Hair: The Next Big Thing in "Aero"

Triathletes are notorious for looking to save precious grams of weight from their bikes, and ounces from their shoes. We fuss about optimal water bottle placement and do all we can in search of the holy grail of "aero."

I'm here to tell you there's one major weight and aero factor that most people ignore -- HAIR!

Yesterday I was at Great Wolf Lodge water park in Charlotte, NC with the kids and a friend. In the locker room I dried my hair - which took all of about 47 seconds. There was a long-haired mom drying each of her long-haired girls' hair and she looked at me and said with a twinge of envy,"I wish we could pull off short hair!" I hear that quite often.

I love my easy short hair. While I certainly can admire long beautiful locks, that is no longer for me. I did the long-ish hair thing for 30-some years. Then I had kids and started running...and the hair got shorter and shorter in response to the ever shrinking amount of free time.

pre-kids, when I still had hair...and a curling iron...and time.

With training I can end up taking two or three quick showers in a day - that would not work if I had to fuss with hair.

Last weekend when I was running down a rural road I saw a young woman with hair pulled back that extended down to her calves. I couldn't help but wonder if that was a hinderance to being active, and if that cut her off from a world of possibilities?

Additional advantages to short hair:

• no spending $$ on hair accessories, means more $$ for tri stuff
• less hair volume in swim cap - less drag, less likely swim cap will split

look at that pointy low-drag head!

• less weight to carry on bike and run, less hair to absorb sweat and be even heavier
• no hair in my face
• can craft attractive sweaty mohawk on bike trainer

• impressive bed head
• TONS of time saved with low-maintenance hair
• competitors can't yank hair (ok, I made that up....but it COULD happen)
• no bothersome calls from Ford Modeling Agency (haha)

this is as "accessorized" as I get - headband under bike helmet for warmth!

Big thanks to Dawn Hale my awesome stylist and friend for the past forever number of years. It's nice to just sit down at Innovations and say "do whatever" and catch up on life. She sends me off with well wishes and a reminder that I have "fast" hair :-)