Those are the immortal words of my mother, forever etched into my brain. Who among us after the Saturday morning ritual of getting your hair fried in a hot kitchen or basement beauty salon – holding your ear so tight and close to your head with the fear of 1000 degrees farenheit causing you to hold your breath subconscioulsy while you did – didn’t hear those words: “DONT SWEAT YOUR HAIR OUT!”
Yep…y’all know what I mean. Guys, if you have sisters, you heard those words! No going outside and playing kickball or jumprope or hide and seek…naw…just sit down, still as a corpse….because no matter what, you BET NOT SWEAT YOUR HAIR OUT.
That childhood memory came back to me as I read the columns, articles, comments – on how African-American women are putting off exercise because of their hair. Which, shouldn’t come as any shocking revelation. It really doesn’t matter if your hair is free of chemicals or not, “sweating” will require that you either find an array of colorful scarves or you’ll be spending some extra time on your hair…because the “Macy Gray” look, only works for Macy Gray and there is nothing “cultural” about your hair just flying all over the damn place, whatever your ethnicity – so get over yourself and add that extra “hair time” into your schedule and EXERCISE.
