Busy Mama Hair Routine

I was cat-called yesterday…. Well, maybe that’s what it was, but actually it seemed more like a genuine complement? The guy yelled out the window of his truck as he drove by me walking on the sidewalk, “YOU HAVE LOVELY HAIR!” Does this mean I’m officially old? What happened to, “you have a sweet a$$”? At least I have nice hair I guess…. But only because he was driving too fast to see all of the gray glistening in the sunshine :-P Anywho, since I’m pregnancy hopeful, I have actually been putting a bit more thought into my hair routine and how to incorporate more natural products, so I thought I’d share!

I have long thick hair that is a lot to shampoo, condition, possibly blow dry and curl and I’m super lazy, so I only wash it twice each week. Plus I read somewhere once that it’s good to not wash your hair too often and I’ve clung to the notion since it conveniently fits my toddler mom lifestyle. My general routine is to wash my hair Wednesday and Sunday evenings. In my pre-mom days I never would have believed that I could be an evening shower person- I was always a morning shower person. However, mornings are unpredictable as to when exactly my little one will wake and need me. Sure Hubbs could go get him now, but this routine evolved when I was still nursing. Sometimes I run through the shower with my little tyke for efficiency and other times I wait until after he has gone to bed to enjoy a little alone time. (Side note: when my toddler is a mess after playing outside he gets baths as-needed, but during the winter months he sticks to the same twice/week bath routine, too. We live in a very try climate and I have noticed that more frequent bathing dries out his skin even more.) I’d found a natural shampoo and conditioner that I loved last year and then it was discontinued :-/ So frustrating. Luckily I had a hair trim a few months later and my stylist recommended Loma shampoo and conditioner, which does a great job! It's a tad spendy, but I've certainly seen many that are more expensive. Now that I only wash my hair twice a week and I’ve found that when shampoo is expensive I manage to use less of it, it seems worth it. 

On the evenings when there are a few drops of energy and motivation left I’ll blow-dry my hair and other times I go to bed with it wet. (Ick, another thing I never thought I would do, but when I’m tired I can manage the damp hair.) Whether I blowdry my hair or not I use It’s a10 Miracle Leave-In product. This stuff is awesome! The name comes from the fact that it does 10 different things at once- repairs dry damaged hair, adds shine, smoothes and controls frizz, seals and protects hair color, detangles (essential for colored hair), prevents split ends, stops hair breakage, creates silkiness, enhances natural body, flat iron and thermal protector (essential for blowdrying and/or curling).) Efficient and effective, two of my favorite things. On nights when I know I have an extra early or rushed morning I’ll braid my hair so that the next morning I just undo the elastics and take out the braids for a wavy look. Other times I curl or straighten my hair in the morning. The trick to making this hair last for 3-4 days? DRY SAMPOO, of course!

I LOVE dry shampoo because I want to look fresh at the office, but I’m WAY too lazy to wash my hair every day, or even every other day. Some people love experimenting with different products and mix it up all the time. I’m not a products person, so I prefer to ask my friends who are products people what the best is and I stick with that if it works. However, I was forced to go on the journey myself for dry shampoo out of necessity. With many products I got the white skunk stripes minus the fresh-looking hair. I was frustrated with all of the product testing, but one day a friend who isn’t even a “products person” happened upon LivingProof’s Perfect hair Day (PhD) Dry Shampoo. She loved it and knew that any toddler mom would need an amazing dry shampoo, so she recommended it to me and I couldn’t agree more! It’s the best I’ve ever found- it refreshes hair and even adds a little volume to equal (dare-I-say-it) a perfect hair day indeed! However, this shampoo is aerosol and seems a bit chemically. Thus I was forced into the dry shampoo adventure again, but this time for a NATURAL option. I was super lucky and actually liked the first one I tried, Aveda Shampure Dry Shampoo. It’s slightly awkward because it’s not an aerosol, so you gently shake it and then squeeze the bottle to dispel the powder. This is experience is reminiscent of the bottle of baby powder that is squeezed when it shouldn’t have been, but you get the hang of it after a few applications. Of course it does require some finger massage into the scalp, but it disappears pretty easily. A good trick with dry shampoo is to apply it before bed so that it has time to absorb the oil and you get to roll out of bed with great hair!

Do you have any tips to improve this hair routine? What’s your hair routine? Do you have a favorite dry shampoo and if so what is it?