Get this: the week I got pregnant, I got a sudden impulse to walk over to a salon during my lunch hour and chop off four inches of my long hair. Granted, I needed a trim, but looking back I’m not sure such a drastic cut was necessary. When I found out I was pregnant a week or two later, I decided I might as well take that hair cut once step further and get a “hot mom haircut.” That was the exact phrase I used to describe the hair I was going for while talking to my stylist. In case you are wondering what a “hot mom haircut” looks like, according to me anyway, think of Jenny McCarthy’s short, angled bob. That’s what I got, and for a year, I loved it! Most of that year, however, was during my pregnancy.
My haircut, which was supposed to be maintenance free and easy for a new mom, ended up being a bad hair day nightmare. It looked gorgeous after 20 minutes of styling, but did I have 20 minutes every morning to do my hair with a newborn? The answer is no. Unfortunately, if I didn’t blow dry it just right, it flipped in all the wrong places. Without the weight that comes naturally with length, it poofed, and not like a Bump It, either. I quickly realized that my mom-cut was not very mom-friendly, at least not for my hair type. When my son was about 6 months old, I started growing my hair out.
Now that he is a year and a half old, my hair is well past my shoulders but still one year’s worth of growth away from where I want it to be. At least this time around I am taking much better care of it. The secret to great mom hair is dry shampoo. I take the time to style my hair just how I want it during nap time, and then the next two days I can maintain it by cleaning the roots with my dry shampoo. I don’t have to wake up early and I don’t have to do my grocery shopping while looking like Alf. Scary mental picture, right?