Style Attempts: Maternity Ed. 2. Taking Time for the Details

When you have a newborn, the ultimate goal for the day is to survive.  Baby is alive?  Check.  You're alive?  Check.  Success.

Sometimes it is hard enough just to eat, let alone shower, get dressed, style your hair, and do your make-up.  Eventually, life calms down.  You fall into a routine.  And sometimes, if you're like me, you forget to include yourself in that routine.

When you're pregnant (and especially if you have another babe already), you start feeling outside of yourself.  Taking time to maintain the "details," like your hair and make-up, can make all the difference.  It does for me, at least.

I work from home.  My husband works from home.  I have a two-year-old son who entertains himself.  Why do I still feel guilty when I take a bath?  Or when I blow dry my hair?  I get too involved in trying to take care of everyone else that I forget about the small things to take care of myself.

In our old house, it was kind of difficult to get ready with Eliot.  That meant going upstairs, which would result in him crying to come along.  And if I did bring him with me, he'd surely be trying to climb down the stairs.  Irony...  Kinda hard to do one's hair and make-up.  However, our new house is a ranch.  So now Eliot just runs around where he wants to.  And I don't feel so guilty because I can do my hair and make-up in the hall bathroom where he can come visit me if he wants or go do something else.  He is very interested in my eyeliner especially because he thinks it is a pen, so sometimes I have him put on my face moisturizer or some of Chris's aftershave to make him feel like he is involved.

So often, I would decide to "sacrifice" doing my make-up in the interest of getting us out the door faster.  However, I timed myself.  It takes me three minutes to do my make-up.  I only put on a little eye shadow, eye liner, and mascara (I'm a minimalist and also don't know what I'm doing, really), but those three minutes make such a difference in how I feel about myself.  I'm worth those three minutes (and more!).

As for my hair, well, it had grown long.  Really long.  And I usually let it air dry, blow-dry my "bangs" and curl them if I'm feeling fancy, and spray in this product to help it form some waves for texture.  It didn't take long, but I was feeling kind of ratty.  I needed a trim (and then some).

And I realized that I hadn't cut my hair since September 2011 (see entry here) and the time before that had been a year.  Never again, friends.  Every time I thought about getting my hair cut, I felt so guilty.  I'd be taking time away from Eliot.  I'd be taking up time we could have together as a family doing something fun.  I almost didn't do it today, even, but Chris practically pushed me out the door because he knew it was important to me.

I got four inches off and yet my hair still manages to look long (which I was hoping for) and the curls are sticking again since I have less weight and split ends.  I didn't even blow dry my hair all the way, so I'm sure I could easily get it looking even better with minimal effort.  I should have done this a long time ago.

All of this is to say that you should make time for yourself.  I'm not one of those people who praises herself and demands a week's vacation for "me" time, but I am someone who puts herself last frequently when no one is even asking for anything.  In the words of Parks and Rec, "treat yo'self."  So, Katie, don't wait another year and a half for a hair cut.  And take three minutes a day to do your eye make-up if it makes you feel better.

Style Attempts: What to do with Fine, Straight Hair

I haven't gotten my hair cut in a year almost to the day.  I always go back and forth as to whether I should cut it short or not; however, I never do because short hair makes me look younger.

This seems silly to go on and on about, but my hair is thin, straight (though slightly wavy in the back), and difficult to get to to anything.  Before Eliot came around, I would spend at least 20 minutes a day curling it.  If I really tried, I probably could do that still, but the curls don't really stick anyway.

Here are a few no-time remedies that I have discovered for people with fine, straight hair who still want to look a like they haven't given up on life (which I do if I don't do anything to my hair).

Simple Gibson Tuck.  This twisted bun is quick and easy.  If I can do it, anyone can.  It just requires a hair tie and a few pins.  I'm really bad at pinning my hair, so sometimes I have to re-do it in the middle of the day, but I can do it without a mirror in just about 30 seconds.  Here is a tutorial.  And here is a similar one that is a little more "advanced," I guess, that I have tried a couple of times (sorry no photo!).

Simple braid.  Most days, I end up doing a simple, loose braid and resting it over my shoulder.  I think it looks a lot better than throwing it in a pony tail and takes just a moment.

Spray-in waves.  I recently bought some spray-in waves for $5 by Garnier Fructis.  Just spray in and scrunch!  It's not the curliest ever, but it does provide some extra thickness and waves.

Hair pretzel.  I posted this a while ago, but here is another simple up-do.

No-heat curls.  Of course, don't forget about no-heat curls!  I don't usually do this because I rarely shower in the evening with enough time for my hair to dry at night before bed.  p.s. Can you believe how bald Eliot was?  Man!

I'm always looking for new ideas!  I do need to at least trim my hair up and also cut my bangs--they are hardly bangs anymore.

Do you have any quick remedies for boring hair?

Hair Pretzel

I hate to sound incredibly vain, but I have been feeling quite bland for some time.  Clothes don't fit quite right.  I don't have time for make-up or to do my hair.  And my hair is very thin and straight, so if I don't blow dry and curl it, it becomes this weird straight mess with frizzy ends.   I'd swear that I have split ends, but it looks the same even right after a hair cut.

As a result, I've been thinking of cutting it off.  A shorter hair cut might take less maintenance.  At the same time, it not only runs the risk of not looking so great, but I also would probably have to curl it for sure every day to get it to look how I want--though it would take less time.

In the end, I decided to experiment what I can do with my current haircut.  Medium-length hair lends itself to so many more options.  And I'm just not quite brave enough to take the plunge and cut it all off.  So, with this in mind, I plan to post some hair experiments here and there.  Also, I'll post little tidbits of "style"--or whatever you want to call it--to help dress things up.  A nice accessory, little trick, new piece of clothing, shoes, whatever is making me feel just a little bit better about myself.  Because I know I'm not the only mom out there who feels less themselves physically and fashion-wise after having a baby.

Here's the first post!

Today I tried putting my hair in a "pretzel" using this tutorial from Joanna Goddard's A Cup of Jo.

It is raining today, and I knew if I took the time to curl my hair and stepped outside for a second, it would all be lost.  I thought I'd give this a try as an alternative to a pony tail.  It really doesn't take too long--and I didn't have to blowdry my hair all the way, so that was a bonus.  I'm no hair expert and I'm sure I didn't do it perfectly, but it was reasonably easy and just took one try.

 

And of course here is a shot with Eliot just because.