Mademoiselle Ethiopienne

fitvillains:

This post is for all ladies, but specifically ladies who’s hair… well… let’s just say those who’s hair is high maintenance.

Women of African American descent are specifically addressed, because this seems to be a bigger factor in getting them in the gym than their white counterparts. Black hair & sweat… well, they don’t mix.

I can attest to this. It’s also the reason some hate going swimming in the summer. Many a summer’s day in my teens was spent with this mantra: “I’d rather be hot than mess up my hair”.

I’ve never been good at keeping up my hair, and honestly, with all the working out I do, I’m lucky if I can straighten it into something respectable once a week (half is shaved anyways, so I only have half a head to worry about). But my love for fitness FAR exceeds my love for hairdos, and if I loved my hair more I probably would have to invest more time into maintaining both it AND my fit lifestyle.

Last week, the U.S. surgeon general stopped by the spectacle known as the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show to discuss hair & health, and encourage young hair fashionistas to get their beautiful booties in the gym.

Read the interview she gave below…

Excerpt from CNN.com

What better place to talk about health than at a hair show that draws 60,000 stylists? Dr. Regina Benjamin discussed the widely held belief that black women don’t exercise because  it might ruin their hairstyle.  It turns out Benjamin has struggled with this issue too.

The interview has been edited for brevity.

 What brings you to the hair show?

Actually it’s the perfect event. My priority as surgeon general is prevention.  Everything that we do is to try to build a healthy and fit nation.

What we find when talking particularly with African American women - I’m later finding this with other women, too - was that when we talk about exercise, we hear, “I don’t want to sweat my hair back or I don’t want to mess up my hairstyle.  It cost me too much to get my hair done this week.”

When United Healthcare came and talked about this last year, it was a successful at the Bronner Bros. Hair Show with 60,000 hairdressers.  What better audience would be to help us find exercise-friendly hairstyles?

This is trying to encourage women to continue to exercise and be healthy and give them a way to do that without messing up their hair.

Is there evidence that this hair issue is really why some women don’t exercise  or is this anecdotal?

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Simple answer to allll of that ^

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Save Your Do Gym Wrap

 

 http://saveyourdo.com/