SHOULD YOU WEAR A SWIM CAP? (AND WHEN NOT TO)

To cap, or not to cap? That is the question for many swimmers. The answer isn't a simple yes or no. It depends entirely on your hair, your goals, and where you plan to swim.

This guide will walk you through the pros and cons, help you choose the right type of cap for your needs, and even show you how to put one on without ripping it.

Key Takeaways:

• Competitive swimmers should actually skip the cap in training - the drag from bare hair makes practice harder, so race day feels faster.
• A swim cap will not keep your hair dry and won't keep water out of your ears, but it will make you meaningfully faster in the water.
• Lycra caps are worse than no cap at all. Here's what to buy instead.

⚡ Quick Summary: The Truth About Swim Caps

Short on time? Get the key highlights from this article in just a few minutes. This video summary walks you through the physics of hydrodynamic drag and the exact step-by-step technique for putting on a cap without ripping it, perfect if you want a quick visual overview of the concepts before reading further.

Dive Into: Your Guide to Swim Caps

• 🎧 Listen: Should You Wear a Swim Cap? A Coach Answers Everything (Audio Deep Dive)
• What Is the Purpose of a Swim Cap?
• Should You Wear One? (Reasons to Wear a Cap or Not)
• Caps for Open Water: Warmth and Safety
• Choosing the Right Material (and What to Avoid)
• 🎥 Watch: How to Put On a Swim Cap (Without Ripping It)
• Pro Tips: Getting Every Last Bit of Speed
• 🖼️ The Swim Cap Material Guide
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Purpose of a Swim Cap?

Good question, and the answer surprises most people who haven't thought about it.

The primary purpose of a swim cap is drag reduction. Your hair creates turbulence as water flows over your head, which slows you down. A cap smooths that surface and lets water flow cleanly past. It is the same principle as a streamlined body position in the water.

The secondary purposes are more obvious: keeping hair out of your face so you can focus on swimming, keeping loose hair out of the pool filter, retaining body heat in cold water, and making yourself visible to boats and other swimmers in open water.

What a swim cap does not do: keep your hair dry (it's not a seal), or keep water out of your ears (you need ear plugs for that). These are the two most common misconceptions about caps and the reason some swimmers buy one, feel disappointed, and never wear it again.

🎧 Listen: Should You Wear a Swim Cap? A Coach Answers Everything (Audio Deep Dive)

Want to go deeper? Play this full breakdown Audio Masterclass while you stretch or commute.

In this 25-minute episode, we explore the actual fluid dynamics of swimming. We discuss why elite athletes purposefully train without caps to make practice harder, how the "Double Cap" method works, and the fierce controversy over marathon "bubble caps."

Report a non-functional swim video

🎧 Listening on your phone?

Should You Wear a Swim Cap? A Coach Answers Everything Full Audio Masterclass · 25 min

Listen on YouTube Music Keep playing with screen locked

Reasons to Wear a Cap (or Not)

To decide if you need a swim cap, you first need to look at your environment and your goals. Why are you getting in the water?

If you are casually swimming a few laps for fitness or recreation and you have short hair, buying a swimming cap could be an overkill, therefore not necessarily something you'd need or enjoy. The only thing you need is a swimsuit and some decent goggles and you are set.

On the other hand, if you have long hair or are thinking of becoming a competitive swimmer, a swimrunner or a triathlete, it could be beneficial for you to wear a swimming cap once in a while and spend some time researching the types of caps that are out there.

If you have long hair, I'd suggest you do wear a swim cap as it is very hard to swim with the right technique, with the correct head position while trying to lift your head to keep the hair out of your face. Also, some folks say that using a swimming cap does prevent your hair from chlorine damage, but I wouldn't think too much about this.

For the group of you that will be swimming in competitions and you don't have long hair, I'd suggest you DO NOT wear a swim cap in your regular swim practices on most occasions.

The reason for this is that you want your time spent practicing to be harder and with more drag than while you are racing. Your head without a swimming cap has hair and ears flopping around, so the drag is much higher. If you work harder in practice, your racing will feel much faster. And most importantly, you negate some of the feeling of water flow over your head if you wear a swim cap all the time.

There are times in swim practices, however, that you should swim at competitions speed and practice certain things you will do in your swim meet, triathlon or a swimrun competition.

For example, practicing relay starts, turns or plain all-out sprints. During these activities, you might want to consider wearing a swimming cap as it gets you used to the feeling which you will have while competing.

Caps for Open Water: Warmth and Safety

If you are an open water swimmer or do swim often in very cold water, it is a very good idea to wear a swim cap as it helps with retaining your body heat. Most of your body heat usually escapes through your head, so by placing a swim cap on it will keep you warmer for longer.

On the other hand, you can also easily become overheated in a warmer pool, so be careful.

Swimming out there in the open water could be dangerous, especially if there are boats and other water sport athletes around your area. To decrease the chance of a collision with someone who might not see you, brightly colored swim caps should always be worn. And if you swim solo, a swim buoy makes you even more visible and keeps your essentials dry.

Choosing the Right Material (and What to Avoid)

If you think swim caps are uncool, think again, they come in a huge variety of colours, designs, and materials. You can even design your own swimming cap for your team.

Lycra - Don't. They add drag, won't stay on, and offer zero speed or protection benefit. The one cap type worth avoiding entirely.

Latex - Cheap and functional. They don't last long, but that makes them a sensible choice for training where caps take daily punishment. Not ideal if you have a latex allergy. If you want to prolong the life of the cap, just dust some baby powder inside of it after each swim when it dries.

Silicone - The best all-around choice. Durable, comfortable, and gentler on hair. Worth the extra cost over latex for regular use. One note: make sure the fit isn't too tight, a cap that grips too hard will start hurting your ears after a few minutes.

Neoprene - Designed for warmth, not speed. If you swim in cold open water regularly, a neoprene cap makes a noticeable difference to heat retention. The most common approach is to wear a neoprene cap underneath a bright silicone cap, warmth from the neoprene, visibility from the silicone on top.

For extreme cold, some marathon and channel swimmers also use bubble caps - silicone caps with a textured, bubbly surface and a chin strap to keep them secure in rough water. Check the plethora of bubble cap options on Amazon. The principle is similar to a wetsuit: water seeps in, warms up against your skin, and acts as a thin insulating layer. They have a long history in English Channel swimming and are permitted by the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation. Opinion is divided though — a survey of 175 marathon swimmers found 57% against their use, and some organisations have banned them outright. For most open water swimmers, a neoprene cap under a silicone cap achieves the same result with less controversy and far easier availability. (Source: World Open Water Swimming Association, 2013)

Long-hair caps - Several brands now make silicone caps with extra volume built into the back specifically for swimmers with long or thick hair. If standard caps ride up or slip off, these are worth trying before giving up on caps entirely.

For practice swims where caps take more punishment, a cheaper latex or a lighter silicone cap makes sense. Save the silicone for racing or open water.

How to Put On a Swim Cap (Without Ripping It)

Nothing is more frustrating than tearing a new cap on the first try because of a fingernail.

The technique is simple but specific:

• Use your fingertip pads, never your nails. This is the only rule that really matters. One nail catch and the cap is done.
• Stretch the cap wide open with both hands before bringing it near your head.
• Place it on your forehead first, then pull it back and down over the rest of your head in one smooth motion.
• Slightly damp hair helps. It reduces friction and makes tucking easier. Completely dry thick hair is the hardest to work with.

If you have long hair, gather it into a loose bun or ponytail at the back first, then pull the cap over it. The cap will have a slight bulge at the back. That's normal and unavoidable.

🎥 Watch: How to put on a swim cap

The below video can help you with the proper technique on how to put your swim cap on.

Pro Tips: Getting Every Last Bit of Speed

Regular caps have a seam running over the top of the head which creates a small but measurable turbulence line. Seamless caps eliminate that. Worth it for racing, overkill for practice.

To push it even further, if you watch competitive swimming closely, you'll notice many elite swimmers wearing two caps. It's not a fashion choice, there's a specific reason for it.

The technique: a latex or silicone cap goes on first, sitting tight against the head. The goggle straps go over the latex cap. Then a silicone dome cap goes on top, smoothing over the goggle strap bumps and locking everything in place.

The result: the goggle straps are sandwiched between the two caps, which means they can't slip during a race start or dive, a small but meaningful advantage when the difference between winning and losing is measured in hundredths of a second. The outer dome silicone cap also creates a cleaner, smoother profile in the water than a single cap with visible strap ridges.

For recreational swimmers this is overkill. If your goggles shift during push-offs, the simpler fix is to put the goggles on first and then the cap on top of them, job done.

🖼️ The Swim Cap Material Guide

Sometimes it helps to see the options side-by-side. We've created this quick-reference guide to help you visualize the differences between Silicone, Latex, Lycra, and Neoprene.

Review this image to understand how each material performs with drag reduction and thermal protection so you can pick the perfect cap for your next swim.