I'm 100% smooth-domed bald. I wear a cap in the pool because swim caps drive me crazy. I know I'll have to wear one during races, so I do it to build tolerance.

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I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain

The cap holds my goggle straps in place. Otherwise the straps slide to the bottom of my head and put uneven pressure on the goggles.

Not sure how you’re defining long or short hair but I wear a a cap as the chlorine makes hair very dry.

I'm 100% bald and Wear my cap partly as it keeps my goggles in place but mainly because I always have. It was a rule to wear one with my club from the age if about 5. Swimming without one feels weird.

i started wearing a swim cap to get used to them in races, now when i swim without one it feels like my goggles are slipping down my head

some pools insist that swim caps are worn whether short or long hair ?

I’m wit you. Getting to and from the pool is complicated enough. Not messing with a swim cap has helped simplify the process.

I swim with one during Race Weeks.

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In pool training, I wear it to keep me warm. I run really cold in the pool. I don't know if it does keep me warmer, but someone suggested it once and now I have convinced myself it does.

In racing, I wear two. Cap...goggles...cap. First cap gives the goggles something to grip. Second cap keeps them in place if I get bumped.

Just because your hair is short, doesn't mean I want it in my mouth when I swim. It should be mandatory at all pools.

Pink? Or do you also struggle with chewing gum and walking?

Indoor or outdoor pool? During the week I swim in an outdoor pool and wear a cap. If I didn't my skull would be burned to a crisp; not a good feeling. On the weekends I swim in an indoor pool and don't wear a cap. I have a completely shaved head BTW.

Trav

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"As for "xxxxxx"...what can I say? You sound like a dick. If you don't want to answer the question, just shut up." AllezPappa

A lot of pools require them - most every one I go to does. If you have hair, wear one. I don't want to accidentally suck down your loose hairs. For the totally bic'd baldies...well, not sure what to tell you. Pretend like you have hair and rock it anyway?

A lot of pools require them
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I've swam in literally hundreds of pools, all in the US, across several different states. I've never encountered a pool that had a mandatory swim cap requirement.

I've also never gotten a mouth full of hair while swimming, which makes this a baffling argument. TBH- hair in a public pool is the least of my concerns. YMMV

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
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I've only been to one that it was mandatory at. I've also never gotten a mouth full of hair. I have however gotten some strands across my face, pretty rare event though. I figure it's good practice for when swimming in open water and you get random seaweed and other floaty stuff in your face - less likely to freak out that way. :)

Maybe the same reason that people still go full kit when they are putzing around at 14 mph on their bikes

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I swim at Equinox in NYC. They require them. I've also swum at JCC Manhattan, they also require them. I've seen lifeguards kick bald men out of the pool (and also others with hair) if they don't have a cap.

keep my tempo trainer in place...

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___________________________________________
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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

I have swam through hair plenty of times... never had it go into my mouth

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

As an age group swimmer I wore one only at meets.


As a masters swimmer when i kept my hair really short I didn't bother wearing a cap. Now that i've let it grow longer if I don't wear a cap its long enough to go over my goggles which I find annoying.

...that you know of...

;-)

I always wear it because if feels weird to go without. Just what I'm used to at this point. Plus it's faster, and you've gotta race with one anyway, and it really isn't a big deal to put it on, so a cap it is...

Besides, Michael Phelps usually trained with a cap, as far as I can tell. If it's good enough for him...

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I have a shaved smooth head. I do not wear a cap in the pool. Before I shaved I found that without a cap I lifted my head and dropped my hips so that’s why I did with short hair. I do wear a cap in open water while training. At least I usually do... but that’s so people can see me.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

The swimmer rocking the race cap, thinking: "PLEASE notice my race cap with my race number on it..."

Another swimmer: "Say, did you do IM XYZ?"

First swimmer: "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did! I did okay, I had a good day, but it was my 'A' race and I didn't quite do what I wanted to do..."

In all honesty, race/college/squad/meet caps are fun to wear, so I get it. I rocked one recently that was from the 2007 Australian Pan-Pacific Swim Championships, and I've worn a Stanford cap, both of which were given to me. I'm quick to add that part!

I'm losing my hair, I keep it very short, and the water in which I swim is pretty warm. But, I am finding that what remains of my hair is getting dry. I'll probably go back to wearing one. Definitely in OWS in water under 79.

My pool requires them as well which is why I have always worn one as a masters swimmer.

When I was in High School I never wore a cap and I wore this crazy drag suit, to supposedly save the "fast feeling" (see also: shaved legs) for meets. But I think the sport has gotten away from that a little bit as the conventional wisdom (from talking to current coaches & swimmers) is that extra drag in practice really doesn't benefit you from a technique or workload perspective.

Also, soaking my hair in chlorine for 20 hrs/week with no barrier completely destroyed it - It was a faded blonde, almost white/bleached color (eyebrows as well) and the consistency was like straw. Now that I have to work for a living I prefer not to look like a 70 year old beach bum. But if I shaved my head I might still go capless.

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Strava

I sometimes use a Tempo Trainer and the cap holds it in place.

I myself struggle with the project management of jobs/kids and packing the bag(s) for 5AM rollout. (I brush my teeth in the car to save time, but I do not chew gum while I do it). :-)

I second the capless lifestyle.

??? You don't have a bag with your swim gear in it?

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I actually found one. I did a drop in visit while working in San Francisco for a day and they required a cap. All my travels and random pool visits, that was the only one.

Swimmers hair is a badge of honor. Any male who was an age group swimmer in the 70s or 80s wouldnt be caught dead in a cap unless it was mandatory.

My exact experience and feeling on the matter.

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I'm mostly bald and do not wear a cap except on the coldest days or if the pool is very cool (for me). There is no requirement to wear one at any of the pools I swim. I do, however, appreciate it when folks with long hair wear one. Although I've never inhaled hair, it seems every other week I will catch a long strand in my hand and it feels both weird and yuck at the same time.

That makes absolutely no sense??

Better make sure no one who hasn’t shaved their arms, legs or pubic hair is allowed in the pool also...better also make sure that everyone has a shower before hoping in the pool to wash away all the sweat, faeces and urine.

Pools are disgusting places but I’d rather some hair from someone’s head in my mouth than the other items I’ve listed that the pool is full of.

You pull it down over your eyebrows?

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You admit pools are disgusting places, yet you won’t take one simple step to be a part of the solution?

It is easy to complain, and damn near easier to do your part to make pools cleaner. Wear a cap, rinse off in the shower before jumping in, etc.

Everyone seems to have time for a 5 hour bike ride, but can’t spare 5 minutes to help with sanitation at their local pool

The Dad allowance for bags is 2 in our house. One is for work and whatever the kids forget, one is for the gym/pool/etc.

I think if I got a bag for swimming there would be a violin in it by the end of the week. :-)

I hear ya. That's why my bags live in the car. Which sucks a bit in winter when you get to the pool and your suit is frozen. :-0

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Exactly-I also don’t want pubic hair in my mouth, or hair from arms and legs, or hair from backs and chests, or urine or poo lol So am I really expect to worry about a few strands of short head hair when you have all this other stuff in the pool?

The point I’m trying to make is if swim caps are mandatory to stop hair then why on earth don’t they make a Pre swim shower also mandatory? Why don’t they make shaved pubes, legs, backs, arms and chests mandatory?

I’d love a policy of pre shower

’d love a policy of pre shower
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I've swam in literally hundreds of pools, all in the US, across several states. ALL of them have had a pre-shower policy (I'm pretty sure it's a law in most states). None of them, however, have had an efficient enforcement system of this policy.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
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Personally I had cold pools, so having the cap on traps some heat from the heat and keeps me mentally warmer.
Also, you'll use them on race day, so might as well train with them.

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Ryan
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I swam in 2 different pools while I was in Italy: both required them. One of the pools I swam with in Germany required them too... This might be an international thing.

I see your point, but I can’t see why you don’t just suck it up and do your part? If you shower and wear a cap that is one less person polluting the pool. Maybe you will inspire others, like Hayley Joel Osmand in that lame “pay it forward” movie.

Err.. no? I was describing the effect the chlorine had on both my hair and eyebrows. They were so white I could have been mistaken for a geriatric.

And my eyebrows don't do that now because I am only in the pool for about 15% of the time that I used to.

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Strava

I see. I was wondering if you only now have geriatric eyebrows. ;-)
I've noticed (it's very evident) that my leg, arm and chest hair has been reduced in length by about 50%. And it's extremely thin and frail. I've never read that prolonged pool exposure is detrimental to health, so I'm hoping that hair is the only susceptible structure.

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I do shower before swims but wearing a swim cap to stop my 1 inch long hair from ‘politing’ the pool is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

All pools I have been to have a pre-swim shower rule, but I have noticed that none enforce it.

Same. In NZ summer I swim outside from December-April, and I'd have melanoma in short order if I didn't wear something. I carry it through to the pool over winter out of habit.

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Then don't wear a damn cap. What did you really think people were going to say here? That there is a correlation between wearing a cap and earning a kona slot? People wear them for a variety of reasons, you may not believe there is a sanitation reason for wearing a cap, and for someone with short hair it is probably a small one. But in my mind there are instances where the gesture means something, and I think this is one that has little negative effect.

I know it sounds strange , but this is actually a topic that really fires me up, I wish pools would grow a pair and enforce rules on showering, caps, etc.

I have really short hair (where I'm not bald) and just like others mention getting strands of hair caught in their hands I had strands of a hair getting caught in my short pointy hair, which I feel is disgusting, wearing a cap takes care of it.

One of the pools I swim in enforces the shower policy. I like to call them the shower police but they also enforce the "no shoes on the pool deck" policy and I'm really happy about that.

Most Pools in Europe requiere them. Everytime my family comes over for a visit they are very surprised that it's not mandatory here. Same for Showers. I remembers pools having a shower on the part from the locker to the pool.

I have super short hair that is, unfortunately, thinning. I don't wear one for indoor swims but when I swim outdoors in the sun (which is often in Texas). It is de facto sunscreen for me. Same reason I wear a beanie under my bike helmet. Otherwise my scalp burns.

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It is the mind itself which builds the body.
-Joseph Pilates

+1

on hair in mouth - in summer I get to swim in the outdoor pool, which is half lap lanes and half general public splashing around. Often run into long hairs tangled around goggle and dangling into nose/mouth, which is quite unpleasant.. seldom happens indoors which is all lap lanes and mostly swimmers with caps..

I've been to a handful that "required" them. Signs everywhere saying to wear them but most people didn't and no one seemed concerned about enforcing that rule. Their logic was to keep long hair from clogging filters. Sounds like BS to me but what do I know?

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Don't drown. Don't crash. Don't walk.

Based on what I can see, nobody showers before jumping in at my local pool. Maybe the the teenagers doing squad, but not the old men drifting up and down the lane beside me.

I go at 5:45am when the water is at least clean from the previous night, and when the only people in the pool are the kind of people who are more likely to wash themselves before heading to the pool. There's very little of that toxic chlorine-nitrogen smell you get later in the day.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Couldn't help thinking about this post when a girl got kicked out of the pool last night after two laps for not having a swim cap. (Equinox in NYC)

Granted, she was doing some odd form of breast stroke in the fast lane, so I didn't feel too bad that she had to leave.

Every pool I went to in S. Korea required them. Even the water park! Why a water park?!!

Wow seems Australia is a bit behind the times! FWIW despite my thoughts that my 1inch long hair should barely be a problem I have started to wear a cap out of general ‘manners’ :)

And now they never will.

http://www.msn.com/...amp;ocid=mailsignout

practice like you race, race like you practice

I wear one when I race and none when I don't. (Can't let this thread die after 61 posts)

Two reasons I wear a swim cap. First, I'm bald and the sun in SoCal can be brutal. Secondly, I use it to hold my ipod while swimming.

So the guys at the pool asked why I’ve been wearing a cap lately and I said it’s to stop my hair getting in peoples mouths. They thought I was sh!t stiring due to the length of it. When I explained I was serious they said what about guys with beards, hairy arms, legs and backs which is all much longer hair than on my head, should they be wrapped in a human sized condom?

I didn’t have a response except ‘but some guy on the internet said...’

They now think I’m crazy....thanks.

How else am I going to brag about my AWA status and all the Ironman races I did without a cap?


I wear one during the winter time when I am freezing. It does help keep me warm. But the pool is usually warmer the rest of the year so I don't have one on. It does irk me when I see people with hair not have one on because I know the hair will eventually end up between my fingers (I can't stand that feeling) or my mouth.

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I wear ear plugs when I swim. If I don't water always gets into my ears and clogs them. The cap keep the plugs in place in my ears.

Buzzed hair and balding here. For me it totally depends on conditions for me. OWS, cap. Cold pool, cap. Warm pool, no cap. Sunny day, cap. I've never heard about pools requiring one though.

What about my armpit hair? Arm hair? Leg Hair? Chest and back hair? I don't shave any of those; what should I cover them with?

You'll eat my hair and like it.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

I think even I agreed that the impact of short haired men on hair in pool is probably minimal, but that wearing a cap is more of a courtesy that shows you are supportive of broader pool cleanliness. Shockingly the conversation devolves into "but what about this person or that person, or that person?!"

There were many good reasons to say you now wear a cap:

promote pool sanitation
keep my goggles steady on my head
practice like i race
i am proud of my AWA status

you brought this on yourself, if it even happened to begin with