Tips And Tricks To Working With Natural Hair As A Busy Mom

To do list: laundry, pack for day-care, check homework, make breakfast, plan dinner, finish reports for that big project, parents’ conference, dance recital, family night. Does this look familiar?

For most of us, hair care takes up a considerable amount of time, but when you’re a busy mom juggling the responsibilities of home and the office, the balancing act can get really tricky.

It can be quite easy to let yourself go when you are a stay at home mom hidden from the scrutiny of the public eye and perhaps if not for the expectations of the workplace you wouldn’t even be bothered with ensuring that your hair makes a decent appearance in public. Still, you desire healthy, fabulous hair.

Sure you wish there were more hours in the day when you have a million and one things to do, but it is what it is. What do you do now? Seek out tips and tricks that can help you work with natural hair of course!

Of utmost concern to you is the time constraints I’m sure so the following tips may help.

Keep it simple

One of the first rules of thumb; keep it simple. You may be a member of every hair care site there is and be feeling overwhelmed with all the information on maintenance, regimens and styling, but there is no need to do or try every single one of them.

Find what works for you best and rock that. This may take a bit of experimentation especially if you are a new natural, but keep to the simple path.

Accept your hair for what it is

You have made the decision to keep your hair natural and though it may not be the length and texture you want, it is what you’ve got. Quit spending precious time and energy trying to fit it into a mold it wasn’t created for.

The sooner you accept your hair for what it is, the sooner you will be able to economize on time which will free you up to strike some other things off your list. Find out what your hair needs and stick to it.

It also helps to figure out what styles are suited to your bone structure and hair type so that you do not install styles that are suited to other hair types, only to undo them shortly thereafter because they didn’t work for you.

Do not neglect “old faithful”

Once the regimen, products and styles support your objectives for healthy hair and growth, do not shelf them in favor of the newest craze. While experimentation can be good, you recognize that your lifestyle is not accommodating of lots of trial and error experiments (save those for vacation time).

Buns, wraps and twists are great go-to styles that are staples in the regimen of moms on the go.

Weekly styles

If you have daughters, ensure that you install styles that they can rock for the entire week. This ensures that you do not use time daily to detangle and style their hair. For infants and toddlers especially, who have very limited attention spans and tolerance for sitting still while you try to groom their hair doing this will be less frustrating.

I have found that it is easier to style a toddler’s hair when you distract them with their favorite video or give them some menial task to perform – like holding the spray bottle or brush- while you busily whip their hair into shape!

Daily moisture

Moisturize your hair regularly; in fact, it should be done daily. This will extend the life of your styles so that you don’t have to manipulate your strands more than is absolutely necessary.

This is where knowledge of your hair’s porosity comes in handy, as it will inform the way your hair treats moisture. It will also be the decisive factor in whether you are able to do a deep conditioning* treatment overnight to save some time.

Note that while an overnight DC treatment is not suited to everyone, if you are among the privileged who can do it, it can work wonders for your moisturizing routine and length retention.

It would mean that on a weekly basis you get to save that extra time that you would carve out of another day to do it.

Style sensibly

Install styles that suit your hair’s natural tendencies. If your hair is predisposed to curls, opt for easy styles that will complement your hair without much fuss.

There is nothing more soul destroying than seeing your newly flat ironed hair puff back to semi afro within hours of completing it!

Keep your hair detangled

Detangle often so that you don’t have to spend hours on end trying to dislodge masses of shedded hair. Waiting too long between detangling sessions may result in breakage caused by rough handling when you become frustrated with the length of time it takes to rid your hair of tangles.

It is recommended that you finger detangle at least every three days to steer clear of single strand knots that will be counter-productive to length retention.

Accessorize

Accessorize to jazz up your styles that are several days old. A strategically placed bow or scarf might be just what you need to liven up hair that has made the rounds already.

You do not necessarily need to produce a fresh style every day. Braid-outs and twist-outs can be transformed into spiffy updos such as pompadours and a variety of other simple styles.

High buns and tufts need not be drab and can be spruced up with chokers or other jewellery (be sure it is not the variety that is prone to snagging your delicate strands).

When all is said and done, you are more than an errand girl and deserve to pamper your sensual side. Find what works with your specific set of circumstances and let your beauty shine and that will account for one less thing on your to do list.