How do you protect your child's hair from chlorine this summer?

This is the first summer I have really learned a lot about caring for natural hair. We use natural products (no cones) in our hair and swimming lessons and the pool will be coming up soon. In fact my kids are in the pool nearly everyday during the summer because its a good and cheap source of entertainment for them. in the past I have to admit, I was terrible and did absolutely nothing to protect my kids hair. I barely rinsed out their hair and left it until "hair day". Now I usually leave Totally Twisted or Hello Hydration in my daughter's hair because it is the only way to de-tangle it. Her hair is mainly styled in two-strand twist. I just have no idea what to do about all of the chlorine. I cannot wash de-tangle, re-twist hair daily all summer. My daughter's hair is thick and it takes me about four hours to twist her whole head. I have to do it over two days because she is six and after three hours of washing, conditoning, de-tangeling, etc. she has had it and so have I for that matter! I have tried buying swim caps, but I can not find one to fit on her head with all of her hair. We had a hard enough time finding winter hats to fit over the puffs and pigtails. Any suggestions as to how to protect her hair during swim season?

Thanks so much!

Check out this thread curlychick http://www.curlynikki.forumotion.com/general-f3/swimming-and-natural-hair-t479.htm?highlight=swimming. I now follow this for myself and my daughter when we go to her mommy and me swim class.

Thank you sooooooo much Bklynmamam1. That link is perfect, who knew? Just wet your hair before getting in the pool, fantastic!

I know, who knew? In my mind I rationalized it as: if your hair is already soaking wet, it can't absorb any more water and therefore won't absorb much chlorinated water!

My daughters (5 and 7) stay in the pool all summer. They start there swimming lessons this Saturday. I recently purchased Aubrey Organics swimmers shampoo and conditioner. I haven't tried it yet. Last year I would just let them rinse their hair out in the shower while still braided (usually in box braids) and then apply conditioner and rinse again. Since they were going to the pool every other day. I did not see any breakage but their hair was dry.
Here is my game plan for them this summer. I am going to wet their hair before they get in the pool and apply a leave-in conditioner. I will rinse it out when they get out of the pool and apply my castor oil once we get home. On wash days I will apply AO swimmers conditioner for 15 mins, rinse then wash with AO shampoo. Deep condition, apply leave-in, style (braids or flat twist). Also keep the hair well moisturized during the week.
I will see how this works, hopefully we avoid the tangles and itchy scalp.

Thanks Curlz of Luv! I didn't know there was such a thing as swimmers shampoo. I'm going to check into those! Yes, I'm going to do the wet the hair thing before the pool too. What leave-in conditioners and do you like? I usually just leave in HE Totally Twisted or HEHH. I have not done much deep conditioning, since the whole hair process takes awhile. What do you deep condition with? I saw someone on youtube put olive oil and jojoba oil, I think, in a spray bottle! I thought that was a relly good idea to get the oils through the hair. Thought i would pass that tip along as well.

Thanks for the swimmer shampoo tips!

Glad I could help in anyway. I am going to use the swimmers shampoo this weekend on my girls and report back my thoughts on it.
For leave-in' s I alternate between Garnier Fructis Sleek &Shine Leave-in and Giovanni Direct Leave-in. They both work well to me. I don't use much on my girls hair because it is so concentrated.
For deep conditioners I love ORS replenishing conditioner. I usually heat some evoo in microwave til warm then add honey and ORS. I also like AOHSR if I use this I may or may not add evoo but honey.

HTH

Uuuh, ORS? and AOHSR? Sorry, still a newbie! Is AO Aubry organics? Can't figure out the ORS. LOL

Oh don't worry I am still trying to figure out alot of what I read on the blogs.

ORS..Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Replenishing Pak, you can get them for $1.29 a package or about $5.00 for a 12.25 ounce bottle in Walmart.

AOHSR...Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose, it comes in shampoo and a conditioner. I have only used the conditioner which is wonderful. It is ridiculously thick. I got in a natural food store in my area it was about $10. Same goes for the swimmers shampoo and conditioner they were about $10 each.

To avoid wasting product since some of these are kinda pricey the things I do is either wet my girls hair really good, diltute the shampoo in a bowl with little water then apply to their hair. It seems I waste less for some reason. Also I give them a towel to cover their face and have them sit up in a chair. It is difficult for me to apply product while they are leaned over the sink or in the shower. I also part the hair in 4 to 6 sections to make sure I applied the product throughout their hair.

Check out the Sistah Chick on you tube she has some really good videos on her daughters hair. She also has a ning network where mom's of natural kids share information. Here is the link..http://ournaturalkids.ning.com/

Thank you for decoding the abbreviations for me! LOL I will check out Sistah Chick. I was looking for some videos on children's hair but didn't find much.

Thanks again and happy swimming!

I tried the AO swimmers shampoo and conditioner, and it worked very well. I used the conditioner first as a pre-poo. I left it on their hair for abt 15 minutes while I detangled and put in 6 twisted sections ....it made it very easy. I then put the shampoo directly on their scalp (I put the shampoo in a squeeze bottle so I could control the amount used better while the conditioner was still on their hair. I then wet the hair and lathered. I added some more shampoo to their hair. I lathered each section. Then thoroughly rinsed several times.....I then used Curly Q's conditioner and left that on for 5 minutes and rinsed again. I then styled, their scalps were very clean and the hair was well moisturized.

Curz of Luv, thanks for the update on the swimmer's shampoo. I have not been able to find it in my area so I will have to buy it on line somewhere. Thanks again for the tip!!!!