Mama in the City

Recently I took some time for myself and booked in at a hair shop in my neighbourhood and signed up for the works. I came to my stylist wanting her to cover up the dreadful grey hairs that have been sprouting up in the front and also to trim and reshape my locks into something I was happy with. One of the things that happened to me post partum was the dreaded major hair shed that eventually left little sparse patches behind. It's been about a year since I had the massive post partum hair shed and the new hair growth has left me with little short hairs sticking straight up, especially noticeable along my part. With just the right light you can see these short hairs standing at attention all along the part.

Just as I was about to leave I made a comment about how annoying it was to have to try and tame the 'baby hairs' and my hair girl Melissa stopped me and asked me if I knew about 'the shoe shine' technique. Obviously I did not so she got me back in the chair for a quick little teaching session on how to tame the new hair growth.


This is the normal cycle of our hair. The estrogen from your pregnancy keeps the hair longer in the growing stage, making for some thick and lustrous hair. However, once that hormone pumping placenta is out of the womb all those extra hairs start going through their usual life cycle and you've got excess hair loss. I had hair loss with both of my pregnancies but it was worse with Ben. My shower was constantly plugged and I'd wake up with obvious hair strands all over my pillow.


How to do The Shoe Shine:

To do this you don't need a bunch of hair tools or a lot of product. First you grab a tissue and take off any extra ply until it is just 1 ply. Take an aerosol hairspray and give your 1 play tissue a spritz. Take the tissue and very lightly 'shoe shine' the areas that need to be tamed. It is a really gentle back and forth along the areas that need it. A bonus of this trick is that you don't ruin the volume of your hair and you don't leave a bunch of excess product on the follicles. I loved this trick so much and have been using it since she showed me.


Want to learn more about hair loss and pregnancy? Check out what Kelly Mom has to say on the subject.