Originally Posted by EquiPro
There are two ways to deal with "green" hair from swimming:
1) Prevention. My daughter, who has fine, white-blonde hair down to her butt swims competitively year round. ALWAYS! Before she gets into that pool, she thoroughly wets her hair with tap water (soaking wet) and then liberally applies a cheap conditioner (we use Dove from Costco). This goes under her cap. This is every single time.
2) If, for some reason she DOES get some green in her hair OR just to keep her hair in good condition, we do an aspirin wash. I saw some people advise aspirin w. lemon juice, but the lemon juice is not necessary.
You do an aspirin wash like this:
Buy the cheapest aspirin you can find...uncoated works best and costs the least. Put about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of aspirin tablets in a large container of water. It will dissolve immediately. Put the dissolved aspirin in the hair and work it in. It will be very gritty and astringent. It is quite messy. Work it in well and leave it for about 5 minutes. Remember that aspirin is an acid, so know that it can irritate your child's skin, especially in sensitive areas. We do it in the shower for this reason.
Now wash it out with shampoo. It is very important to completely wash out the aspirin, and it may take 5 or 6 shampooings and rinsing to get this done. The hair will feel very dry and rough. Condition it well with conditioner and rinse very well.
You will not believe how clean and beautiful your child's hair will be after this treatment. It's simply astounding.
One summer league in which she swam, they had a horrible time keeping the copper out of the pool and her hair was green immediately. I tried every singe shampoo and treatment, including the really expensive shampoos, as well as vinegar, lemon juice, ketchup, etc. Nothing worked as well as the aspirin. Also, using my prevention tip has kept it from ever getting that bad again.
Good luck!