capetonian mother launches swimma cap line aimed at protecting high-volume black hairstyles

As a young black girl from San Diego, CA, learning how to swim in deep water with all the other white and Latinx kids in my 3rd-grade class was pure joy—minus the time spent before and after fussing with my hair. Swim caps be damned, no matter how tightly they squeezed my head, the sheer volume of my hair was no match for what, I’m sure, was designed to protect flat, stringy coifs. Ill-fitting swim caps have plagued many aquatic black folks for too long until now.

Now, black swimmers can look out for Cape Town-based mama and photographer Nomvuyo Treffers’s Swimma Caps. Swimma Caps is a new cap brand to accommodate high-volume hairstyles like locs, braids, dreads, afros, etc. Inspired by the experiences she had getting her two daughters (10 and 8) involved in water sports, Treffer quickly became aware of the painstaking hair maintenance required to keep natural hair healthy. With alternative swim caps made overseas being too expensive and impractical to buy, Treffers asked, “[…]how can it be that in a country like South Africa, with the demographics that we have, we don’t have a product like this for black people.” Taking matters into her own hands, Treffer decided to create her swim caps. Swim caps with black folks and naturals in mind.

Swimma Caps come in a variety of size options and colors, too. Check them out here.

Swimma Cap sizing comparison

https://www.instagram.com/swimma_caps/
http://swimma.co.za/wp3/