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The Perfect Workout Hairstyles

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Many ladies with natural hair and relaxed hair make excuses as to why they do not workout. The main excuse is their hair! If you find yourself not knowing what to do with your hair when you go to the gym, or head to the park to go for a walk or run, you should check this out:

  • Try wearing a braided ponytail. For me this is the perfect hairstyle when I go to the gym because when I’m done working out, all I have to do is press my edges and unbraid my hair. You can even add a baseball cap to hide your edges while you work out until you get home. If you ever see me at the gym, this is how I typically wear my hair.
  • Try wearing a bun. A bun tucked away at the back or top of your hair is perfect. Again, you may have to press your edges once you’re done with your workout, but your hair will still be straight and even have a slight body wave to it.
  • If your hair is pressed silky straight, and you want to maintain your hair without sweating too much, avoid cardio. You can still achieve optimal weight loss results just lifting weights. Don’t worry about getting too bulky. You would have to eat a ton of protein, and workout three times a day to begin looking like a bodybuilder! Lift light, and do 3 sets of 20 – 30 reps.
  • Sew in weaves and braided extensions work great. I do not recommend working out in a wig. I tend to do incline bench presses, and crunches on the ball, etc…I’d hate for it to slip off at the gym. You can also do a twist out, or my favorite; a flexi-rod set. Those curls hold great while doing cardio.
  • Whatever you do, do not wrap your hair while working out. When you sweat, you sweat from the scalp. Wrapping your hair will allow your sweat to saturate all of your hair instead of just the roots! Always remember this basic concept. Oil and water don’t mix! Keep the roots of your hair oiled with an oil based oil such as castor oil, and you will preserve your pressed roots.

So now you have no excuses. Go to the gym, and get your workout on! For all the single ladies, ready to put themselves in a position to be found by that special guy; FYI: Men love women who care about their bodies, and men love real hair! You may think, “OMG, my hair looks a mess”, but that ain’t what he thinking! If you’re headed to the park, go early in the morning during the summer months. I am all about making excuses for your goal, and never against it.

(Excuse against your goal): “I want to lose weight, but I can’t workout because I sweat profusely, and it will make my hair blow up into an afro.”

(Excuse for your goal): “I am about to get a sew-in weave because I’m about to start going to the gym to workout”.

Or

(Excuse for your goal): “I am only getting my hair pressed on special occasions until I reach my weight loss goals”.

Remember Back In the Day?

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I have no idea why I’m making that face, or why I’m reading the newspaper instead of playing outside like a normal kid! Check out that hairstyle.

Do you remember how long and thick your hair was before you got your first relaxer? My pig tails were super thick! I can remember my mother washing my hair about every two weeks and blow-drying my hair straight. Sometimes she would hot comb it, and oil my scalp with Blue Magic or African Pride hair grease. Then she would style my hair with bows and barrettes, and I would wear that hairstyle for about two weeks. Sometimes she would braid it, but all the time; she left my hair in whatever hairstyle she did for about 2-3 weeks. The only thing she would do is tidy up that hair style and make sure it was still detangled.

Somewhere between me having long healthy natural hair as a child to about 6 years ago I went crazy and got a perm, got glue in weaves, and really screwed up my hair. I did not treat my hair very well. Now that I am rekindling my love and acceptance for who I am as an individual, I am careful about how I treat my hair. When I first went natural in 2006, I took a lot of advice from people about how to grow my hair. I believe that because I didn’t know too much about my hair, I took a lot of advice from people who had me doing too much extra stuff to my hair that was unnecessary and costly. In 2012, I realized that my hair does not need my hands to help it grow. As long as I keep my hair and scalp clean and moisturized my hair will grow at its own unique rate of growth.

Now that I am 29 years old, I am taking care of my hair the way my mother used to back in the day. I wash it every 2-3 weeks with Design Essentials Natural Curls Sulfate-free shampoo and steam condition it with the follow-up conditioner. I spray Design Essentials Blow-dry and leave-in conditioner spray in my hair, detangle with a Denman brush, and blow-dry my hair straight. I never allow my hair to air dry because it causes too many knots and makes it harder to detangle which promotes hair breakage. I press out my edges with a ceramic flat iron once it’s blown out straight. I only wear my whole head pressed straight if I go to my beautician because I feel I use too much heat when I try to press it straight myself. When I try to press my hair myself it never comes out looking as straight as when my beautician does it. After I blowout my hair I moisturize it with an organic virgin coconut oil that I get from the Farmers Market and braid it. The next morning when I unbraid my hair, my hair is straighter than when I blowdryed it the day before. I style it, and for 2-3 weeks I will not use heat on my hair. I re-oil my scalp when I feel it’s necessary, and re-press my edges when necessary, but I don’t use heat throughout my hair until it’s time to wash it again.  I also do roller sets using flexi-rods, a twist and lock gel, and a hooded dryer. I set and dry the curls under a hooded dryer for about an hour, and oil my scalp once the process is complete with my Organic Virgin Coconut Oil.

In this post, I have mentioned maybe five hair products that I use. Only one of those five products I use almost daily. My hair regimen is kept simple and it works well for me. I hope that this post reminds someone how simple hair care used to be back in the day.  I am all about maintaining hair growth without the over dependency of a ton of expensive hair products.