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 Hair care routines aren't a barrier for every African American
woman, said study leader Dr. Sophia Tolliver, "but they are for a
significant enough number."
Creating a hairstyle "could take several hours during the day,"
Tolliver said. Women may fear that working out and perspiring
potentially could ruin that hairstyle, she added.
In a survey of primary care providers, Tolliver and colleagues found
an overwhelming majority talk to their female African American
patients about the importance of exercise. But three-quarters said
they don't talk with these patients about hair care, which can be a
barrier to vigorous workouts, the researchers reported in the
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
"A lot of doctors are not aware that it's a barrier to exercise in
this population, let alone having the lexicon or tools to carry on a
conversation about it," said Tolliver, of the department of family
medicine at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. "In
their free comments some said they were scared to talk about it,
others said they didn't have the tools, and others said they were
afraid of offending women with this conversation."
Doctors should ask female African American patients about their hair
care routines, Tolliver said. A physician might open the
conversation with: "Tell me about your wash-day routine," she added.
Then, "tell me what your hair means to you. Is it a barrier to
exercising?"
Two earlier surveys of non-exercising African American women showed
why those conversations are important: many women said concerns
about "sweating out my hairstyle" were a barrier to getting enough
exercise.
For the new study, Tolliver and colleagues emailed a survey to
doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the
department of family medicine at Ohio State. Out of the 151
providers who were sent the email, 62 completed the survey.
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While 95% of respondents said they often or sometimes discussed
physical activity with their female African American patients, a
full 76% said they never included hairstyling or maintenance
assessment in the conversation.
Although 60% said they believed discussion hair maintenance
strategies would be beneficial and could possibly help to increase
physical activity in female African American patients, just 34% said
they were comfortable or relatively comfortable discussing the
topic.
The new study points up the need for "cross cultural medicine," said
Dr. Angela J. Lamb, an associate professor of dermatology at the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. "Everybody
needs to know about this topic."
At her hospital, Lamb gives lectures to junior dermatologists "on
this exact topic," she said. "I tell them to ask an open ended
question: 'How often do you wash your hair.'"
Many women may not realize it's not necessary to wash out the sweat
generated during a workout, Lamb said, adding "my hair only gets
washed once a week and I exercise daily."
For those who feel their hair has gotten oily or dirty from
exercising, "there are dry shampoos," Lamb said.
For African American women who, like Lamb, straighten their hair,
there are strategies for preventing hair from getting wet during a
workout. "I wrap mine with a satin scarf," she said. "It's all about
finding what is practical, what is presentable and what allows you
to be physically active."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/33ORo4Q Journal of the American Board of
Family Medicine, online November 8, 2019.
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