Overdecorated Hair

I hate to run, swim, bike or attempt to hit a stationary or moving ball with a racquet, club or mallet. I hate bowling. I hate aerobics. I hate working out with weights.  Horseback riding would be OK, because horses are awesome animals, but it's a dirty a sport and I can't stand being dirty.  But even worse than I hate being dirty is that I really hate sweating.  And on top of the dirtiness and/or sweating that occurs during sports, most of them also create bad hair.  Either you have to wear a helmet (Good God, is anything less attractive?) or you have to do something else with your hair to keep it out of your face. 

But while watching womens' gymnastics at the Olympics, I came to the conclusion that these poor athletes have the most unfortunate hair challenges ever.  For some reason,they are required to use multiple kinds of clips, barretts, scrunchies and other crap ALL AT THE SAME TIME to accessorize their performance. Gymnastics is not dirty and does not even really appear to cause sweating, but I definitely would not do it because of their Hair Rules.

Even after the 12 year old Chinese girls won the gold, how could you even notice them wearing their shiny new medals when you are so distracted by what is happening on their heads?

Comments

[Karen Talavera]

Hi there! I noticed the same during the Beijing Olympics, but as the mom of a gymnast I also know the hair regulations for competition and can only imagine what they are at the Olympic level. Even for beginner competition all hair must be pulled back from the face. So if you have a layered haircut or bangs, basically (you're screwed!) you're relegated to clips and hairspray. Or as my stylist would say, "product, use lots of product!"

True the Chinese gymnasts could use a style primer, but what I noticed in all the Olympic gymnasts is their simple, functional hair treatments - buns or ponytails. This is a far cry from what I've seen in gymnastics meets full of 8 and 9 year olds who often have elaborate braids and such (complete with glitter spray) done up the same for the whole team. As my daughter tells me, ponytails are the best because they don't hurt when you roll over them and they don't pull too tight.

My guess is China's race toward consumerism hasn't quite caught up to where we're at in the US, where you can walk into any corner Walgreen's or CVS and have your pick of 20 different hair clips. I hope they're careful what they wish for, distracting hair candy and all!