Testing It Up

Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin has taken up a new cause, one that has something to do with two seemingly unrelated things: hair and health. For some American women, however, hair may play a role in their overall health, as some tend to forego exercise in order to preserve a certain hairstyle.

Dr. Benjamin shared the following thoughts on the matter in an interview: “Oftentimes you get women saying, ‘I can’t exercise today because I don’t want to sweat my hair back or get my hair wet…’ When you’re starting to exercise, you look for reasons not to, and sometimes hair is one of those reasons.”

A number of women, according to Dr. Benjamin, invest quite a bit of time, money, and effort, in order to get their hair to look a certain way. For African-American women, this may involve chemical relaxers and other such treatments, which may transform hair from naturally tight curls into straight locks. This effect can be reversed by moisture and motion, so much so that some women prefer to avoid physical activity.

Medical experts do say, however, that keeping a hairstyle is just one of the obstacles that may prevent women for exercising. A study conducted by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina determined that about a third of the study participants, who consisted of 103 African-American women from the area, engaged in less exercise because they did not want to ruin their hair.

Of the women in the study, 88 percent did not meet the minimum guidelines for physical activity set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which called for about 20 minutes of physical activity daily.