Waxy hair? Normal for BBB or pool off balance?

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C

Cubist

0
Apr 26, 2013
22
What could cause waxy feeling hair?

My partner and I have both noticed that if we jump in the pool for a mid day swim & don't shower until bedtime, our hair seems very waxy feeling when it dries on it's own. I don't recall this ever being a problem when I've used other pools. We moved into the house on July 15th and I managed to turn my new-to-me pool from a black creepy swamp to a sparking clean pool. Since the pool has cleared up, I haven't needed to do much other than add bleach and adjust the PH (drifts low). The pool had an initial CYA level of 0. I've been raising it some using tri-chlor pucks in a feeder. I'm probably at about 10-20 now.

Water tests seem good. I haven't posted a whole set yet. I will do so tonight. I just keep forgetting to write the results down to post them. Nothing seemed off though.
 
jblizzle said:
What are you maintaining the FC levels at? Could just be a little higher active chlorine due to low CYA ... although still likely less than would be found in an unstabilized public pool.
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I've been keeping my FC level at 2-3 PPM. Could be on the high side with 0 CYA. Maybe it will get better once I have more CYA in the water. I'm not always consistent with testing at the same time of day/ evening, so it fluctuates a bit between 2-3 ppm. since SLAMing was complete, CC has always tested at or very, very close to 0.
 
harleysilo said:
Is waxy the best description you have for it?

Is you pool enclosed like a Florida screen house, or like totally enclosed?
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"Waxy" is the best way I can describe it. It feels like I have used some sort of wax hair product like a pomade or something. It's quite thick & my hair is dull looking after it dries. Once I shower and wash my hair the waxiness is gone & my hair is back to normal.

The pool is completely enclosed, but does get some sun through sliding glass doors & skylights.
 
Isaac-1 said:
This does sound unusual, do you have any history on how this pool was managed?

Ike
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Unfortunately, no. I do not have much information on the pool’s upkeep prior to me owning it. The woman I bought the house from was kind of tough to work with & we never actually spoke to one another. I assume from the several large buckets of tri-chlor pucks left behind, this was what she used. She bought the house in late 2008 & moved out in early 2009. The house was vacant for the most part from 2010 until now. I know she had the pool professionally opened/ closed every season and used the pool when her or her son were at the house doing renovations off and on. I did talk to the couple that lived there before her, but the equipment & plumbing was re-done about 3 years ago & they didn't have much advice on the new stuff. I was pretty surprised when the CYA tested at 0 though. Seeing all of the pucks, I really had planned to do some draining. Can the CYA just be eaten up if the pool gets to algae filled and gross? It was seriously bad before we bought it. Does CYA dissipate from season to season?

I’ve had the pool usable for a month, and it’s been MUCH easier to maintain than I had originally planned for. This hair thing has me confused though.
 
The CYA can infact be broken down, although usually in closed pools/swamps over the winter, this usually presents as high levels of CC when attempting to clear the pool up.
 
Do you have a water softener on the house? My son has very thick hair, about shoulder length and he is not the best in the world at rinsing his hair well when he washes it and has an oily scalp. When he swims in my pool his hair tends to dry kind of clumped together and has a waxy feel to it. Doesn't do this to anyone else in the family. I figure, for him its a combination of natural oils and dried shampoo residue that does this. It washes out easily.

I was wondering if using softened water for bathing would yield the same results.
 
It is fairly common to have bacterial conversion of CYA in swamp like conditions, but is seems to happen at random, so can't be counted on. CYA does also break down over time, but at a very slow rate so we don't tend to talk about it with outdoor pools which may be subject to rain fall, over flowing, etc. as the rate is on the order of maybe 5ppm per year. This is more noticeable with an indoor pool where you may desire to maintain lower CYA levels in the 20 - 30 ppm range. I can't help wonder if this waxy hair condition may be caused by some magic in a bottle pool store product that may have been used on the pool in the past.

Ike
 

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Interesting… I do have a water softner. It sounds like I have hair like your son’s. My hair is very thick, about shoulder length also. My partner is having the same problem with waxy feelin g hair. Her hair is blond & thinner than mine, but she has a naturally oily scalp. Perhaps it’s the water from the tap that’s causing my issue & not my pool. That would be good news.

Now that I’m thinking about it, my daughter doesn’t seem to have the hair problem that we have, or at least it’s not as noticable. We use Johnson’s baby shampoo on her hair still. I’m betting it rinses out easier than typical shampoo. Maybe I can just switch shampoos. You may have just solved my problem Zea3!
 
I'm curious, if you are raising your CYA with pucks and It's at about 10-20 and there was no cya when you started, did you SLAM it with no CYA in it?
I understand It's an indoor pool, but you say it does get some sun through windows and skylights, which could potentially be enough to cause rapid CL loss from UV exposure.
So maintaining CL with no CYA would be extremely difficult, how did you manage?

Also, I'm wondering what your hair would do if you washed it with a clarifying shampoo till squeaky, which many stylists recommend once a month or so, then dried it and got in the pool with no adl. hair product, shampoo or conditioner of any kind. What does it do then?
I ask because I have heard of situations where certain hair + skin types + hair products when mixed with a pool, cause funny hair problems.

Worth a go when you have a stay at home day or something. :)

Ps. I would never even think of getting out of the pool and not washing my hair. So I don't have much 1st hand experience with long term effect of post pool exposed, unwashed hair.
 
If there is truly no or very low CYA in there, then the active chlorine level will be much higher than in a pool with more normal CYA levels. So I'll bet that the chlorine is just reacting with your hair more because it's not moderated in its strength by CYA though that should have more to do with the time you spend in the pool than with it drying outside the pool where the FC alone makes more of a difference. Also, if the pool is exposed to sunlight, you should have a hard time maintaining the chlorine level if the CYA is that low or zero. When you say the pool is "enclosed" does that mean it has no sunlight exposure? Even if that is the case, you do want CYA in the water so go ahead and add some -- even 20 ppm will be very helpful and you can keep your 2-3 ppm FC target.
 
Even with skylights you may have very low UV exposure levels, depending on the material the skylights are made from, for example modern UV blocking polycarbonate skylights block over 95% of UV rays, with glass it tends to vary, but at a minimum your looking at blocking over 80% (assuming tempered borosilicate glass), and may be as much as 99%.

Ike
 
I have very thick and long hair. When my old pool was up and I was in it a lot, my hair would do that (also could get a weird sort of odor when it stayed wet during humid months - kind of like formic acid smell from small ants).

There used to be a cleansing hair product made especially for "pool hair" that you used once a month or so, but they don't make it any more (I can't even remember the company name)

I always assumed it was a "natureal" reaction between the chlorine and the oils on my hair.
 
My wife swims every day and uses Ultra Swim® Chlorine Removal Shampoo (it actually contains some sodium thiosulfate in the ingredients) after every swim. She also uses Paul Mitchell® clarifying Shampoo Three® though only once a week since it is much harsher though good at doing a thorough cleaning of the hair.

Yes, chlorine does oxidize some components of hair. Some of the proteins in hair have amino acid types that react with chlorine (the ones with amine groups and the ones containing sulfur).
 
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