Great hair or great buns (of steel)?
One of my forever challenges in working out and breaking a sweat is how my hair will look afterwards. My hair, my hair, my hair!!! I sometimes loathe working out because I know that as soon as I step on the treadmill or even begin Tae Bo, I am going to break into an immediate sweat. Then there goes my hair! For those of us with ethnic, curly, thick, or frizzy hair . . . this is such a huge concern. 
I really hate having to choose between having great hair or a toned body. So I have given up on stopping every 2 minutes to wipe the sweat from my hairline to prevent my hair from getting soaked. It breaks my concentration and I don’t enjoy my workout. I have embraced the fact that I will have to do a complete hair makeover after EVERY time I work out. Which is about 4-5 times a week. Even though I have short hair, it’s naturally curly and can still be time consuming. But hey, what a small price to pay for a nice body, right? Hmm, not sure I am convinced just yet.
Those of you who keep up with my blog, know that I will go and do some research about what is being said about an issue. So here’s what I found out about exercising and caring for your hair:
- Don’t wear a baseball cap (which I always do when I run outside!). It can block your sweat glands and your glands need to breathe while exercising.
- Make sure you pull your hair back, off of your forehead and out of your eyes. You can pull it back with a scarf or cotton headband.
- Whatever type of hair you have, you have to rinse the salt from the sweat out of your hair. The salt can really damage your hair. But I say, even if you can’t rinse or wash or your hair every time, at least do it every other day and condition it well. In between you should use a conditioning hair product and make sure you blow dry that sweat out of your hair very well.
- If you like the saunas after a good workout, then cover your hair with a towel. The heat can dry out and damage your hair. Otherwise, put some leave-in conditioner or light jojoba oil in your hair while you are in there.
So whatever type of your hair you have ethnic, kinky, straight, curly or frizzy; you MUST take care of your hair when you are exercising. Our hair should not prevent us from working out and working out shouldn’t prevent us from still having cute hair. There is a happy medium. If you have any other tips, please share them because you never know what may help someone else.
I couldn’t help but nod furiously over and over again as I read this post. Yes – the hair/workout dilemma! I try to workout at least five days a week, but the fact that I’ll ruin the tediously long time it took to blowdry and straighten my hair always provides second thoughts as I lace up my sneakers.
I think the tips you gave are great – and another secret I’ve learned is hair powder. I swear, ladies – this works! Bumble and bumble has a great hair powder that sops up all the sweat on your scalp without drying out your ends. After a long, sweaty run, I spray on a little hair powder, give my hair a quick hit with the blowdryer, and voila! My coif is just like it was pre-workout.
Hope that helps!
Thank you sooo much for your comment and your tip!! I need to go and pick up some of that hair powder! I will let you know how it works out.
Hello Savvyhealthgirl, Thanks for the great information as I too struggle with what’s more important, but as my boss says, your health comes first. Speaking of bosses, my boss, Billy Blanks would like to thank you and send you a free gift for choosing Tae Bo as one of your workout regimes please contact me naomiw1@sbcglobal.net