Dirty Pool

It has long been standard practice to require women to wear bathing caps at communal swimming pools. Reason: stray long hairs tend to clog the filters. But what about the teen-age boys now sporting long tresses that cover their ears, if not their eyes? One firm that manages 100 pools in the Washington area has decided that the only fair and logical thing to do is to apply the rule without regard to sex, is now insisting that a boy with hair like a girl must wear a bathing cap like a girl.

For some boys, the new rule smacked of dirty pool, while others have made the best of the matter, have taken up the caps. For most parents, however, the regulation has provided an unexpected bonanza. "It's a blessing," says one happy suburban Washington mother. "My boy tried out a cap and then decided to cut his hair."

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