Learn best practices for starting and running a float center:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Something in the world of floating have you stumped?

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Show Highlights

Customers who color or perm their hair might not want to let it get wet while floating. While Graham and Ashkahn are sympathetic to those issues, as far as they know, there isn’t really a great solution for them.

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: And our question today is, “is it possible to keep your hair dry during a float?” Like, I assume, for customers who want to handle their hair treatment and stuff like that. I guess the most often reason why people want dry hair is they have coloring in it, or they got it professionally permed or styled or something else that either will mess up the water or mess up their hair. And the answer’s no.

Ashkahn: And the answer’s no.

Graham: Yep, absolutely not. It does seem like having waterproof swimmer’s caps will contain the water from getting in and mixing with hair color and getting back in the tank as much. So as far as the tank is concerned, swimmer’s cap seem to help out, but for anything that won’t get your hair wet at all. And we played around with different levels of tightnesses and things that really try to bill themselves as water won’t creep in, but just the process of laying in there for an hour, an hour and a half, like moisture is pretty bound to leach through whatever system you’ve set up.

Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s a tough one. There’s many different styles of swimming caps and stuff like that out there. And they all seem to let water leak in. It’s just really hard to create that tight of a seal.

Graham: So try this, try this. What you need to do is take a garbage bag.

Ashkahn: Okay, not where I thought that was going to start.

Graham: And get some Gorilla tape. And actually create a whole seal, maybe some Elmer’s glue as well. And what you want to do is you want the bag to go across your forehead and then down and around the back of your neck. And get good contact with your skin there. And just tape. It’s not going to be fun coming out, but you know, and tape it on over your face.

Ashkahn: If you just tape the bag over your entire head, that’ll give you a real nice seal.

Graham: I did not think of that, but I like the concept.

Ashkahn: And if you pump some air in there, works as a neck pillow, double whammy.

Graham: And probably stops you from suffocating if you pump air in there too, so that’s nice.

Ashkahn: Yeah, well usually you have to poke some holes to deal with that.

Graham: What have people done when they want to keep their hair dry? We have at least one customer who comes into float with us, right before they get their hair styled. So they do a monthly hair treatment and trip to their hair stylist person. I use a barber so I get confused sometimes. But anyways, to make they’re not totally messing up their hair, that they just paid a bunch of money to get styled, they’ll go into float, often the same day as their hair treatment is going to be. So they get to ride out the past month and then go in and not worry about messing up their hair for one day. So I thought that was kind of a clever way to still have it as part of your routine, despite also having a more regimented hair care routine as well.

Ashkahn: Yeah, and I do think if you get some serious swimmer’s caps, your hair is not going to get as soaking wet as it would, just being completely loose in the float tank.

Graham: Yeah maybe, I don’t know, water just slowly gets in there and all of a sudden you just have a cap that’s keeping in water as opposed to keeping it out.

Ashkahn: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be slightly better, but I don’t think it’s something that, if there was a reason you don’t want to get your hair wet, this wouldn’t solve that problem.

Graham: Yeah, yeah. And certainly for customers out there, this is a good answer to know for them, if they are worried about messing up a really expensive do that they got. I tell them not to. That’s when you take out the Gorilla tape.

So I think this is a pretty short episode.

Ashkahn: Yeah, let us know if someone out there has a swimmer’s cap that they actually think really manages to keep your hair dry. Let us know.

Graham: A modified like astronaut helmet or something like that they can go in with.

Ashkahn: Yeah, that sounds great.

Graham: All right, if you have any other easy questions for us, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast, and shoot them over.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Fixing Strange Colors and Smells in the Water – DSP 344

Ashkahn and Graham talk about all the different things that could possibly cause discoloration or odd odors in your float tank solution. There’s any number of things that could be at fault and it’s difficult to suggest it remotely, so instead they answer a handful of similar questions by offering broad troubleshooting advice on how to handle it when something comes up. 

Bartering Floats for Stuff – DSP 342

Float On was built on a culture of bartering. Trading stuff to make sure as many could float as possible. It helped generate lots of goodwill in the community and helped spread word of mouth in the early days. It also led to things like the Art Program, trading floats for art, which has been replicated by float centers all across the world. 

Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on barter and why it’s been so successful for them and why they keep doing it even 8 years later. 

Tips on Emergency Procedures for Float Centers – DSP 341

What is your plan for evacuation in your float center if there’s a fire? What if there’s a tornado? Earthquake? Blackout? These are important things to figure out when operating your small business. If you have staff, it’s a good idea to review your emergency policies regularly. Make sure that your practices are in place in writing and you review them personally.

Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on how best to handle these things in a float center while making sure to consider specific issues not present in other industries. 

Latest Blog Posts

Achieving Liftoff: Modern Gravity

Achieving Liftoff: Modern Gravity

In another installment of our ongoing series, we’re taking a look at Modern Gravity in Edmonton, Alberta. Matt and J.P., the owners of the center, share what success means to them.   Back in 2013, there wasn’t a single float center near Edmonton, so these guys...

Announcing #FloatForMAPS

Announcing #FloatForMAPS

#FloatForMAPS is a float industry-wide gift card campaign that will take place this July.

Not only will the #FloatForMAPS campaign generate extra funds for PTSD research, it will also bring in new customers during notoriously slower summer months for float centers.

Participating centers will donate 15% of their #FloatForMAPS Gift Cards to MAPS.org to support the exciting Phase 3 trials of MDMA assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.

Learn more on how you can sign up your float center for the #FloatForMAPS campaign.

Rise Float Gathering Live Event Post!

Rise Float Gathering Live Event Post!

Final Update 2:59pm WOW... what an event. If you're coming to RISE next year, bring tissues. The last series of updates will be brief. The last two talks were legitimate tear jerkers and no recap could ever capture the moment. Donna and Chris Petrovics If you've ever...