Are Swimming Pools Bad For Your Skin?

Swimming pools which are regularly treated with chlorine are very drying to your skin. The chlorine does a good job at disinfecting the pool and keeping algae at bay, but it is also an irritant which causes not only dry skin but also rashes in more severe cases.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do to protect our skin from chlorinated water while we’re in the pool (No! Sunblock doesn’t help!). We can use goggles to protect our eyes, but the rest of our skin remains at risk.

However, as soon as you get out of the pool, make sure you shower immediately (and don’t forget to thoroughly wash your hair too!). Then use a good body lotion to immediately counteract the pool water’s drying effect.

Now in saying all these, a swimming pool that is not properly treated with chlorine is even worse for the skin. So if you own a pool at home, don’t skimp on the chlorine if that’s your disinfectant of choice. Dirty pool water has far more dangers than chlorinated water – dangers that are graver than dry skin.

My Suggestion:

We use chlorine in our Intex 18×48 pool and as much as I love that pool, I’m not too keen of the icky-sticky feeling I get every time I get out of the pool.

This is why my eyes are set on buying a saltwater system. This gets rid of the tedious task of regularly disinfecting the water with chlorine. You do need tons of salt at the start, but that’s it and you don’t ever have to worry about “manually” disinfecting or shocking your pool. I call it the hands-off system to pool maintenance!

My sister just got one. Your eyes do not sting at all and your skin feels so much lighter when you come out of the pool. Worth its weight in gold indeed (now I only have to convince my husband!).