Black Girl Curly

Hello Hello :)

So….as some of you know, I am participating in a 545 mile bike ride from SanFran to LA in less than two months (LORD help me). In preparation for this ride, I’ve been hitting the gym and cycling like a mad woman for the past three or so months (with of course periods of travelling and being waaay off).

But this workout schedule has forced me to figure out how to keep my hair clean, healthy, and styled all while sweating 3-5x a week. And when I say ‘sweating’ I don’t mean that cutesy little beads of sweat on your forehead, pretty glisten type sweat….I mean the rolling down your face, all over your body, drenched kind of sweat.  

So here are some tips and tricks of the trade to help all you natural girls who like to workout! #blackgirlsrun #blackgirlsbike shoot! #blackgirls(even)swim :)

1. Wear your hair in a tight ponytail - something about keeping the hair as flat and tight as possible seems to decrease the level of frizz and the impact of the sweat.
2. Wear something to absorb the sweat - I wear a pretty printed silk scarf (the actual scarves that people wear around their necks). I fold it into a rectangle and put it on like a headband so that it covers about 40% of the front/top of my hair. It looks cute and also functions to absorb all of the sweat that both my edges and my scalp produce.  You can probably use something cotton as well, but I like using this type of absorbable silk (not the glossy, silky, silk) because it won’t rub against my hair and cause breakage over time.
3. Keep your edges and scalp clean - depending on the day and what my hair/scalp needs, I do one of the following (keep in mind my hair is in twists so I have access to my scalp, but you could do the same by just sectioning off your hair): 1) rinse my edges gently when in the shower to get rid of salt, 2) add witch hazel or some gentle astringent to a cotton ball or cotton pad, and apply to scalp, 3) dilute some shampoo and put it in an applicator bottle and apply it to scalp and rinse. 

And after I do these things I (to my edges or twists, depending on what my hair needs) spray my hair with leave-in conditioner, add cream moisturizer, add light oil.

Hope this helps!

-BGC