Hairstyle for Workouts: Fishtail Braid

A year and a half ago, I cut off 15 inches of hair to donate to Pantene's Beautiful Length.  Working out with short hair was easy because the only thing you can really do with short hair was a pulled back ponytail.  My hair was so short, it looked more like a fluff or the end of a bad paint brush.

As my hair grew to a medium length, the ponytail started feeling heavy, and it would swoosh side to side during my runs, and that was annoying.  I started wearing my hair in a short ponytail braid, high topknot, or low loose bun.  This worked for awhile...

Now that my hair is longer, a pulled back ponytail will not do, I can feel it flying all over the place when I run.  A bun does not stay put because it's a lot heavier, bulkier, and I hate using bobby pins, and they don't stay on my hair.  The bun is also fairly uncomfortable for Pilates, because I'm laying down most of the time, and the bun gets in the way when I'm trying to lay flat on the mat.  I tried the ponytail braid for Pilates and the whole time I can feel it bulking on my back, causing discomfort during sit-ups and core exercises.  And because my hair is layered, the short strands start to fall and stick to my face when I'm already feeling sweaty...gross.  By the end of the workout, my braid is a hot mess.  So I tried french braid, which I can not seem to do!  I have never been able to do the french braid on myself, but I can do it on other people.  It always comes out as a dutch braid on myself, so it doesn't work for Pilates because I can feel the bulk on the back of my head when I'm laying down, since the dutch braid has the braid sitting on top of the hair rather then inside or under the hair like a french braid. 

Finally, I decided to learn the fishtail braid because I've always wanted to do it to my hair but it always looked so difficult and complex because I thought it involved twisting and braiding at the same time.  But really, it is so much easier than a french or dutch braid.
 

Functionally, I love it during my workouts because at the end, my hair still looks good.  I don't have little strands of hair sticking out in odd places, because the cross-over strands are thinner, not necessarily tighter which I really like because I hate the feeling of my hair being pulled too tight.  AND it looks absolutely pretty and chic.

I'm so glad I finally found a hairstyle that works for me without weighing me down, literally!  What kind of hair style do you sport during your workouts?