Well, this might do the trick. But then I might have more problems than I started out with...
(photo credit) Turbo Jennie calls it her splash zone. Not because she has any resemblance to Shamu - quite the opposite - but because anyone within a certain radius of her gets sprinkled with her sweat as it gets flung off the ends of her hair as she teaches TurboKick. Admittedly cardio kickboxing is a very sweaty endeavor but Turbo Jennie is not alone in this problem. Another instructor has to wipe the mirrors in front of her off when she's done teaching, so prolific is her sweat flippage. As for me, I routinely whip myself - or on the odd occasion some poor gym soul who dared to stand too close - in the face with a sweat-soaked pony tail. It stings! Especially if it gets me in the eye.
The problem is not that we are all super sweaty girls. The problem is our hair. Despite what TV and fitness mags would have you believe, us girls do not show up to workout with long flowing locks swinging happily in the breeze. Unless you like the taste of sweat and dirty hair, you have to restrain those suckers. The issue is how.
A ponytail is generally the first solution. Of course you have to have hair long enough to pull back into a single rubberband. Then you have to deal with layers or bangs that won't pull back. And then you have to check the mirror for "bumps" (at which point I think I just lost all the men reading). And then there's placement of the pony: the right-in-the-middle-of-the-back-of-your-head look favored by fitness models only works if you will not be laying on your back. Ab work, weights, yoga, and Pilates all hate that ponytail. So do you move it up high to the top and feel 5 again? Or do you ride it low and endure the feeling of so much hair on your neck? And what to do with the resulting ponytail "dent" when you're done?!
You may decide that the ponytail just won't work. There are still lots of options: pig tails, french braid(s), head bands, sweat bands, do rags, barrettes, scrunchies (seriously??) and the ever-popular scaffolding of bobby pins. One of my personal faves: crazy buns a la Gwen Stefani:
I'm the one on the right and don't judge me - it was Crazy Pattern Day in Turbokick. (You can't see it but my thigh-highs have polka dots on them!)Each method has its pros and cons. Headbands - the elastic kind that go all the way around - pop off my head like they're spring loaded. (Speaking of head bands, have any of you tried that hair wrap stuff? I bought a roll and cannot make it work! If I tie it on my head I end up tying my hair into it which really hurts. If I tie it off my head it's never the right size. Once I get it on my head, it twists and pulls my hair. What's the trick? 10,000 high school soccer players can't be wrong...) Do rags keep all your hair down but they also make your head hot. And bobby pins, while very effective at holding hair, can pinch, twist, pull hair and sometimes sproing across the room at inconvenient moments. I'm just waiting for somebody to lose an eye in a group fit class.
My current fitness hair regimen involves a high-ish ponytail (that I can loosen and push up if I have to lay on my back) and my bangs pinned back with X-ed bobby pins. This works okay except I have to readjust several times, especially if we do headstands in yoga. Between all the hair fussing and the constant pulling on my bra straps (love the pregnancy rack, hate the double-bagging), I'm adjusting myself more than a male teen-aged swim team in their first Speedo uniforms.
One Solution - Hair ZingsBilled as "the original double comb hair accessory," the
Hair Zing is a contraption made up of two hair combs (yes just like your granny used to wear) held together by a web of beaded elastic. According to their promo materials, they won't fall out, pinch your head, pull your hair or leave a crease. Ponytail dent solved! Even better is they lay flat against your scalp so you can lay on your back. You can even wear them swimming. And I got to try one out!
This is the one I picked: lots of fun colors and really stood out against my dark hair. Who wants to blend in?? So how was the Hair Zing in practice? The first issue is figuring out how to put it in. It looks really simple which is why I didn't read the directions first. I'm telling you now: read the directions first. Once I got it down though it wasn't too tricky. But then I couldn't figure out how to get all of my hair into it. No matter which way I stuck it in, there was always some hanging down on my neck. I hate hair on my neck. Hate. But I'm game for anything so I went ahead with my workout. It was a good thing I had my ponytail holder on my wrist for backup though as the Hair Zing slid right out of my hair. To be fair, I have really fine, thin hair. Headbands, barrettes, clips and even rubberbands also slide out of my hair so this probably wasn't the failure of the Hair Zing but rather my head. My real beef with the Hair Zing as a fitness accessory? It was so pretty! I know! It was all beaded and cutesy and made even a simply pull-back look like an elaborate do. The fitness downside was an everyday upside though as I did enjoy wearing it as I ran my errands. And it didn't fall out during normal daily activities.
My verdict: the Hair Zing doesn't doesn't solve my fitness hair problems but then not much does. It was really pretty and fun for everyday use and I'm excited to see what other hairdos I can do with it. (Want some ideas?
Check out their website for tons of gorgeous hair pics.)
Do you have a particular haircut you like when going to the gym? How much does your hair bother you when working out or exercising?
Comments (16)
I have hair that goes down to my brastrap. I typically wear it in a regular ponytail (midway if I'm not doing yoga/floor workouts and at the nape of my neck if I am) with a side part in the front because I look funny if it's tightly pulled back. I avoid having problems with it, however, by not working out in groups. I almost always exercise outside by myself or in front of my television by myself. There, I never have to worry about getting sweat on anyone else.
When I did exercise at gyms years ago and with my sister, I typically kept my hair a little shorter but wore it the same way or in a messy bun. It never gave me problems.
I always put it in a really high ponytail, and I try to leave my bangs in front, which I Always regret because it gets sweaty and curly =( My hair isnt naturally straight, so often it will get frizzy after a hard workout.
i really don't care about "bumbs" at the gym. as long as my hair is up and out of my face/off my neck i don't care how it looks. i just throw it up into a really tight messy bun and throw on a elastic headband to keep my bangs back and the little hairs off my neck
i usually do a ponytail or a messy bun, with bobby pins for the annoying bits.
for pro-wrap, my friends and i always tie it around our thighs..seems to work!
hair on your neck while you're exercising is the worst! my hair is too short to put into a ponytail, but if it were longer, i'd put it up for running. mat exercises/exercises on the floor don't usually make me sweat so much that i'm uncomfortable, so i let my hair down, or wear a low ponytail, for those exercises. running, however, i sweat just as badly as you apparently do. with the sweat rocketing off the end of my ponytail splattering everything! haha
but i have to say i LOVE your shorts. i have a pair of my own (not quite so bright), and they're the best to run in. so comfortable. i wear them all the time, even if i'm just hanging out with friends. they're my favorite shorts!
i've dealt with the downsides of just a low ponytail my whole life. other than casual sports that i play for fun, i've been a hardcore swimmer, gymnast, and thrower (we were made to run with the rest of the track team), and it has always worked fine for me. of course, the sweaty gross feeling doesn't really come into the equation when you're underwater...
I just go with pigtails. They stay out of the way pretty well and don't sit right over the sweatiest part of my upper back.
I tie mine up (shoulder-length) and put a bandana on to push away the short strands. I wear wacky-colored bandanas so when I'm biking or running outside, cars can see me.
i do the super high pony and sometimes fold it under once-kinda like samurai hair lol. i clip my bangs back.
low pony makes me look like i'm 12 :/
Ah, the hair dilemma.
I have long hair, below my shoulder that enjoys a variable colour palette depending on how I'm feeling. Currently, its blonde. Ish.
I'm not one of those girls that dress up for the gym. Yes, i invest in nice gear that wicks sweat away and yes, I stick to dark colours for sweat and slimming reasons. I dont want to look like I've tried, but at the same time there is enough testosterone at the gym to also make me not want to look like a hobo. Pity then, my hair see's the gym and tries to escape.
If i manage to get the bumbs out, then lo! fug tendrils will waft around my ears. No, i dont like my side profile enoogh to wear a low pony- I dont want to look like Jane Eyre. So a highish pony it is.
And now things get interesting.
My hair, normally happy to oblige me by wafting around my head happily, bouncing AS IT SHOULD from the love and care that is lavished on it, does everything in it's power to embarress. Bands slide, pins bounce, new hair sticks to forehead and my pony leaps war with my trainer. My trainer jogs along behind me during tests picking up various things that are shed: pins, bands, earrings, my ring when i do weights, the lipgloss in my pocket, my car key.. the list goes on.
The two famous incidents with me are the Bar-Bell Blunder and The Pony -Tail Wham.
The bar-bell blunder occured only days ago when, doing squats, my trainer adjusted the padding of the bar-bell across my neck. 4 reps later it became very apparent he'd jamed alot of hair in the velco catch as well. So there i was, stuck to the bar-bell watching a very amused trainer jerk out my ponytail saying that in all the years he'd know his wife, he'd never been called on to dislodge her hair from anywhere.
The Pony -tail wham was on a pretty ordinary 6am run. My pony-tail decided to help out my burning legs by escaping. not wanting to stop, i decided to continue jogging and sort my hair at the same time- for the record i have done this thousands of times- except this time my jogging partner, a cheerful 52 year old, had stopped to do up a lace. lots of men in lycra (aka the annoying bike riding club) watched as I slammed into the back of the unknowing victim.
god, i didn't realise how much i thought about my hair....
i just twirl my hair into a bun. if i have to do exercises lying down, i don't adjust it until afterwards. quit fussing over hair. people don't expect to look perfect at the gym, so deal with it.
messy bun works every time! of course i have thick thick hair and have to use about three bands and a couple clips but it seems to work well with all the drastically different lengths i've had in the past two years
www.ques-tfitness.com
Atthe time I have a problem with my hair, I do : washing
with clean hair once every 2 days. Sports walking once every 4 days.
Always think positive! In the end my hair normally again.
have u tried french braiding? it takes a lil longer, but that combined with a hair band/sweat band usually works for me. that or a half pony, then full pony.
and for the hair wrap, if ur talking about what i think ur talking about, i usually measure how big my head is with it, break off the piece, and tie it around my neck before slipping it up. the trick is to let it be a lil smaller than ur head size, and also not rolling it upwards so that it snags hair.
One thing that actually irks me is, during a workout, my hair curls/puffs back up (I straighten mine flat out, and throughout the day, if I'm lucky, it slightly waves back into a "flowy" feel, but not wavy or curly - during exercise, it puffs).
And as a guy, it can be awkward to walk into a gym with relaxed/straightened/flowy hair, and walk out with curly, puffed up, wavy-afro-ish hair.
I usually put my hair up in a messy bun with a scrunchie ( yes the out of fashion poofy ones) because the scrunchies don't leave bad dents like regular hair elastics do. Hope this helps!