Ugh. Such a poseur

[Magpie]

I need to start exercising, so I went to the pool. My mom swam a lot when she was younger, and I used to do lessons every summer. So when I needed a new swimsuit because I lost weight, I went and got a good one. Heck, it's even brand name. However, with the amount of swimming that I have done since buying the suit (I'm fairly sure that today was the second time I've used it. Ever, in two years) I could have afforded to get a $30 swimsuit somewhere. I just feel like a complete idiot and fake showing up in a brand name swimsuit when I can barely do front crawl, my back crawl is straight-armed, like a little kid, because I honestly completely forgot how to do it properly, and my breast stroke looks stupid.

Oh, and the clasp on the back of my suit attacked my hair. It was apparently designed for more athletic people, with more practical hairstyles. (Although with me, short hair would be less practical and more meaning all the things that long hair traditionally did, because it frizzes). I don't want to go swimming again.

[Kheldarson]

Sounds like you have my hair. My solution with swimming was to braid it before hand. Keeps it neat, keeps it out of my way, and most importantly, it's easier to comb though when I go to wash it later.

Might help if you go swimming again.

[Magpie]

It was braided. The braid was catching the clasp. I took my braid out when I washed it afterwards, and it didn't catch as badly because the ends were loose so they could just pull free. The clasp is in the middle of my back, so if I put my hair up somehow it might help, but I'm not sure what's swimming safe and shortens the hair enough.

[Kheldarson]

Ah. Get a second scrunchie/elastic. Once you braid your hair, wrap the second elastic about where the braid starts a couple of times and then before you do the third/last loop, catch the end of the braid. You end up with a loose bun type thing. As long as you don't do crazy dives, you should be able to keep it up in that.

[Cazzi]

I do similar to Kheldarson, or I pull my hair back into a ponytail, twist it & lay the hair back up my head & fasten with a hair claw. Again, might not be suitable for diving etc, but I hate getting my head under water.

And don't worry about the swimsuit... bet no one else does

[RetailWorkhorse]

*Strips to his shorts and jumps into the pool*

WHEEEE!

*Doggy paddles 'cause that all I can do*

[Aethian]

Why not just wear a swim cap? Those suckers can stretch a LOT, so don't say you have a lot of hair.

As for having straight arms on the backstroke, your supposed to. Freestyle should be "dragging" the finger tips over the surface of the water. Breastroke should be mirror images with your arms and legs, make sure your not scizzor kicking, or your not going to do yourself any help. Why no butterfly?

(/retired national swimmer)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Wow. Synchronicity strikes again.

Not to threadjack, but a couple hours ago I was telling the husband how sticky my hair was due to the humidity and how me and a friend were trying to braid each other's hair once on a river trip and due to the fact that our hair was wet, and it was extremely humid (drizzling), our hair was sticking to each other hands so bad we couldn't do it. I could not even get his hair divided into three parts it was so sticky. It was weird.

But yeah. Do it BEFORE you hit the pool or you might end up with velcro for hair.

If I know I am going to get into that situation again, I put it into a ponytail, and then braid it, then bind the end. I do this when it is dry.

[Magpie]

Well I'll try doubling the braid up. And I had a hard time fitting all my hair into a swim cap when I was 13, I really doubt that it'll be any easier now. The problem wasn't fitting it over the hair, it was keeping the hair in.

If backcrawl never changes how you do the arms, then that would explain why I couldn't remember how to do it. (I remembered what to do with my arms for front crawl). I remembered something about pushing towards my feet, rather than going all the way down into the water. And I would have love to have failed miserably at butterfly, I do want to learn how to do it, but the rec lane was really full, so I didn't want to do something that would start out really fast, and then end up with me dead in the water when I hit myself or otherwise stalled out.

And it's not so much that I feel everyone was noticing, I just feel really stupid, whether or not anyone else notices, with a proper bathing suit, when I could have saved the money and bought at $20 suit and it probably would have lasted long enough to be reasonable.

[Whiskey]

I am a platinum blonde and I can't even go swimming, okay?

/my plight.


Seriously though, whats wrong with a bun? And who cares if its name brand? Who cares if its not? I don't walk like a model, but i'll be god damned if I don't wear my stiletto boots. Excuse me while I go be sassy in another thread too.

edit: oh if you have a frizz problem, try SLS-Free shampoo. Its a bit more expensive (mines like 5-6$ for 12oz), but after a couple months I have basically ZERO frizz and perfect straight hair out of the shower with bleached hair. I used to be a hot mess pre-bleach. This is what I use, but its cheaper at CVS/Walmart/Target. I think its like 5.99 or something. I found it on sale at the grocery store for like 4.50 a bottle. I bought four of each :|

[blas]

Who cares if you can't swim perfect or don't look perfect?

You're getting exercise, you have one up on more than like, half of the country's population.

[KiaKat]

RE: Hair

I could write an entire article about my hair and the problems I have with it. I have a lot of very long, very curly, pain-in-the-butt hair. After washing it, I *must* use product immediately if I want it to be anything other than a frizzy mess. Major conditioning, both in and out of the shower, and various types of shampoo depending on whether; a) my scalp is behaving itself and b) what the weather/temperature/relative humidity/phase of the moon it is. No, I don't think everyone should go to this extreme, but it works for me.

What else works for me? Braiding. Specifically, a French Braid, with the ends tucked in underneath (now *that's* a trick that took some practice) and pinned in place with a clip, eight bobby pins, and a scrunchie. Plus, if I'm in a pool, a bathing cap. Only way I can keep my hair out of my way, out of my face, out of the water, and have to do only minor repair work once I get out.

If I'm in a lake or the ocean, I just pin it up with the aforementioned method and go. I only bother with the cap if there's chlorine involved, because I dye my hair.

Even pinning it up, I still get frizz, flyaways, and general foofiness for a day or two. I just slather more product on than normal and go about my day.

[Magpie]

The issue with the hair is that I'm not really comfortable trying to use pins when I'm swimming. I wanted to shampoo my hair afterwards anyhow, so I didn't need it to stay up. (It gets really greasy if I wet it without washing it, so my swimming schedule is dictated by my hair washing schedule, because I don't want to start washing it too often). I have a real tendency to kill the pins I use (not as much since I found heavy-duty ones), and I'm not sure they'd stay in with the extra weight & drag. I can manage it normally - I either do a French Braid (normally with a bandana over it) or I do two braids and then pin them up over my head (very stereotypically German hairstyle). What's the French Braid with the ends tucked underneath?

I'm only swimming because I'm not meeting minimum exercise requirements. I've even been good and stopped biking to work, and I still don't hit them (I know, if I live that close to work I oughtn't complain). It's just that I have a habit of getting good quality tools for something that I then quit doing. My parents really believed in making sure I had the right tools if I wanted to take something up, because they didn't want me to quit something I liked just because I couldn't do it properly. The problem is I now feel like crap every time I look at my good carving tools, or my lovely pastels, or my good sports equipment, because they spent money on stuff that I wasn't good enough to appreciate the difference in, or that I never really used much. (Anyone want a pair of good in-line skates by the way? They've had a couple of falls, but not a heck of a lot of use). Even though the bathing suit was my own money, it just brings back a lot of bad memories for me when I get the proper stuff when I really have no clue what I'm doing. Like I said, my swimming is bad enough that I'm amazed I didn't injure myself (I have bad knees, hence having to swim instead of jogging). As clarification: it's not the fact that there's a brand on the suit (although I consider the extra $10 to get one with a more discreet logo totally worth it) that makes me feel like a fake, it's that I spent the money for a proper swim suit when a $20 probably wouldn't have cost me any more. I need to learn to acknowledge what my abilities are and what they aren't. Having a brand name on the suit isn't bad per se.

[KiaKat]

I do a French Braid, then roll the braid up to the base of my skull - underneath, so that then I can tuck it into the loose part of the braid at the hairline, and pin it there. I use the scrunchie & clip for extra hold. It's easier than almost any other method, and the only thing that keeps my fluff in place while I'm in the water.

[Magpie]

I used to do that sort of thing, but only when I still had short hair. I think I'll stick with just doubling or tripling the braid. My good elastics aren't big enough to hold a roll of braid, and I don't really want to go elastic hunting to figure out what else is good enough. In fact, I think that the next time I need to buy hair elastics I might just buy lots and lots of a couple of styles, and declare a shared elastic pool for my husband and me. Yes, saving that much work would be worth it to me.