Many people will sacrifice the safety of their feet to get shoes that weigh just a few ounces less in an effort to carry less weight during a race and to run faster. This could be a good idea as long as you get shoes that will support you throughout the entire race. Getting lighter shoes just for the sake that they are lighter may or may not be a good move.
Cutting your hair, though, can easily shave between 8 ounces and 5 or even 10 pounds off of the weight that you carry during the race. You may not think that it is worth losing the great look that you have, in which case you of course want to keep your hair. If you are going to be running a cold weather marathon, then it may also be a good idea to keep your hair.
For myself, though, I always get a flat top a week or so before the marathon. My hair really needed cutting for the past month and a half or so, but I am too cheap to get my hair cut too close to my last cut so I have waited until today to chop it all off. I personally like the look on me; my wife doesn’t really care for it so much.
Cutting my hair off gives me for the most part a psychological edge. I feel faster, I feel more aerodynamic, and my head will sweat a whole lot less. Other than the sweating, my mind is just playing tricks on me but it works for me. I did also lose a few pounds of hair. My guess is that I lost about two pounds worth of hair today; maybe a little less. Usually, I probably cut off around a pound of hair or less. I will not be wanting all that hair over the warmer months anyway.
In the long run, this may not make a difference in my time. It is a style that I like, though, and it will allow me to better enjoy myself during the marathon and it could have a small effect on my race in terms of how much I have to carry throughout the race and in any head games that I decide that I want to engage in.
Have you ever cut your hair or dramatically changed your hair style to accomodate your running? Do you have a great barber like I do? Share some stories. I’m wondering if anybody else has conciously done something like this.
Not for running, but I’ve certainly cut if for swimming and noticed the difference.
Hee, hee. #2 for me all around. Makes me FEEL skinny! LOL. Wife doesn’t like it either…
Do you really think this will help? The weight of my hair could make that much difference.
I have shoulder length curly hair and it would be a dramatic change for me.
By the way Wes, how are those tires?
I think that swimming would probably result in more of a benefit, as your hair is going to get heavier when it is wet and there is a lot more drag. Skin caps can help there, as well.
I don’t know if cutting my hair makes me feel skinnier, but then I rarely feel over weight. I tend to be a bit on the thin side to begin with.
As for whether it will help, Ima, it can not really hurt. If you have a lot of hair, then cutting it off might give you a minor performance benefit, and/or a minor/major psychological benefit. The real question, though, is whether that is worth changing your hair style. Generally speaking, if you don’t think you’d like having short hair outside of the marathon, it probably isn’t worth cutting it for the marathon. The marathon is only going to last for a few hours. Your hair could take weeks/months/years to grow back depending upon how long it was and how much you cut it.
That being said, scheduling your regular hair cuts for the week before you marathon certainly can’t hurt things.
Thanks for the comments about cutting the hair. I really think the next time I run a marathon I will really consider the dramatic change as it will probably be a all or nothing attempt. Given my injury history I may not have many more attempts in me.
Some of us don’t have enough hair to worry with. I plan on getting a hair cut tomorrow. I will have it buzz cut. There will probably be less than a couple of ounces of hair.
Like my grandfather said once, “My barber is going to trade in her barbering license for a hunting license just to be able to find my hair.”
Well, like I said, it won’t make a difference for everybody. Generally, it doesn’t make a huge difference for me. Every once in a while I wait for a couple months longer than normal to cut my hair, though, and then I do have something to get rid of.
Full head shave before a major race for me, but it doesn’t make much difference as I’m almost bald anyway 🙂
Nice article though…
--Steve
I have too many dents in my head to look good with a full head shave…
I was not happy with my first marathon photos, my hair looked like a mop. For the second I cut hair very short. Took months to grow it out because hairdressers like to cut hair! Those marathon photos were worth every inch.