Caring For Hair Extensions In The Sea And The Pool

The question I get asked most often before fitting hair extensions here is a simple one. Can I still swim?

Yes. Of course you can. You live in Riviera del Sol, not a monastery. But salt water and chlorine are genuinely hard on extension hair, harder than they are on your own, and the difference between extensions that last a full season and extensions that go dry and matted in six weeks is entirely down to routine.

Here is the routine.

Why extension hair suffers more

Your own hair is fed by your scalp. It produces natural oil that travels down the strand and protects it.

Extension hair has no such supply. Once it is dry or damaged, it does not recover on its own. Salt draws moisture out, chlorine strips it and reacts with any product left in the hair, and UV degrades the protein and shifts the tone. All three of those hit the ends hardest, which is exactly where extensions live.

Before you swim

This is the single most important step and it takes thirty seconds.

Wet your hair with fresh water first. Hair absorbs water like a sponge. If it is already full of clean water, it cannot take on much salt or chlorine. Dry hair going into a pool soaks up the chlorinated water directly.

Then:

• Work a leave in conditioner or a light oil through the mid lengths and ends. Not near the bonds or tapes
• Tie the hair back in a loose plait or a low bun. Loose hair swirling in water is how tangles start
• If you are in the sun for hours, a hat is your friend

After you swim

• Rinse thoroughly with fresh water as soon as you can, before it dries
• Shampoo with a sulphate free shampoo if you have been in chlorine
• Condition the lengths and ends generously
• Detangle gently with a proper extension brush, starting at the ends and working up, holding the roots to take tension off the attachments
• Let it dry as much as possible naturally, then finish on a cool setting if you need to

Never leave it to dry knotted and salty. That is how the matting at the nape starts, and once it is there it takes a long appointment to fix.

Things that quietly ruin extensions

• Going to bed with wet hair
• Sleeping with it loose. Plait it
• Heavy oils or masks near the tapes or beads, which loosen the attachment
• Brushing from the roots down
• Stretching a refit out by an extra month because you are busy
• Cheap brushes with plastic balls on the bristles, which catch on the bonds

Chlorine and blonde extensions

If your extensions are blonde and you swim in a heavily chlorinated pool, you may see a green cast. That is copper in the water oxidising, not the chlorine itself.

Do not panic and do not reach for a home remedy. Come in and let me use a proper chelating treatment. It lifts the mineral out without stripping your tone.

Refits keep them alive

Nano beads want moving every eight to twelve weeks, tapes every six to eight. Coming in on time is not just about how they look. It protects your own hair underneath, and it is when I check the condition of the extension hair and tell you whether it has another fitting in it.

Well cared for hair, refitted on schedule, will often go through several fittings. Neglected hair will not make it to the first one.

Any questions, just ask

If you have extensions from me and you are unsure about anything, or you are in Riviera del Sol, La Cala or Mijas Costa and thinking about having them fitted before your next trip away, come and talk to me.

I would far rather spend ten minutes showing you how to brush them properly than an hour later trying to rescue them.