Candice LandauLast Updated on June 8, 2026 by Candice Landau
On my recent dive trip to the Bahamas, I lost a lot of hair.
After each dive, I’d head back to my cabin on All Star’s Cat Ppalu, undo the tiny braid I’d plaited before the dive, reach for my Stream2Sea leave-in conditioner, work it through, and start brushing. Even with the conditioner, my wet brush kept coming away full. The leave-in helped (I’d have lost tons more without it) but it wasn’t enough.
For people with thick hair, or even normal hair, a bit of shedding here and there is nothing. For people like me with super fine hair, it’s a nightmare. Even minimal loss is visible, leaving behind a stringy, threadbare look.
Hair is a bit like a body part. Scrap that, it is one. For those lucky enough to have long, thick, luscious locks, you’ve no idea how forgiving they are, or how much they add. Call me vain, but stringy hair doesn’t make me feel great, which is why after a few dive trips I always end up cutting mine into a pixie.
The trouble is the pixie makes me feel entirely unfeminine. I used to love my pixie cuts when I was young (they made me feel tough, independent and sporty), but paired with the weight I put on during a stretch of stressful, deadline-driven, always-on work, they seem to be doing the opposite of what I wanted. Perhaps the problem is me and I need to get over being so self critical but still, I can’t imagine others don’t feel this way too. The sum of it is I’d like to keep my hair!
And so, I’m writing this post on a mission. I’ve ordered a neoprene beanie from Oceanarium (it’s quite cute, covered as it is in nudibranchs) and dug into some basic hair-care techniques for swimmers. I used to do this when I swam in chlorine pools, though the products were slightly different. Now, before every dive, I’ll saturate my hair with fresh water, slick in the leave-in conditioner, braid it the way I usually do, and tuck the whole thing into the beanie, even if I look a little silly. I’m hoping that without my hair floating up into a halo around my head it’ll stay less tangled. And, if you’re wondering why not a regular neoprene hood, well it’s because I find those also have a tendency to rip out fine hair like mine. My drysuit neck seal (a neoprene one) did it terribly too.
I’m genuinely curious to see what difference this approach makes. Most of the diver hair advice out there assumes female divers are working with long, thick hair, which is a shame, because I’d give anything for that. The problem is infinitely harder with fine hair. One thing to note: I did start using my Spacefish Army headband toward the latter end of the trip and I did feel my hair got a bit better so perhaps that’s another thing to keep in mind. Of course, it didn’t help the braided bit but perhaps it helped the top of my hair? The jury is still out. I’ll report back post trip.
May 16 Update
I’ve purchased a number of items this week in an attempt to DIR (lol, do it right) this time. Here’s what I’ll be testing on my next dive trip, including in order of operation:
- Saturating my hair with fresh water before a dive
- Using my Stream2Sea leave-in conditioner right after saturating my hair with fresh water
- Braiding my hair with a my own DIY rip ties (the real things are so needlessly expensive and mine seem just as good). I’ll do a DIY guide on that ASAP, promise! Maybe on the flight.
- Popping on my new Oceanarium neoprene beanie
- Rinsing my hair post dive with fresh water
- Adding a little hopefully non-greasy hair oil after the dive. My sister tells me 3 drops is enough hair oil for our type of hair. Start adding from the ends and work up.
- Shampooing and conditioning hair every night
- Using a silk pillow case at night to minimize tangling
Will update again mid trip! Cheers and add comments if you’ve discovered the million-dollar solution.
June 8 Update
Well, I am back from my trip to Lembeh, Indonesia. It was both marvelous and a disaster. Marvelous because what a dive resort (Dive Into Lembeh), what a wonderful photo workshop (with Kate Jonker), but what a mess (my camera housing flooded and my baggage was delayed by 4 days).
Of course, everything I needed to ensure my hair remained in good condition was in the checked luggage. It taught me a ton about what’s essential and what’s not. Here’s what’s essential: my new hair ties (I’ll share the DIY article on those soon) and enough leave-in-conditioner to see me through a trip.
The only real drawback to the resort was that it was far away from Manado and that the showers had shampoo and soap but no conditioner. So, when we landed in Manado, we asked the driver to take us to the nearest mall before heading on to the resort. The poor man waited for an hour in the car while we hopped from shop to shop picking up clothes we’d need and, for me, essentials such as hair oil and leave-in spray (they didn’t have leave-in conditioner).
Though the oil and leave-in spray helped a bit, those first few days saw me lose a lot of hair. By the time my luggage arrived, I was desperate and the experiments began in earnest.
This Is What I Learned
- The best item on the list above is the leave-in conditioner by Stream2Sea. It makes the biggest difference after a dive.
- The second most important item is a wet brush. You need that to not tear our your hair.
- The third is my new fangled hair ties, that are a bit like rip ties but one million times cheaper. I have a few designs and some worked better than others, if marginally.
- I also found it useful to use a headband (the Spacefish Army one). The neoprene beanie felt nice but it needed more holes at the top as bubbles kept getting caught there. I also looked a little silly but that’s okay!
- I’m not sure the silk pillow case or the oil did much but I used them nevertheless.
And so, if I did this again I’d take the following in carry-on luggage:
- Stream2Sea leave-in conditioner
- A wet hair brush.
- My DIY rip tie hair ties (tutorial to come)
- My Spacefish Army headband
And that’s it! With those things packed, I think my poor hair would be okay. If you end up using my tips, let me know. I’m so curious about how other women manage these things because if there’s one thing dive magazines don’t cover, it’s day-to-day issues like this, especially where women are concerned.
