Sad day at the salon

All summer long Dania has had her hair "au natural", she has not been to see the nice ladies since May. Her hair is very slow growing, I have no way to gauge how slow compared to other black girls, but compared to mine it is slow.  In the 18 months that she has been home, judging by how far I could stretch her bangs over her eyes, and by how far down her neck it was, I would say that it has grown no more than 4 inches, maybe only 3.  Her hair always seems to be everywhere, all over the counter, all over her shirts, and in her bed.  The ladies always stated that it was shedding, just like my hair comes out all over the shower and in our food.  At the same time that they told me of shedding, they warned me over breakage.  Well I have never been able to tell the difference.  Recently I had noticed that the hair on the back of her head was really short while the bangs were past her eyes.  She was getting excited about her hair growing out and would always show me how much it was growing.  I thought that the back was seemingly shorter because it is thicker and she doesn't brush and style it that much back there.  Well to end this painful story that no one but her and I seem to care about (and the ladies) she lost all her new growth to breakage on the back of her head, due in large part to the fact that she swam in chlorinated water and never washed it out of her hair IMMEDIATELY after swimming.  In the spring they had told me to wash her hair after swimming and get her a swimming cap (which I did on the later) but we rarely washed the chlorine out.  She swims and plays at the neighbors and sometimes I don't see her for 5 or 6 hours.  The cap helps some but water still gets up underneath it and half the time she had left it either at her grandparents or friends house or at home.  I feel sorta depressed over the whole thing, I guess for being so ignorant on black hair care.  There is soooo much to do that would never occur to me.  We are headed to the beach Sat, and I am dreading the pool at the resort.  Do you know how many times they get in and out of the water, and now in order to save the hair that is left I have to become the pool/shampoo/washer/rinser nazi. She is not yet handling all her other hygiene issues by herself yet and I hate having to hound her about this, reminding her to come home and rinse/wash after each dip in the pool, or having to send all the paraphernalia with her everywhere she goes and expecting that she will remember to use it. Ugh!