This might not be something that my white female readers can understand, and the men certainly will not have a clue. But black women have a challenge with our hair when it comes to working out. Our beautiful, thick tresses that can be coiffed in a different style each week – from Nubian queen to sassy diva, conservative corporate chic to casual and comfortable – they require lots of care and attention. Most of us, unless we are Oprah, do not wash our hair daily and we spend lots to have our hair dressers give us the perfect “do.” Rain, sweat, pool water, or any other kind of moisture are devastating to these finely crafted pieces of temporary art.
So, you can see how working out regularly – the kind of workout that gets you really dripping with sweat, the kind that is great for your body - can be tough on our hair. Who wants to spend $60 – 75 dollars and at least two hours having someone create the perfect style only to sweat it into a thick bushy mess the next day from a work out? Doesn’t sound like desirable thing to do, and many of us choose the hair.
We choose the hair over our health and convince ourselves that jiggly parts, our Southern curves, the junk in our trunk is all a part of being sexy in our culture. Even though our roundness, when taken to extremes robs us of our energy, raises our blood pressure, jacks up our cholesterol, and puts us at risk for diabetes, we still choose our hair. As beautiful as it is, is our hair really that important? Is it worth cutting our lives short? Is it worth not having enough energy for our friends and families? It is worth missing out on the adventures life has to offer? I don’t think so.
There really are options if we choose to get our priorities straight:
- Sport some braids – there are countless styles to get any look you want
- Choose simpler styles for every day
- Focus on having health hair with a good cut – healthy hair still looks good with less styling
- Go natural
- Exercise with your hair tied up to minimize the impact of the sweat
- Have a wig for back up
I have a crazy hairstyle that I use when I work out. My daughter tells me how silly I look every time I do it. My husband thinks I look crazy. My son in too polite to say anything. (Personally I think it looks fitting for Cindy Lou Who or some other Dr. Seuss character.) But I work out. I work out hard until I am soaking wet with sweat. My heart is healthy, my energy levels are high, my moods don’t swing (at least not too much), and my family loves the love, attention, nurturing, physical support (including games of basketball, laser tag, long days of roller coaster riding, and anything else they want to do) that I am able to provide.
Since our choices are really based upon what we value most at any given time, the real question is “What is more important to you? Your health or your hair?“ Which will you choose?
