I see an awful lot of athletes using many different versions of the braids either in sporting events involving contact/combat sports, I thought I would give some research into what appears to be a widely debated area.
One of the areas research led me towards in considering if pulling of the hair roots could in anyway cause underlying issue in head impact. This is a unisex research piece I would like to add before we delve into this debated area.
I turned to a medical condition called Trichotillomania which involves hair pulling as a form of neurological disorder, you may ask why, initially I would have to ascertain the extent of what hair pulling does underneath the scalp and to do this and understand whether there could be any underlying damage caused to frontal lobes or another section of the brain. One such study I found evidenced here Cortical thickness abnormalities in trichotillomania: international multi-site analysis – PubMed (nih.gov) does in fact evidence that pulling your hair in one direction or another can lead to a form of behaviour disorder, and given my previous blog covering CTE leading to behaviour disorder this is potentially one other area that impact sports athletes or professionals should be aware of. However, I found this article that suggests that repetitive head injury in or around one specific area of the head which can cause damage to what they refer to as the manufacturing plant then the hair growth will be permanently damaged and fail to grow back accredited here Hair for brain trade-off, a metabolic bypass for encephalization (nih.gov).
I then cross referenced that with another article which focused on timescales around the hair loss as a result of the trauma/stress or head impact it suggests that hair will try and grow back after head trauma but depending on the extent of trauma or injury can cause additional delay Scalp Trauma Induced Hair Loss | Feller & Bloxham Medical (fellermedical.com).
I am aware that braids do pull the hair tighter up and back across the scalp so you are in essence tightening the skin area around the forehead and the temporal lobe area and around the eyes, obviously these areas when involved in combat sports are critical to your performance, so sustaining injury in those specific areas quickly would be a risk. This research finding here is graphic so be warned before clicking on it Full-thickness Scalp Injury Due to Hair Braiding and Weave (nih.gov) it evidences that blood flow can be inadvertently cut off or redirected in a bad way. One thing I hope you take away here, is that you will need a good credible hair stylist towards ensuring your braids or cornrows do not do what this pattern implies could happen if done too tight or repeated so extensively in the same pattern.
This amazing article gives some great guidance on how to combat braids that are too tight or repetitive in the same location, another thing I glean from this is that rotating your braid or cornrow is a good practice towards head injury and or having to contend with hair loss. What Can I Do About Braids That Are Too Tight? (byrdie.com)
It appears based on these articles there is inherent risk associated with the different hairstyles having underlying impact to not only causing head trauma via restricted blood flow or other repetitive injury to certain areas of the head.
Obviously people will arrive at their own conclusion based on this research data, In my view one of the safest routes was exactly what Ronda Rousey has done on this article credited here Here’s Why MMA Fighters Like Ronda Rousey Braid Their Hair (yahoo.com). This style does not restrict the blood flow due to the make-up and the style, there is no braid and no cornrow circular pattern. This style is loose fitted and is swept back in such a way that it would not pull the skin tighter across the forehead and temporal lobe area. The same could be said of cornrows but only if in a swept back pattern not circular as seen in the earlier images.
Remember a Good stylist is cheaper than a good therapist- make the change people!
image by shari shirotnak