Hair chemicals and pool chemicals don’t mix.  We know this, and we usually choose the hair.  I mean, black hair can be quite an investment.  The chemicals to straighten it.  The chemicals to clean it, condition it, maintain it.  The combs, the styling tools, the pomades, etc., add up.  And now you’re talking about flushing it all down the drain for swimming?  I don’t think so.

But for me, push came to shove and I decided I didn’t care.  I was swimming.  My permed hair tried to hang in there with me a minute, but it got harder and drier and started breaking off.  I let the perm go.  And my hair became a weak, thin, mess.  The ends were still permed while the roots were nappy.  I decided to cover all that mess with plastic hair extensions.

I just went to the beauty supply store and bought a few packages of hair.  It might have cost $10 total, probably much less.  Then I gave myself some twists.  You can find out all about how to do your hair on the internet.  I love the internet!  There are even do it yourself videos on YouTube.  I wore the extensions until my perm had grown all the way out and I had some hair to work with.  Then I moved onto all natural twists and untwists.

During this time, I went to see a hairdresser about how to grow the hair in my household.  I could get my hair to a certain length, then it would start breaking off.  Ditto with my oldest daughter.  My middle daughter actually had a bald spot from ecsema, and my youngest daughter had very thin, fragile hair.

The hairdresser was radical.  She said that dirt grows your hair.  The solution for the little girls was simply to wash it less.  I found that hard to believe, but easy enough to try.  She suggested my older daughter and I get our hair  washed and flat ironed bi-weekly.  It took me a year to take her up on it–for my daughter alone.

I was still swimming, and she respected that.

(to be continued. . .)

Sorry about that!  I said ‘next week,’ when I should have said in two weeks.  Is that a fortnight?  Anyway, I’m currently on a swim every other week schedule, so I shouldn’t have said I’d update my swim workout in a week.

I swam a similar workout this week, but I added 100.  My goal was to swim less elementary back, and more freestyle.  For some reason, my knee was hurting doing the flutter kick, so I increased my breast stroke instead.  Here’s the breakdown:

My goal for next workout:  1400.  I’m closing in on that mile!

Last week was swimming day.  I had started to think I could no longer gain a yard in my workouts, because I only get to the pool once every two weeks.  But I thought it was worth a try, and if I was smart, I’d try to do other workouts in my ‘off-time.’

Here’s the breakdown: