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These findings should definitely spark a serious conversation about the correlation of black hair and black health.
This Monday, the Archives of Dermatology published a study that found ‘two out of every five African-American women avoid exercise because of concerns about their hairstyles.’
Dr. Amy McMichael, a dermatologist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and senior researcher for the study was prompted to begin her investigation after taking note of how overweight her female African American patients were.
The Huffington Post UK reports that the study gathered 103 African-American women, ranging in age from 21 to 60, and had them participate in a 40-question survey that asked about physical activity, hair care and maintenance, hair and scalp concerns.
The questions included: how much and what types of exercise they do, and the time, expense and complications of caring for their hair.
While all participants agreed that exercise was important, 40 percent of the women reported avoiding exercise due to hair-related issues, and half said they had modified their hairstyle to accommodate exercise.
New York Magazine column, ‘The Cut,’ offered an important addition to the findings in stating, ‘While the unique characteristics of African-American hair shouldn’t be shrugged off here, it’s also true that many non-black women forgo exercise for hair-related reasons.’
We found this study highly interesting, as it definitely leads way to the reasoning a lot of black women have used in choosing to forgo relaxers (which can require serious upkeep and maintenance costs), and opting for the ‘workout friendly’ natural route.
So divas, if you had to choose:
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3 COMMENTS
She Is Woman
December 21, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Every year they come out with these findings. As a black woman who does work out, I can say most black women don’t work out because they’re lazy. Plain and simple.
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britt
December 29, 2012 at 3:40 pm
I agree with the comment above. I work out and yes it does require a lot of extra work to make sure my hair looks nice, but I’d rather deal with that than obesity and obesity-related poor health outcomes.
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g
January 5, 2013 at 9:48 pm
I agree that working out is very important and the hair care is extra work for black women whether hair is relaxed or natural we just cant run right out after sweating thru our exercise routine shower and blowdry and go unless our hairstyle is conducive to our activity so we need the hair care products after working out to use before we can run right out to the next thing whether its work or where ever.Some black women may think its too much to do more than once or twice a week so they dont do it …at all.
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