Excuse: Black women and the hair dilemma, where does exercise fit in?

As black women, we grow up knowing that sweating out our hair is a bad thing. All that time we spent in the chair getting our hair straightened goes down the drain as soon as a drop of moisture hits our strands. And don’t forget all the burning from the relaxer or hot comb. It’s for naught when we sweat our hair out. We are taught to do whatever we need to do to avoid the poof. As adults, this same fear of the poof pervades many of our psyches and prevents us from doing one of the most important things we should do in life — exercising.

It’s time to leave the worries behind and take our health into our own hands. Yes, we do face tougher issues when it comes to our hair, but there are some tricks out there to make it easier on us after we’ve gone hard on the treadmill.

I’ve been natural for the past two and a half years, so I usually just wear my hair out in a fro or in twists when I workout. During my relaxed days, I was a high ponytail girl. Wrapping my hair never worked because I sweat so much. The high ponytail kept my ends from getting wet, which made styling my hair much easier.

What are your secrets? Share them so that we can start seeing more of our sisters in the gym.