to be well-nigh impossible.

Fear not – help is at hand.

Hoodies

Diving in Cape Town, I wear a hoodie most of the time. I make sure my hair is wet, or pulled back tightly, before I put the hoodie on, and lift it high over the top of my head before releasing it. Problem solved.

Clare at Long Beach, Simon's Town
Clare at Long Beach, Simon's Town

Swimming caps

In Sodwana, I dived with only one wetsuit, and no hoodie. The water was really warm, and I wanted to feel it. My hair, however, has a life of its own, and after one dive of doing a mermaid impersonation and losing all my hair accessories, I resorted to wearing the nylon swimming cap that I use when I do laps at gym. I am sure the others on the boat wanted to disown me, as it looks TOTALLY ridiculous, but it solved the hair problem and I really enjoyed my dives.

Diving in Sodwana wearing my dorky swimming cap
Diving in Sodwana wearing my dorky swimming cap

Because there are no air holes in the swim cap, I did look like a bit of a cone head. But everybody was very kind about that (at least to my face).

Hair clips and bands

Final solution, which will work if your hair is not too thick, or quite obedient. Clip it back, especially the fringe and any other short bits at the front, or use a hair band like Mariaan’s in the picture below to keep it under control.

Mariaan and her headband
Mariaan and her headband