Are you guilty of skipping exercise in the name of maintaining your hairstyle? We take a close look at how our obsession with our tresses can have a negative impact on our health

Approximately 77 percent of African-American women are either overweight or obese. So what does this have to do with our hair? "About a third of Black women cite complications of hair care as the reason they do not exercise or exercise less than they would like, according to Amy J. McMichael, M.D., the lead investigator in a study at Wake Forest University that looked at the connection between AA women, obesity and hairstyling. "I thought it would be interesting to look at what role their hair plays in their amount of exercise," continues McMichael. It's worth it for us to do whatever we can to preserve our health. Ann Smith Barnes, M.D., an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, adds that in addition to the weight loss benefits of exercise, African-American women should note that regular exercise also benefits our heart health, decreases mild depression, increases our bone density and muscle mass. Our society in general is too sedentary. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers didn't go to the gym but neither did they sit in front of computers on in cars for hours at a time. They walked, regularly, to the store or to school. There was much more movement in their lives.