On choosing sleep over style

 

Before becoming a mom, I must confess, my mornings began with a steamy love affair where I indulged in a heated hanky panky session with my blow dryer to conquer the spiral mess of frizzy curls on my head. The process of smoothing and straightening my hair has been a constant battle since, oh, about the second I hit puberty and quickly realized the ratio of frizzy hair to kissing a boy was simply not a mathematical equation the universe is capable of solving.

And so began the whole hair domestication process. For more years than I have fingers and toes, I began my day with a ritual that took about 45 minutes and involved no less than three products, four clips, one round metal brush, a series of complicated hexes and an entire boat load of patience. Oh, and if there was a hint of moisture in the air, be it rain, dew-filled morning air or summer humidity, my hair instantly turned into a disaster of a lion mane and, once upon a time, I even used to perpetually stuff my purse with several just in case “hair emergency” accessories to tame THE TRAGEDY.

Truthfully, I just wish I would have figured out 20 years ago how to manage the hair on my head. I mean, could someone not have told my insecure teenage self that the reason my hair looked shinier when straight was because straight hair reflects light and curly hair absorbs it? And that a tiny blob on salon quality gloss goes a long way. Or that curly hair is more porous and susceptible to breakage than straight hair and a good fortifying and curl-formulated shampoo and conditioner can work wonders. It literally took becoming a sleep-deprived mother with neither the time nor the patience to care about the state of my frizzy appearance to accept my curly hair for what it is and embrace what nature gave me. It’s so simple really. Curly hair just demands a bit of understanding, an expert cut with flowy layers that do not cause hair to morph into the shape of a cone head triangle and about 5 minutes with a diffuser. As I type this, I’m trying to picture my life pre-child and I just cannot fathom the effort and time it used to take to make my hair straight anymore because god knows if I didn’t abolish my hair straightening ritual into oblivion after having a baby, I would either need to get up at 3:45 AM every morning or stop feeding my kid breakfast. And I’m pretty sure my hair is breathing a small sigh of relief for not being blazed into a fried and flattened oblivion at a temperate set to that of the earth’s core anymore. This is an original post to Canada Moms Blog. Karla Cadeau also writes on her personal blog Untangling Knots.