Vitamin C technology neutralizes chlorine and protects and improves hair and skin.

Update 2015-05-15

I contacted Dr Andrew Chadeayne the inventor and president of Swim Spray. I received the following response:

1. Hair and skin are made from proteins, which are made from amino acids, which have nitrogen-hydrogen bonds.

2. "Chlorine," which is hypochlorous acid in water, reacts with nitrogen-hydrogen bonds to make chloramines. Those chloramines are bonded to the body and called a "chlorine cover," which was first reported by Gottardi when studying how sanitizers work on skin.

3. Vitamin C reacts with chloramines, including those making up the chlorine cover, to reduce the nitrogen-chlorine bond back to nitrogen-hydrogen.

We have tried to explain much of this in the "what's the chlorine problem" section of our webpage.

I was doubtful of the evidence as the Gottardi study he refers to is about chlorine covers in bacteria. I therefore got in contact with VoYs member and chemistry PhD student Lindsey Robinson to advise. She said:

1. The reaction of chlorine and organic compounds to create chloramines is the basis of pool disinfectant.

2. Literature on this reaction happening within the skin is relatively scarce, most of the work (including the original paper by Gottardi) focuses on free compounds or on bacteria, as you said. Gottardi has since shown that this reaction does happen within the horny (outer) layer of the skin. This is a recent area, he's only been publishing on this for about 30 years.

3. Gottardi's research says very little about the effect of chlorine on skin health. All of the papers I could find by him discuss the antibacterial properties of chloraminated skin, for use in hygienic environments.

4. I would suggest that the skin irritation experienced by regular swimmers is caused as much by continuous exposure to water as to the chloramination process.

5. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is used industrially to strip chlorine from chloramines in water. I've struggled to find any literature about the same process in skin. I can't say for sure whether or not the vitamin c removes chlorine from proteins in skin, or whether it forms a salt from the amines, which would be odourless and removable.

6. Based on this, I see no reason why any weak acid, such as vinegar, wouldn't do the same job.

One important point is that much of this evidence is based purely around skin, and mentions little to nothing about the effect on hair. As skin is constantly replenishing and hair is dead tissue, I would be reticent to say that any conclusions drawn about skin health would apply directly to hair.

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