How to Protect Your Skin and Hair From Chlorine (Without Giving Up the Pool)

Of all the questions I get from customers, and I get a lot of them, the swimming question might be the most common. It usually sounds something like this: "I swim three mornings a week and my skin has never been drier. Am I undoing everything your products are doing?"

The short answer is: a little, yes. But not in a way that can't be managed. And definitely not in a way that means you should stop.

Swimming is one of the best things anyone over 50 can do for their body. Low impact. Easy on the joints. Good for the heart, the lungs, the mood, the sleep. The people who write to me about their pool routine are some of the healthiest, most active customers we have. They're not giving up the pool, and I'm not going to ask them to.

But the pool is doing something specific to their skin and hair that most of them have noticed and none of them have been told how to manage. The tightness afterward. The flaking on the shins by winter. The hair that feels like straw by Thursday. The moisturizer that doesn't seem to last as long as it used to.

None of that is in your head. It's in your barrier. And the good news is that most of it is preventable with a routine that takes about 90 seconds before and after you swim.

What the Pool Is Actually Doing

Not a chemistry lesson. Just what's happening at the surface of your skin while you swim your laps.

Chlorine is in the pool to kill bacteria. That's its job, and it does it well. The water is safe because the chlorine is working. The problem is that chlorine doesn't know when to stop. The same action that kills bacteria in the water also strips the thin layer of natural oil that sits on the surface of your skin.

That oil layer isn't cosmetic. It's functional. It holds moisture in, keeps irritants out, and maintains the slightly acidic environment your skin needs to stay balanced. Every blog we've written about the barrier has been about protecting this layer. Chlorine dissolves it.

Pool water also runs at a pH around 7.2 to 7.8. Your skin sits naturally around 4.5 to 5.5. That gap matters. Every swim pushes your skin's pH toward the pool's, which loosens the bonds holding your outer skin layer together. The cells that should be stacked tight and sealed like bricks in a wall start to separate slightly. Moisture escapes through the gaps. Irritants get in more easily.

The result is what every swimmer knows but nobody explains: the tightness, the dryness, the itch. Your skin isn't just wet and wrinkly when you get out. Its protective layer has been partially dissolved, and until it rebuilds (which takes hours, sometimes longer for skin that's already depleted with age), your skin is losing moisture faster than normal and more open to irritation than it should be.

Anyone who swims three times a week is stripping and rebuilding their barrier on a repeating cycle. For skin that's already running low on the ceramides and lipids that make up that barrier, the cycle can keep the barrier permanently under-recovered. You're rebuilding, but the pool keeps knocking it back down before the rebuild is done. That's why your moisturizer doesn't seem to work as well anymore. It's not the moisturizer. It's the pool undoing it faster than the product can keep up.

What the Pool Does to Your Hair

Same chemistry. Different surface. Same pattern of stripping what was there to protect it.

Chlorine roughens the cuticle, the overlapping outer layer of each strand that keeps it smooth, shiny, and able to hold onto moisture. When the cuticle gets lifted and roughened by chlorine, the strand dries out faster, tangles more easily, and loses the smooth feel it had before you got in the water.

For anyone who colors their hair: chlorine accelerates color fading. The cuticle was already opened by the coloring process. The pool opens it further. The dye molecules escape faster. That salon appointment scheduled for every six weeks might only last four.

For gray hair: the effect is amplified because gray hair is already more porous. It absorbs more of the chlorinated water, loses more moisture afterward, and dries out faster. The coarse, straw-like feeling that gray hair can already have gets worse with regular pool exposure.

And the green tint that light or gray hair sometimes picks up from swimming? That's not chlorine. It's copper. Chlorine dissolves trace copper from the pool's pipes and equipment. The dissolved copper deposits onto the hair strand, especially porous hair that absorbs everything. A clarifying shampoo or a rinse with diluted apple cider vinegar (the slight acidity helps lift mineral deposits) handles it.

The 90-Second Routine That Fixes Most of This

Here's the part the swimmers in our audience actually need. Not a product pitch. A sequence of simple actions based on the biology we just covered. Before and after. 90 seconds total.

Before you get in (30 seconds)

Rinse your entire body and hair with fresh water. This is the single most effective thing you can do and it costs nothing. Skin and hair that are already saturated with clean water absorb significantly less chlorinated water. Think of a kitchen sponge. A dry sponge soaks up whatever it touches instantly. A sponge that's already wet doesn't have room for much more. Your skin and hair work the same way. A quick rinse at the pool shower before you get in makes a measurable difference in how much chlorine your skin absorbs.

If you have an extra 15 seconds: apply a thin layer of moisturizer or body oil to your skin. This creates a partial barrier between you and the pool water. It doesn't block chlorine completely, but it slows the stripping noticeably. Some swimmers apply a light layer of Face Lotion to their face before getting in. It's not waterproof. But it buys your barrier some time.

For hair: saturate with clean water first (same sponge principle), then apply a small amount of conditioner or a drop of oil to the lengths. A swim cap over wet, conditioned hair provides the most complete protection. Even without a cap, the pre-soak and conditioner reduce chlorine absorption meaningfully.

After you get out (60 seconds)

Rinse with fresh water immediately. Not eventually. Not when you get home. Before you leave the pool area. The longer chlorinated water sits on your skin and in your hair, the more stripping it does. A quick shower at the pool, fresh water only, removes the chlorine before it finishes the job.

Use a gentle cleanser, not soap. Bar soap is alkaline, which adds a second pH disruption on top of the one the pool already caused. A gentle, pH-balanced cleanser on your face and body removes chlorine residue without compounding the damage. Think of it as clearing the chlorine off without stripping anything else.

Moisturize while your skin is still damp. This is the step most swimmers skip, and it's the one that makes the biggest difference in how your skin feels for the rest of the day. Don't towel-dry completely and then moisturize later. Apply your moisturizer while there's still a thin layer of water on your skin. The moisturizer seals that water in before it evaporates. Your barrier just got stripped. The ceramides and humectants in your moisturizer are the raw materials it needs to rebuild. Deliver them while the skin is primed to receive them.

For hair: rinse thoroughly with fresh water, condition normally on the mid-lengths and ends. The cuticle just got roughened. Conditioner smooths it back down. For swimmers with very dry or gray hair, a leave-in conditioner or a drop of oil on damp ends after the pool adds an extra layer of protection between swims.

Salt Water: Similar Feeling, Different Mechanism

The ocean dries your skin too, but through a different process.

Salt water doesn't strip lipids the way chlorine does. It draws water out of your skin cells through osmosis: the salt concentration in ocean water is higher than inside your cells, so moisture moves out toward the salt. The result feels similar (tight, dry, parched skin) but the barrier itself isn't being chemically stripped the way it is in a chlorinated pool.

Salt water also leaves mineral deposits on the surface that can be drying if left to sit. Sand creates friction that thinner skin after 50 doesn't absorb as easily as it used to. And beach days usually come with prolonged UV exposure on skin that may not have been reapplied with sunscreen as often as it should have been.

The aftercare is the same: rinse with fresh water, cleanse gently, moisturize while damp. Salt water is generally kinder to the barrier than chlorine because it's not chemically stripping lipids, but the dehydration is real and the sun exposure that usually accompanies it is a bigger concern for your skin than the salt.

The Pool Isn't the Problem

I want to be clear about proportions here, because this blog could easily be read as "swimming is bad for your skin" and that's not the message.

Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise available to anyone over 50. The cardiovascular benefits, the joint protection, the muscle maintenance, the mental health boost, the sleep improvement. These are significant, well-documented, and far more important for your overall wellbeing than the temporary barrier disruption from chlorine.

The skin effects of regular swimming are real. They're also manageable. A 30-second pre-swim rinse, a 60-second post-swim wash and moisturize, and your barrier recovers fully between sessions instead of staying perpetually stripped. That's 90 seconds of care in exchange for 45 minutes of the best exercise you can do. The math isn't close.

The pool isn't the problem. The missing aftercare is.

Swim. Rinse. Rebuild.

The tightness your skin feels after the pool isn't something you have to accept as the price of swimming. It's something you can prevent with a fresh-water rinse before you get in and manage with a gentle cleanse and a moisturizer applied to damp skin before you've finished toweling off.

The pool strips the barrier. You rebuild it. The same principle behind every blog on this site, applied to a different 45 minutes of your day.

Your skin doesn't need you to choose between exercise and care. It needs you to do both.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does chlorine damage your skin? Chlorine strips the natural oils and lipids from the skin's surface and shifts the skin's pH, weakening the protective barrier. The result is increased moisture loss, dryness, tightness, and potential irritation. The effects are temporary and manageable with proper pre-swim and post-swim care, but cumulative if unmanaged, especially for skin that's already barrier-compromised after menopause.

How do I protect my skin before swimming? Rinse your entire body with fresh water before entering the pool. Skin that's already saturated absorbs less chlorinated water. For additional protection, apply a thin layer of moisturizer or body oil before getting in. Neither blocks chlorine completely, but both reduce absorption and slow the stripping process.

Why does my hair feel like straw after swimming? Chlorine roughens the hair cuticle and strips natural oils, leaving the strand dry, porous, and prone to tangling. Gray hair is more affected because it's already more porous. Color-treated hair fades faster because the opened cuticle allows dye molecules to escape. Pre-soaking hair with fresh water and applying conditioner to the lengths before swimming reduces chlorine absorption.

Is salt water better or worse for skin than chlorine? Different mechanism, similar result. Salt water dehydrates through osmosis (drawing water out of skin cells) rather than chemically stripping lipids. It's generally less damaging to the barrier than chlorine, but the dehydration is still real. Aftercare is the same: rinse with fresh water, cleanse gently, moisturize while damp.

Do I need a special "swimmer's" shampoo or body wash? Not necessarily. A gentle, pH-balanced cleanser and a good conditioner do the job. Swimmer-specific products often contain vitamin C or other chlorine-neutralizing agents, which can be helpful but aren't essential. The most important steps are the pre-swim rinse (reducing absorption) and the immediate post-swim rinse (removing chlorine before it sits). What you wash with matters less than how quickly you wash.

Can I swim if I have sensitive or eczema-prone skin? In most cases, yes. A 2023 review in Pediatric Dermatology found that swimming isn't off-limits for eczema-prone skin, and some patients actually benefit from chlorine's antimicrobial effect on bacteria that worsen eczema. The key is aftercare: rinse immediately, cleanse gently, and apply a barrier-repairing moisturizer while skin is still damp. Delaying swimming during active severe flares is reasonable. Discuss your specific situation with your dermatologist.

Sources

O'Connor, C., McCarthy, S., & Murphy, M. "Pooling the evidence: A review of swimming and atopic dermatitis." Pediatric Dermatology. 2023. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pde.15325

Seki, T., et al. "Free residual chlorine in bathing water reduces the water-holding capacity of the stratum corneum in atopic skin." Journal of Dermatology. 2003. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12692355/

Cosmetics & Toiletries. "4 Damaging Effects of Pool Disinfectants in Hair and Skin: A Review." 2024. https://www.cosmeticsandtoiletries.com/research/literature-data/article/22924554/4-damaging-effects-of-pool-disinfectants-in-hair-and-skin-a-review-plus-3-product-opportunities

Open Access Research Journal of Biology and Pharmacy. "Chronic effects of swimming pool disinfectants on skin." 2024. https://oarjbp.com/sites/default/files/OARJBP-2024-0036.pdf