How to Stop Your Dive Mask From Ripping Your Hair Out

If you have long hair, you already know the moment. You surface, you're happy, the dive was great, and then you pull your mask off and take a chunk of hair with it. Every time. I dove for years like that before I got tired enough to do something about it.

Here is everything that actually works, roughly in order of how little effort it takes.

1. Wet your hair before you put the mask on

Free, and it helps more than it should. Dry hair grabs at silicone. Rinse your head with fresh water before you gear up and the strap slides instead of catching. It will not solve the problem on its own, but it is the easiest thing on this list.

2. Braid it, do not just tie it

A ponytail gives the strap a single thick rope to fight with. Two Dutch braids give it a flat surface to sit against, and nothing loose to catch. Divers with hair past their shoulders swear by this, and it costs nothing but five minutes on the boat.

A bun works too, as long as you put it high enough that the strap sits underneath it rather than across it.

3. Stop overtightening

Most of us crank the strap down because we're afraid of a leak. A mask seals with suction, not with pressure. If you need it that tight, the mask probably does not fit your face, and no amount of tightening will fix that. Try loosening it a little on your next dive and see whether it still seals. Usually it does.

4. Wear a hood or a dive cap

If you dive cold water you already have one, and it solves the hair problem completely because the strap never touches your hair. In warm water, though, most people find a hood unbearable for that reason alone.

5. Put a neoprene cover over the strap

This is what most long-haired divers land on, and it's what I make. A neoprene mask strap cover is a soft sleeve that slides over the silicone strap you already have. Your hair rests against fabric instead of bare rubber, so you can snug the mask down properly and still get it off at the end of the dive without wincing.

A few things worth knowing before you buy one:

• How it goes on. My covers are the slide-on style: the cover threads onto the silicone strap you already have, which means taking the strap off your mask once during setup. After that it stays put, and there is nothing to come loose or wear out mid-dive.
• Double sided costs you nothing extra in bulk. A printed cover with a different design on each side gives you two looks on one dive trip.
• It doubles as gear identification. On a crowded dive boat, six black masks look identical. Nobody else is going to have your straps.

You can see the ones I make on the mask straps page. They're sewn by hand here in Barberton, Ohio, and they fit standard scuba and snorkel masks.

6. Use a strap with a ponytail opening

If you dive with long hair down or in a low ponytail, this is the version to get. The cover has a slot in it, and you thread your ponytail through the opening so it sits behind the strap instead of under it. Divers who use these report their mask stops sliding around too, which is a nice side effect — your hair ends up anchoring the mask rather than fighting it.

What I would actually do

If you only change one thing, get a neoprene cover. If you want the problem gone entirely, put a cover on the mask and braid your hair before you gear up. That combination is the closest thing to a real fix that I have found, and I have tried all six of these.

And if you want a cover with your own photo on it — your dog, your kid, your dive buddy, your own logo — I print those too. Send the photo and I'll put it on a custom strap.

And if you're buying for a diver rather than for yourself, I put together a gift guide for newly certified divers — including the things I'd tell you not to buy them.

Not sure which cover to get, or how one goes onto your mask? That’s all in how to choose a mask strap cover.