Can a hairstyle make you fat?

Opinion: September 5, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Chicago Tribune: WARNING: The U.S. Surgeon General has determined that hair relaxers can be hazardous to your health.

It’s not because they’re habit-forming or carcinogenic or a gateway to more dangerous substances. It’s because a woman who spent $60 and four (or eight) hours in the stylist’s chair is not going to be eager to hit the gym and wreck her hair.

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin gets it. She is a doctor whose mother was a hairstylist. She knows high-maintenance hair can be an obstacle to exercise, especially for African-American women like herself. She’s performing a huge public service by calling women out on it.

Her focus was on black women, who have a higher obesity rate than any other demographic group. But the phenomenon isn’t limited to black women. Dedicated female jocks tend to have wash-and-wear hair to facilitate their regular visits to the gym, but for everyone else, the post-workout hair regimen is a lot like starting over.