Hair Highlights and Chlorine - Ladies?

I do the same - wet the hair, a little conditioner.  Not too much or the cap pops off.

Maintaining the look appropriate for my "inner redhead" is tricky, as it tends to fade in sun and chlorine, but after a few years I've got it down. 

My stylist/colorist actually recommended that I STOP getting highlights because the chlorine just took the color right out. Which is nice of her, since it's money out of her pocket.

I have really dark brown hair, so she has to first bleach the pieces of hair that are going to be highlighted, then adds back in a couple of colors to the bleached hair. The color always fades leaving me with unnatural-looking, really blonde streaks. The hair bleaching plus the chlorine really damages my hair badly(which is already really dry because it's naturally curly), regardless of putting conditioner in my hair before getting in the pool. Maybe I'm worse off because of the naturally curly aspect.

pinktrigal - 2007-10-04 1:32 PM

Aikidoman - 2007-10-04 1:03 PM This is a repeat - but I'm using it as a way to vent.... My fiance has requested/required me to get my hair highlighted for the wedding. I was banking on the excuse that "my hair will turn green due to all the swimming I do - sorry honey, otherwise I would love to do it......" She drug me into the salon, they told me that it is not a problem if I wet my hair before going into the pool. I was told that hair is like sponge, so if you get it wet first with clean water, it is already saturated so it can't soak up the chlorine and ruin the color. So now I'm $130 poorer - but have a nice hair cut and color that will grow out in two months.... sigh......

Hmmmm, quick observation, if she is calling the shots about YOUR hair before the wedding, I think you have a bigger problem than just the highlights!

In other words, are you saying that the "Potential Future Control-Freak/Nagging B!tch!" sign is blinking?

Artemis - 2007-10-04 11:49 AM My blond and light brown highlights have always been fine in the pool. The red ones seem to fade a lot more quickly. If anyone has advice on keeping red in your hair, I'd love to hear it.

Right now I'm using Aveda's color|conserve shampoo and conditioner most of the time.   There are a couple of others that have worked for me as well.  Regular shampoos strip the red out faster. 

I color my own hair, alternating between a couple of different red to red-brown shades so that i'm not just piling more red on top of faded red for the Ronald McDonald effect.  As long as I don't go too long in between, it looks pretty good.

Oh, and I don't swim as often as I should.