Sweat it Up, Not Out: Caring for Your Hair When You Workout

Whether you wear weaves, braids, relaxer, or keep it natural when working out a real concern for women with afro hair is sweat! How many times have you gone hard at it at the gym all the while thinking "My body's gonna be in check but my hair's gonna look a wreck", or perhaps not even bothered working out because the thought of sacrificing the 'do' was all too much. Well if you're fed up of having to choose between  hot bod or hot hair, here are some tips to help you prevent your crowning glory from becoming collateral damage when you workout.

First off, we need to know what we're dealing with, so just what the heck is sweat?

Sweat is a mixture of water, sodium chloride (salt), and potassium.  It is brought to the surface by water produced within your sweat glands. Your body produces two types of sweat: Eccrine and Apocrine. Apocrine is type of sweat that occurs on your scalp and anywhere else on your body where there plenty of follicles. It is a thicker type of sweat, made up of the above ingredients plus fatty acids, ammonia and urea. Surprise: Sweat doesn't actually smell; the nasty odour is created as a result of the substances in apocrine sweat mixing with bacteria on the skin. Nice.

How does sweat affect my scalp and hair?

Generally sweat is not so good for our hair and scalps. The salty build-up of apocrine sweat can block pores, cause hair dryness and breakage, contribute to odour, and if left for long periods it can even cause fungus- Eww.

So, what can we do? 

Well the easy answer is to wash your hair immediately after an intensive workout. This is not always going to be the most convenient thing to do. Plus if you workout regularly, excessive washing may lead to drying anyway.  Here are some tips on how to look after your hair when exercising and useful tips when washing.

When exercising:

·         Keep hair away from face, tied in a pony, bun, plaited into cornrows etc.

·         Use a scarf or sweat band to keep sweat away from the hairline. The Save Your Do Gym Wrap  is an excellent choice for this; It allows the heat out and keeps the sweat at bay!

• Keep a towel handy, wipe sweat away during breaks

• Switch up your weekly workout regime: mix intense cardio with some low impact training exercise. This way you can alternate and make time to wash hair on intense cardio days, but not low impact training days.

When washing:

• Use a clarifying shampoo, with a balanced PH and sulphate free to prevent hair feeling stripped. Kera Care's 1st Lather shampoo, or Aubery Organics Swimmers Shampoo are great options.

• Afterwards use a serum or leave in conditioner to restore moisture. Try Moroccan Oil a light oil great for relaxed hair, or Sunny Isle Black Castor oil a heavier oil great for natural afro hair; or Mahogany Naturals' Leave-in conditioner suitable for all hair types.

• As part of your long-term/monthly hair care regime alternate between hot oil treatments, moisturising hair masks, and protein masks. If you have natural hair, you can opt for milder protein products, like Trésemme Split End Remedy range. If your hair is relaxed, you might want to for a stronger protein treatment  Aphogee's Two-Step Treatment.

If your hair is in a weave or in braids...

• If you wear a weave or braids, and love to workout, it's best to stick to low impact stuff and intensify your workouts when you're due to take out your extensions.

• Regularly change your weave/braids. It might seem an arduous/expensive thing to do, but if you want to care for your body and your hair properly, it's a must do!

• To prevent a hazardous build up of sweat and toxins, You need to be able get at your own hair and scalp underneath your weave. Your hair will be crying out for some of the above mentioned TLC especially if you like to workout. If you're able to leave a 1/2 week gap in between re-attachment, that's even better.

• Weaves left for months on end on a heavily worked out body could develop a nasty fungus- yes ladies your hair could go moldy under there, so keep it as fresh as possible.

• Invest that time and that money and remember the healthier your hair, the better the weave can look. And if maintaining a weave becomes too much, checkout other options like wigs or clip-in extensions. I recently did a post about the wonderful versatility of clip-ins which you can checkout here.

Hope this helps you to sweat it up without sweatin' it out.
Love, B x