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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SmartBikeTrainers.com || YouTube || My Twitter

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