If you're a woman training BJJ, your hair can be a mess when you get rolling. Before you take a razor to your head, check out these 5 hairstyles that are great for training jiu-jitsu!
I think like many other black women, hair is SUPER important to me. My grandma has always said, “Your hair is your beauty”. So, when it comes to making sure I look good, hair is usually the first thing on my mind. I keep my hair in a natural, so I know many of the other naturalistas of the world knows the time it takes to get a good style going and maintain a healthy head of hair.
But we all know the trauma that comes with sweat/water and black hair: sweated out edges, frizz, shrinked roots. Multiply that by 1000% when you do jiu-jitsu and MMA (Cringing on that sound your hair makes when its scrapping against the mat). Black women really take time to care and make sure our hair looks great and this sometimes deters us from working out as often. This often leads us to of heart diseases, obesity and other chronic health problems.
I have had my share of protective styles on and off the mat, but let’s be real: they are annoying! Stopping to tie up box braids, tapping because your frontal is about to get ripped off. It’s all too much. In the struggle to keep my hair healthy, I’ve had my fair share of experimentation of protective styles. I’ve even been tempted to just shave it off…
Generally, I keep my hair extension free, so I wanted to share some of the ways I keep my hair when I train. Some work as a cute training style, others work in a way that makes it easier to go from the gym to a date.
Here are some of the styles that have worked in my jiu-jitsu and fitness life:
Chun-Li
Top bun
Shoelace Quaf
Good way to put my hair up without pulling on my edges too much and making it too tight. The only annoying thing is if you get into a hard roll, sometimes the shoelace can get untied.
With this, it's mostly about protecting a fresh twist out or the fact that I don't want my hair mopping the sweaty mats, I tend to put my hair in a swim cap or like a stocking/wig cap. This also keep the product or oil I put in my hair off the mats
Cornrows
This is a fairly new thing for me as that I'm trying to grow my hair out with wigs. So I've been wearing cornrows under my wigs (really crappy ones but I'm still learning). It's been better than wearing weaves because I just plop the wig on and off when I go train. Because this gives me the opportunity to switch up my styles, I will definitely will be doing this more often
These favorites have really worked for me and I'm still figuring out more to make sure my hair stays healthy AND stylish! What about your favorites? Let me know in the comments or let's chat on Instagram: @blackgirlwhitegi_bjj
I have locs but I've been having good luck with them in two french braids.
I won't roll without my Grapple Happy cap. It's wonderful! True, i look a little goofy, but it protects my ears just by keeping them covered, protects my hair from getting ripped out, and keeps my hair from having to be washed every time I train. I usually wear it with the overpriced but helpful headband they sell with it.