Poolside notes

An after swim routine in three steps

Everything on this site folds into three steps, and the order is the point. Chlorine comes off first, moisture goes back second, skin gets sealed third. Swap the order and each step undoes the one before it.

Step one: rinse it out

Swim shampoo, within ten or fifteen minutes of leaving the water if you can. It lifts chlorine, copper and the film hard water leaves. Massage it in at the roots where the cap pressed, and give the shampoo the full minute a pool session has earned.

Step two: put moisture back

Conditioner, every time, not just wash days. Anything that lifts metals out of hair borrows moisture doing it, and skipping this step is how swimmers end up with clean hair that snaps. Let it sit while you do step three from the neck down.

Step three: seal the skin

Body wash in the shower, lotion straight after the towel while skin is still damp. Damp skin takes lotion in; bone dry skin just wears it. By the car park the tight feeling is gone and so is the smell.

The honest version

On a rushed morning: shampoo, conditioner, out. Keep the lotion in the swim bag and put it on at the lockers. Two minutes of the routine beats none of it, and the sets on this site exist because the three bottles get used together or not at all.