Poolside notes

Why hair turns green after the pool

Blame the copper. Pool water carries traces of it, mostly from algaecides and old pipes, and copper is what tints light hair green: the same chemistry that stains a kettle or turns a bronze statue that famous shade. Chlorine only helps the copper oxidise and stick.

Who gets it worst

Blond, bleached, gray and fine hair, in that order. Porous hair drinks pool water deepest, which is why the tint shows up strongest the week after a fresh bleach. Dark hair picks up the same deposits; you just cannot see them, though you can feel the straw texture they leave.

The same day fix

The deposits settle in over hours, so timing matters more than technique. Rinse at the pool while hair is still dripping, then use a swim shampoo in the shower at home. Formulas like ours carry chelating agents, small molecules built to grab metals, and they take the copper with them down the drain before it bonds properly.

When hair is already green

It works out, not in one wash but over several. A chelating shampoo every wash day, conditioner after every single one: anything strong enough to lift metals will borrow some moisture on the way out, and the conditioner is what pays it back.

Keeping it from coming back

Wet your hair at the poolside shower before you swim. Hair that has already soaked up fresh water has less room for the pool kind. A silicone cap on top of that and the copper barely gets a look in.