Plunge Into These Olympic Artistic Swimmers’ Hair and Makeup Secrets

Want a deep dive into how artistic swimmers keep their hair and makeup intact in the pool?

Well, Daniella Ramirez—who made her Olympics debut at the 2024 Paris Games and took home the silver medal with her team—is bringing them to the surface. 

Let’s start with hair: As Ramirez has explained on TikTok, she’ll often style her hair into a braided bun, which she secures with hair ties, bobby pins and a hair net. To ensure her strands are glossy and don’t budge, the 22-year-old then adds layers of a key ingredient: gelatin.

“It’s to keep the hair in place while we swim, and it’s purely for aesthetic reasons,” Ramirez—who uses either Knox Gelatine or Synkro Lovers that’s been heated with hot water so it looks like honey—explained in one clip. “It’s sticky and dries hard.”

It’s a solid option (check out Ramirez’s “ASMR hair” videos to see just how solid).

“We could use swim caps, and we do at practice,” the athlete—who finishes her hairstyle with a decorative headpiece—continued, “but it looks better to swim this way to fit a theme.”