I had heard that pregnancy can give you lush, full hair, and that afterwards it will fall out and return to normal. That wasn’t exactly my experience.

This simple hair look takes A LOT of work!

I got the lush and full part. My hair got thicker than normal, but after my son was born, it stayed thick! But not just thick – it got curlier. And not all over like normal hair. My hair went crazy in the back. The front and sides stayed straight and normal. I find it funny that everyone seems to think they have “fine” or “thick” hair but I rarely hear people say they just have “normal” hair. Well mine was just normal.

So all around my hairline and on top of my head, I have normal-to-fine straight hair, and then when you get around back, from the top of my ears to the nape of my neck it’s like another person’s head! It’s thick and not just wavy but juts out in these crazy corkscrew spirals. I had a bob style haircut when I was pregnant and when I went afterwards to get it trimmed back into my usual shorter length, it stuck STRAIGHT OUT from the back of my head. I had to flatten it and load it with product to get it to not look like someone attacked me and chopped at my hair. And this haircut was done the same way, by the same person who had cut my hair many times before.

So yeah, I’m all business up front and Animal House level party in the back.

I’ve spent the past few years growing my hair out to try and weigh down the curls and that has helped. But my hair is still not the same. It takes a huge amount of effort to make it look good all over, which is my 99% of the time I’m sporting a classic “mom bun.”

When I do finally fix it, I try and leave it that way for as long as possible. This has led me to my first experiences with the wonders of dry shampoo, which I now stock up on. I have also been experimenting with blow-out balms and frizz serums. And I got myself a vented brush so I can blow-dry everything smooth before adding back in a few waves. Such a process!

I feel like I’m a little obsessed with looking at other people’s hair and wondering how they get that look. Did they have to blow it all out first? Did they use a certain product? Or did they just roll out of bed and do a light brushing?

If you are reading this and have a favorite balm or serum, feel free to share! I’m always looking to try new stuff and experiment.