The Fitness Trend I Wish Would Make a Comeback [The Sweaty Bangs Problem]

Yes, I’ve used this picture twice on this site before but that is just how deeply I love this dude. I have titled it “Awesome Sauce.” I think he may be the patron saint of the GFE!

Bikram kickboxing – you many not have heard of doing kickboxing in a super heated room before but let me tell you it’s all the rage at my Y. Oh it’s not intentional, it’s just what happens when you cram 70+ sweaty bodies into a tiny studio with poor ventilation. We sweat so much all over the floor that Turbo Jennie had to bring in carpet dryers to keep us all from hitch-kicking right onto our well-toned tushies. (Confession: while I haven’t kicked myself onto the floor – YET – lest you think me more of an athlete than I am, I did accidentally slide into the horizontal splits trying to do a plie squat. I’m already getting excited for ice-rink kickboxing come winter, when all our sweat freezes to the floor!) So today while I did slip-n-slide roundhouses, I was contemplating fitness trends that I really really wish would come back in style. Why? Because thanks to my propensity to sweat like a dude and my cute bangs, so much salt water runs into my eyes that I’m considering shaving off my eyebrows to fully embrace my pale-wet-and-clammy aesthetic:

You love me, Powder.

You know what I need? A sweatband. Oh yes, one of these bad boys:

They still make them. Under Armor even makes pink ones and I had one in my cart before bowing to the whims of fashion and taking it out. Hey, I may not be the most fashionable girl around but I do like to look au courant and for some bizarre reason bangs-in-your-eyes is the It style right now.

They look adorable but trust me when I say they are about as comfortable as wearing sunglasses rolled in dog hair. They get even worse when I sweat.

I’ve tried other solutions. Bobby pins work great for pulling my bangs out of my face but they don’t do squat for the sweat rivulets. Headbands are super cute right now but I must have the world’s weirdest shaped head because they pop right off with all the zeal of Tim Gunn making fun of “I must be carried down the stair by a phalanx of men” Anna Wintour. (You must watch this video, I have never seen Tim Gunn so happy! Or Jon Stewart for that matter.) And I can’t pull off do-rags due to the fact that I’m neither black nor an extra on Little House on the Prairie.

So you see how I have arrived at the sweatband? The terry cloth is wonderfully absorbent, the circular shape enfolds my sweaty forehead in a gentle hug, AND it’s machine washable! The only problem is I think I’d look more Muppet-unibrow than trendy Hipster:

For the love of little green apples, I’m a 32-year-old soccer mom! (Okay, “soccer mom” in name only – my boys actually do Show Choir, and do it awesomely, I might add.) Help me out! Do you have the sweaty bangs problem too? What do you do? Should I just buck convention and wear the sweatband with pride? What bygone fitness trend do you wish would come back?

PS> You know what else is awesome and I wish I got to wear more of? Tennis dresses. All the coverage of a skirt but so many more cute options! Although maybe not quite like this:

Um, Venus? Do you know you have fireworks exploding out of your lady business? Also, this looks like the world’s least-flattering tank top but if you see yourself in the other pictures you will realize this is actually a dress. (You should, you designed it!) Typically we associate crotchtacular dresses with inebriated starlets. Don’t be that girl Venus. Think of the children.

But I do give you mad props for wearing underwear! Although I do feel compelled to tell you that when they say to wear flesh-toned undies they mean underneath something else. Carry on being awesome now.