St. Patrick's Day Hair in the Summer

I just got some interesting news. I don't know why I didn't know this before, and it makes complete sense like I should have figured this out on my own or something, but ahh well.

I have to be so careful with my hair in the summer. I bleach my hair blonde. I've been doing it so long that no one can even remember my real hair color - except hubby from that one time when I tried to dye my hair red and it didn't work but that is a whole other story.

Aside from bleaching/dying it, it goes through the wringer everyday. The wringer being "blow dryer and curling iron." Although, in the summer, these don't get done near as much.

I'll never forget the first summer my hair turned green from the chlorine in the pool. I thought maybe it was just a reflection from the walls in the bathroom when I discovered it. I was wrong. It was BAD. I went into extreme panic mode and yelled for hubby. I spent the next day with it up under a baseball hat frantically scouring Walgreens to find something to help and praying it wasn't going to cost and arm and a leg and half my hair.

I actually found a good shampoo. The unfortunate part is that it is a seasonal product and therefore, once it was no longer summer, they didn't carry it. So I had thrown out the bottle without remembering the name. In subsequent years, I have used a kid's shampoo by L'Oreal called Swim and Sport Shampoo - but the orange smell is really not my kind of thing and I don't think it lathers well. And honestly, I am not a 100% sure as to how well it works because after that first year, I avoid getting my hair wet so much in the pool if at all possible.

But I met up with a lady who does hair. She offered two suggestions. Cleansing Cream Shampoo by Redkin. The other was to GET MY HAIR WET WITH TAP WATER BEFORE I GET IN THE POOL. Giant DUH for me. This makes so much sense. She explained that by getting your hair wet first, the hairs have already absorbed water so they don't absorb the chlorine water!

So with all the pool sessions and swimming I do, this is my new plan of attack - so I don't look like a leprechaun or witch in the middle of summer!