# Not getting wet in the pool. huh?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 10, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260 "2006-05-10T19:15:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/1 "2006-05-10T19:15:38Z")
Every night at the Y where I work out, there’s this class of women who stand around in the water, not getting their head (or shoulders, even) wet. I can’t really say they’re exercising – their instructor is a big guy on oxygen. It’s mostly just little old ladies, and rather larger not-so-old ladies.
There’s also assorted classes of Minnows, Poliwogs, and whatnot. That occasionally splash by and get tangled up in the instructor’s oxygen line.
And, there’s the lap lanes. Where I am.
Last night, one of the little old ladies came over and crabbed at me. Seems they were getting splashed. Because I was swimming. And they were getting wet.
In the pool. :rolleyes:
Why? Why would you stand around in a pool of water, that is _wet_ if you want to keep dry???
😕
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/2 "2006-05-10T19:17:14Z")
Did you say that? Dear Og, what unreasonable expectation they have.
Or maybe you should have known better, damn you. After all, they’re only in a pool.
A really good excuse for -----\> :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/3 "2006-05-10T19:22:20Z")
This happens at my local indoor pool too. My mom is one of those ladies.
I took the SAME class as her and when I left I was drenched in water from head to toe and sweating. My mom had managed to keep her hair dry, as did most of her friends. I don’t think they took the class too seriously.
These people go to work out in the pool because…er, i dunno why. But they don’t want to get their hair wet, either because they don’t want a wet head, don’t want to mess up their hair, or don’t want chlorine in their hair. But if you work hard enough at water aerobics you should break a sweat, and then you should need a shower anyway.
My mom is a master at not getting her hair wet in the pool. We’ve been swimming together my entire life and she just doesn’t get wet. She wears her glasses in the pool too! Her reasons, I’m sure, is the large amount of Hair Product that goes into perfecting her coif but I have taken the stance of chiding her about this and she’s starting to not be such a sissy in the pool.
**Lightray** what was your response to this lady? I dunno what I’d say in a situation like that…
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/4 "2006-05-10T19:26:54Z")
I’d’ve been like “Yeah? Well now I’m pissing in your general direction.”
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### Author:  [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/5 "2006-05-10T19:27:27Z")
I’m not sure I could maintain a straight face if someone said that to me in a pool. I’d probably burst into laughter, drench them and let the chips fall where they may. 🙂
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### Author:  [@some\_white\_dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/some_white_dude)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/6 "2006-05-10T19:28:42Z")
How can you even respond to that? I’d probably stop swimming, not out of courtesy, but because my brain would have to cease all other functions to think of a way to react.
How _did_ you respond?
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### Author:  [@Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenback)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/7 "2006-05-10T19:32:57Z")
There is only one way to react to that…
CANNONBALL!
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### Author:  [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/8 "2006-05-10T19:40:35Z")
Basically I stood there (wheezing from asthma, actually) and stared stupidly at her. I mean, it just wouldn’t compute.
After she crabbed again, I managed “You do realize you’re standing in a pool, right?”
Repeat crabbing. Then I said “Aren’t you supposed to take a _full_ shower before entering the pool.”
More crabbing. Me: “Whatever. I’ll see what I can do.”
… then I started swimming butterfly. splashy-splashy! 😃
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/9 "2006-05-10T19:45:00Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> She wears her glasses in the pool too!
I used to do water aerobics, and I wore my glasses in the pool. There’s absolutely no chance I could have seen what the instructor or the others in the class were doing without them (my prescription is about -3, with bad astigmatism in one eye).
I **always** wear my glasses when I go swimming, ever since I almost got lost without them on a beach in Florida when I was in high school. It was not a fun feeling- I couldn’t tell if I had drifted away from where I went into the water or not, couldn’t tell where my family or my purse or towel was, and was all alone without my glasses almost 1000 miles from home. Fortunately, I did find my mom, and stayed very close to her until we went back up onto the beach and I could get my glasses back on. It was one of the scarier experiences I’ve had, though, and is not one I ever care to repeat.
Obviously, nothing quite that bad could happen in the pool at the Y. But I probably would have a fair amount of trouble finding my towel and glasses when I got out of the pool. And those of us who really need our glasses often feel very nervous when we are in an environment less familiar than our bedrooms and don’t have them on, or aren’t sure where they are.
Because I always wear my glasses when I go swimming, I don’t put my head entirely under the water, and I don’t particularly like being splashed- the water marks on my glasses make it harder to see, and I can’t wipe them off while I’m in the pool. I wouldn’t say anything to someone who was splashing me, though, unless I thought they were doing it deliberately.
I found that I didn’t sweat too much when I did water aerobics- the water had enough cooling power that my body didn’t feel a need to sweat. That was one of the things I really liked about water aerobics, that and the fact that I couldn’t fall down and hurt myself if I lost my balance.
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### Author:  [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/10 "2006-05-10T20:37:18Z")
Actually, I used to wear glasses myself when I was an instructor at the Y many, many, many years ago. If you’re not wearing goggles, contacts will just leap out of your eyes to get into the water.
Plus, glasses are very useful to have at hand when you want the kids to go diving for something when you need them quiet for a moment just so you can think.
Splashing on glasses = bad, yes, but lap swimmers hardly splash more than a dozen kids in the Poliwog class, which was on the _other_ side of the standing-around-in-water class.
But if you’re working out enough to get your heartrate up in the pool, you’re probably sweating – into the water. 'S why swimmers get dehydrated. This would normally be icky to contemplate, but of course the no-wet-hair folks are already leaching their moisturizers, hair products, makeup, and body oils into their communal bathwater, anyway. 'S why the Y’s water is so cloudy.
… Not to mention whatever those Poliwogs are putting out. :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/11 "2006-05-10T20:47:12Z")
I don’t like to get my hair soaked unless I intend to go full-out - diving, that sort of thing. My hair takes a few hours to air dry, and I dye it so I’d fear a reaction or at least extra damage from the chlorine. If I were doing water aerobics only I wouldn’t dunk my head, and for splashing I would probably be doing a lot of trying to protect my eyes, since mine tend to react very strongly to chlorine. However, I think these women just seem overly fussy.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/12 "2006-05-10T20:59:06Z")
Old ladies often get their hair set once a week, so they don’t get it wet otherwise.
I mean, not that you shouldn’t expect to maybe get splashed in the pool, but that’s why she was upset.
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### Author:  [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/13 "2006-05-10T22:03:29Z")
**Lightray**
I feel your pain. Community pools involve sharing, and sometimes the sharing can be problematic.
The same exact scenario would occur at my old indoor pool, complete with corny disco soundtrack. (Also, what the Polliwogs would occasionally “contribute”.)
I wasn’t all that splashy a swimmer, but there was this one huge bearded guy who would kick up quite a froth and the ladies would glare and hiss at him. He was really into his swim and was oblivious. I loved his non-reaction.
Now I am at a place that has a lovely beach but no pool; I sometimes miss my old lap lane, but not that aquatic exercise class.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/14 "2006-05-10T22:35:33Z")
Pardon me for (hopefully) being sensible, but isn’t this why swimming caps were invented?
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2006, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/15 "2006-05-11T12:32:37Z")
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> Pardon me for (hopefully) being sensible, but isn’t this why swimming caps were invented?
They can be a pain to get on, though they do sell ones that are not as hard to get on, but I don’t know how well it keeps the water out. I should get one of these for the next time I swim, it would be a riot.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/16 "2006-05-11T13:39:35Z")
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> Pardon me for (hopefully) being sensible, but isn’t this why swimming caps were invented?
Swimming caps aren’t made for the kind of curled and ultra-worked 'dos those women have.
They’d need an escafandrist’s helmet.
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### Author:  [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/17 "2006-05-11T13:42:15Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> They’d need an escafandrist’s helmet.
A What???
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### Author:  [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/18 "2006-05-11T13:50:15Z")
My mom is one of those old ladies. She takes the water aerobics class several times a week. Water aerobics are good because she’s got problematic knees and other weight bearing exercises are painful. She’s in really good shape and has more bathing suits in her closet than I’ve probably owned in my whole life.
And, yes, she gets her hair done once a week and spends the rest of the week trying to maintain her coiffure.
She’d probably be the one to crab at you for splashing. Gotta keep that hair dry. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2006, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/19 "2006-05-11T14:00:20Z")
They do the water aerobics in a different part of the pool at my Y. The other pool is for lap swimming.
I don’t know, on one hand it is a little unreasonable of them not to expect to get their hair wet, but on the other, they are older and deserve to be respected. I don’t think it’s unreasonable not to want to get completely soaked during water aerobics. Anyone who would actually splash a group of elderly women on purpose deserves to be ejected–not that you were doing that, but some have suggested it.
I’m not a strong swimmer so I don’t particularly like getting splashed in the face when I’m lap swimming. People can be really rude about it sometimes, but I don’t say anything because I expect to get soaked in the lap pool.
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### Author:  [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-getting-wet-in-the-pool-huh/356260/20 "2006-05-11T14:53:38Z")
Could be worse. They could be pottering up and down a lane like a drowning butterfly and complaining about the waves created by the person in the next lane.
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