You Don’t Need Clean Hair to be a Hot Mama

When I was about 7 months pregnant, I met a young mother at a wedding and she told me all about how she never had time to take a shower. Nodding my head, I tried to understand and convey sympathy, but inside I was thinking she was just disorganized.

When my child was born, and I stopped working, I made a conscious decision that I would treat motherhood like work. An outfit and a shower every morning no matter what. I successfully managed to do this (with mascara and lipgloss no less) until a few months ago when my daughter officially turned into a toddler.

Oh, now I see. You really don’t have time for a damn shower anymore! Having made this realization, I’ve had to reassess my commitment to vanity and figure out a way to appear relatively “cute” in the looks-obsessed isle of Manhattan. So, I’ve come up with a pretty solid system to keep looking and smelling like a fresh bed of daisies—even if you have dark circles, split ends and bad breath!

Stop Washing Your Hair
Forget washing your hair everyday if that’s what you’re used to. Try the every other day

S Factor's Diamond Dreams Makes Your Play Doh-Filled Hair Attractive Again

method (or two). This involves an upgrade on your shampoo though. If you’re going to wash less, treat yourself to a high-end shampoo treat. I love S Factor’s Diamond Dreams Shampoo and Conditioner. It’s ridiculous and total bullshit, but their shampoo has real DIAMONDS and CASHMERE in it (not to mention champagne and pearls!). For whatever reason, that makes me feel good and important inside.

The other necessity is dry shampoo. This will change your life. No Shit. Suave and Tresseme make really good and reasonably priced dry shampoos. Just spray it on and brush it out and you’ve got clean, non-greasy hair for little grubby hands to pull. I prefer Suave’s dry shampoo because it’s translucent. Tresseme kind of makes your  hair look like a powdered wig, but I’ll use it in a pinch.

Alternating between cheap dry and really expensive wet shampoo, allows you to still take a shower every day—even if it’s a quick rinse because your child decides to stand in the toilet and drink Listerine the second the shower door closes.

HEADBANDS
Part of your new hair regimen should include headbands. Combined with the dry shampoo, you can create a flirty look while keeping your hair swept up off your face. This is THE hair solution for when you’re trying to get our the door, but Jr. just took off his coat for the third fucking time, peed in his shoe and your husband won’t get the hell out of your one-and-only New York-sized bathroom. I prefer these cheap Goodie bands, but you can also treat yourself to cool fabric covered headbands like these.

Headbands make you beautiful again!

Find a GOOD Concealer and Use Makeup Removing Wipes

Concealer is essential. Especially if you are like my husband and I and really enjoy our nights “off” after bedtime. We’re usually up until 11:30/12 hanging out watching some stupid TV show and then up at 7:00 a.m. Now, 7 hours of sleep was enough in your 20s, but when you hit 35, this does a number of your face.

Another thing that causes dark, worn out, “mommy” circles is not removing your makeup properly at night. As we discussed, you don’t have any damn time for a shower anymore, so you probably aren’t going to wash your face every night either. Enter: Biore Makeup Removing Towlettes. These things are awesome, make sure to pay attention to your under-eye area and you’ll definitely see some circle reduction that’s usually due to old mascara.

Listerine
This pretty much speaks for itself. Use after you drink 5 cups of coffee in the morning so you’re awake enough to get your kid to nursery school or sing-along time at the library. The other mommies and your husband will appreciate it.