I don’t run to add days to my life. I run to add life to my days.

Everyday is a new opportunity for a miracle. I thought I would share some tips with you to ensure that you never miss a moment of excellence in your life. As a runner, especially a runstreaker (completed day 534 this morning), you naturally sweat a whole lot, and if you value friendship, family, and your job, you will shower after you run. This sacred truth is even infinitely more true for those of us who are super salty glow sticks even in sub arctic temperatures. This actually presents quite a challenge if you are a female with long hair. The dirty little secret that long haired girls have is that we don’t wash our hair daily. Perhaps there are a few of you out there that get a gold star or have naturally shiny, healthy hair despite overuse, but for the majority of us, we are walking the tight rope between hair that is like straw on the ends, but clean on the scalp, or moisturized and silky throughout with a vat of Crisco on top.

Is anyone else jealous of how their husbands, sons, and other men can just shower, towel off, dab a spray of hairspray or a little squeeze of gel and set off looking like a million bucks?

I have a few tips to share with you that will change your life as a female that desires to be physically fit without engaging in hours of primping. First of all, always wash your hair on medium and long run days. No matter what, mileage over 5-6 miles should come with a Public Service announcement encouraging you to use shampoo and conditioner. However, on your shorter run days (or cross training days if that is your thing), or on your strength training days, be nice to your straw ends and give them a break from the washing, drying, pulling, and primping. The greatest discovery of my generation was dry shampoo. It used to be expensive and I never bought it, but now Suave and other drug store brands make and sell it for less than the price of a Latte. You just spray a little of that on your scalp and it absorbs oils from your scalp without affecting your ends. It has a nice neutralizing smell too, so you don’t start smelling like a 15-year-old boy.

The next wonder worker is the “3 minute miracle” from Aussie. I have bought about every brand of deep conditioner or hair mask from all price ranges, and have found the $3 Aussie brand is the best for me. I get unsolicited comments from all 3 of my men on how soft my hair feels on the days I use it. I use it once or twice a week, depending on how my hair is holding up, and then use just regular voluminous conditioner on the other days.

My hair use to be super dry, super crunchy, and super scrunching. Up until 3 months ago I used gel and mousse and hair spray daily. Thankfully one of my friends witnessed to me about how even though the clothes from the 80’s are back in style, my hair belongs back in 1983. She saved me. She introduced me to smoothing serums and heat protection products and Moroccan oils and my hair is being resilient. After years of wearing my hair curly and wavy, I have been wearing it straight, and when I do curl it, I avoid the scrunchy, permy 80’s curl, and actually use hot rollers. I’m an unstoppable fashion force. I need to pay my tithes to this friend because she made me see the light.

Whatever you choose to do with your hair, please remember to bathe every crevice of your entire body daily regardless!! There are no shortcuts for fresh arm pits and zit free faces outside of a good old fashioned cleansing. I’m petitioning the Lord to add this wisdom to the book of Proverbs.

I am not a fan of “selfie’s”, however, my full-time personal photographer needed the day off. I love to run with a pontyail, however, a super attractive and fancy updo like this keeps the hair off your scalp and neck much more effectively and efficiently keeping the oils, sweat, and grease to a minimum.