Black women and hair. There are a million reasons not to get your daily workout in, and sisters often cite hair as the biggest one. Even the Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin said last year that, “Women have got to stop using their hair as an excuse not to exercise.”

Actress Nicole Ari Parker thinks enough is enough, introducing the Save Your Do GymWrap to allow women to get their workouts in without sweating out their hair. With so much new technology on the market and sweat ‘wicking’ exercise gear, it’s about time someone said “hey why can’t we make something to ‘wick’ the sweat from my edges?”

“Hair is an issue for most women and after washing, blow-drying, flat-ironing, curling, braiding, twisting and spending the time and money on it, who wants to mess it up by sweating and having to do it all over again?” explains Parker.

Save Your Do uses patent-pending revolutionary “Edge Control Technology”, which is said to minimize the sweat absorption into one’s hair through a unique blend of materials that allows heat to escape while letting cool air in.  The moisture ‘wicking’ process occurs at the molecular level within the fabric resulting in dry flat hair that only needs light styling afterwards.

I made the plunge and decided to try it out.  I’m a frequent exerciser and have a variety of sweat bands and head wraps that don’t really work. I basically abide by the philosophy that my hair is not more important than my health and my mood. So I work out really hard, sweat and mess up my hair and then fix it afterwards.  The gymwrap is definitely a product I needed and I’m happy to say…it works!

I purchased the wide band (the wrap comes in three sizes: narrow band, wide band, and full triangle) because all of the other wraps I have are that size. The truth is the Save Your Do worked better with some of my workouts better than others. When I did a high intensity interval training DVD, it worked. I left the wrap on for a few minutes after my workout was over and took it off and the top of my head was dry. I was delighted.

The next day I decided to really kick it up a notch and see what this wrap could really do. I put the wrap on and put in my Insanity DVD.  If you are unfamiliar with Insanity, it’s the program that claims “you will workout in a pool of your own sweat.”  They don’t mean that figuratively.

My Insanity workout was slightly less successful; the top of my head and edges were not totally dry like the day before, but they weren’t wet either. It was just a little bit damp. The good news is that my hair wasn’t nearly as much of a disaster as it normally is when I do Insanity, when it usually looks like someone dropped a bucket of water on my head.

The next day I tried the Save Your Do out with strength training.  The wrap worked perfectly. Completely and totally dry on the top of my head.  I imagine if I had purchased the triangle instead of the wide band I could say that the back of my head was completely dry as well but the special ‘wicking’ material stops where it ties in the back.  That is certainly one improvement that could be made for future versions of the product.

So in sum, the Save Your Do works, it just likely depends on how much you sweat and how intense your workouts are. If you are skipping your workouts because you don’t want to mess up your hair then I recommend this product.  Working out prevents disease.  A $25 dollar investment is certainly worth your health and your life.

Zerlina Maxwell is a political analyst and soon-to-be attorney.  You can follow her on Twitter: @ZerlinaMaxwell