Hair Vs Health

This subject can be a touchy and serious one for many Women who feel it is important to have their hair worn a certain way daily. I have had clients cancel training sessions because they just had their hair done (Did). For many Black women as in Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair”, Maya Angelou said, “ I would say that hair is a woman's glory and that you share that glory with your family. And they get to see you braiding it and they get to see you washing it”.

There is a wave of Black Women that are wearing their natural hair. More Black women are finding that freedom of accepting their natural beauty is liberating. For Many Black women who have and had a chemical relaxer in their hair, found that working out on a regular bases can be a difficult task. So much, so that I have had clients tell me that they,” don’t want to sweat”. Don’t want to sweat? Wait, “don’t want to sweat”! We are here to work out, and you are going to sweat. I then had to ask, why? I was told that they did not want to sweat out their hair. As a Bald Black man, the idea of worrying about hair is something I did not understand. So I posed this question to a few of my clients. What is more important to you, your hair or your health? After a heavily sweated work out with one of my di fitness class, I interviewed 10 women from that class about Hair vs. Health. Of the 10 women 6 were wearing their hair natural, 4 had relaxers. All 10 women have had a perm at some point in their life. They all knew how hard the battle is to balance and keeping their hair together. Whether their hair was a sow in, quick weave, braids, perm, short haircuts, etc. All of the women felt that it had to come down to making a decision. Do I want to lose this weight or do I want to worry about this hair. They shared that at some point the idea of sweating their hair out was a tough challenge to face. There is a lot of work involved in getting your hair ready after a workout. Washing and conditioning, blow or air drying is a sometimes long and tedious process. For many women finding the right hair style for a busy lifestyle can become over whelming. Try to wear your hair according to what you’re going to be doing, in other words come to class prepared to sweat. One client shared that because my classes run Monday through Thursday. She does her hair Thursday after class. That way she can have her hair looking good for the rest of the week and weekend. The most important thing about this is that, you are losing weight and getting in a work out and getting your hair done. This can only be done by having the right mind set. Your health should always be chosen over your hair. How healthy do you want to be? How hard do you want to work? How bad do you what it?