9 Ways to Look Professional With Postpartum Hair
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As someone who just had baby #2, I’ve been reminded of a problem that I never saw coming the first time: postpartum hair changes, including postpartum wispies and postpartum hair loss. I’ve since seen a lot of stories on postpartum hair, but I’ve never seen one on how to look professional with all of these hair changes. So I figured we’d start a dialog. So, ladies: did you notice major changes to your hair after your babies were born? Was it was more difficult to make your regular styles look nice, neat, and professional? How did you cope?
For me, I didn’t suffer from loss so much as I did breakage/wispies in the crown — I could barely pull my hair back from weeks 8-20 without immediately having super-fine, short hairs falling into my face. This, I worried, contributed to the frazzled-sloppy-new-mom look. The go-to styles that I used when I needed/wanted to look put together included:
- A part ponytail on the top of my head (see picture at right, taken around the time my son was 13 weeks old). I liked that it was super easy to do — I also thought it looked good if it worn down OR if it was pulled back into a ponytail. Despite the fact that there are wispies in the picture (dang it!) I swear they mostly did manage to stay out of my face without a ton of hairspray.
- Variation: a part braid on top of my head (particularly good if I was pulling my hair back into a ponytail for something aerobic). See the Corporette discussion on work-appropriate braids to find more ideas there.
- A rolled ponytail type look. I tried to make a video to describe how to do this look and it failed because, well, YouTube superstar I am not — but I did my best to describe it in this post on ponytails at the office.
- Fine, yes, headbands — these Sweaty Bands are amazing for workouts (and might be fine for your office as well). The velvet backing makes them very comfortable but secure.
A few other general hair tips that were helpful during this time period:
- Hairspray! I tried to find a silicone-free hairspray so it wouldn’t gunk up my hair too much. You can even spray a toothbrush with hairspray and use it to tame flyaways.
- Use mousse at your roots, and make sure to use your blowdryer to point the wispies away from your face.
- If you’re constantly wearing your hair up, learn how to tease it properly for some volume on top (and to keep those fine hairs “together” a bit).
Finally, I never had too big of a problem with hair loss, but I might TRY this GLH spray (which I remember reading about in a magazine profile years ago). I know other bloggers have talked about bangs being a lifesaver.
One final tip, particularly for you homeowners — Drano can actually really screw up your pipes, so if your shower drain is clogged, do try a DIY snake type thing like the ZipIt.
Ladies, how did you deal with postpartum hair problems like wispies, hair breakage, and hair loss? Did you have any go-to looks for a comfortable but professional hair style?
Social media picture credits: Shutterstock / By Ollyy.
I ended up with large bald spots at my temples post partum and a texture change that refused to hold curl or do anything but frizz. After 9 months, I’m dealing with 2 inch regrowth in front and am grateful that it’s covering my bare scalp! I’m headed for a haircut soon and will likely end up with a shoulder length A-Line bob to make everything look more polished.
Ok, so I didn’t realize that the hormonal changes would mess with my hair. Although, hindsight, I really should have! I am 5 years postpartum with twins and I am finally starting to see my hair return to a more normal state. I wear a lot of buns because my hair is very frizzy and my “messy” bun just looks more professional than my long hair.
6 months postpartum here – I just did the pixie chop. My hair was just past shoulder length, but I was only wearing it down maybe twice a week to work. The minute I left to go get the kiddo from day care, it was back in a pony so as not to get pulled. Between the elastic and postpartum breakage, it looked so unhealthy in the back, even freshly styled. I opted to just get rid of it. The short length is so easy to manage, dries fast, and I love how fun and sassy it is. Plus it feels so much healthier now! I am also experiencing a lot of hair loss, but no big chunks are missing so the pixie still made sense for me. I echo the advice above to get thee to a pro as early as possible when the loss/breakage/wispies hit – they can help you manage!
It seemed like half of my hair fell out 6 months post-partum. It just looked awful, especially after getting used to the thick pregnancy hair. There was not much else to do but chop it all off, sadly. No technique or amount of product can mask that much hair loss. The shorter length definitely helped what I had left not be weighed down and it looked so much healthier.
Hi All –
I am hoping for some advice on dealing with jealousy and the general difficulty of trying to get pregnant without success. It seems like all of the other boards out there are pretty silly with women wishing for successful “baby dancing” so I thought I’d turn here in the hopes some professional women who may have had trouble getting pregnant can offer me some advice. My husband and I are at the one year mark, we’ve both had full workups and the diagnosis so far has been unexplained infertility. We decided to take a break from trying this month because I wanted to take a break from clomid for a month (three months of unsuccessfully trying on clomid w/ ovulation induction). Generally, I love my job and am career focused but it seems like everyone is pregnant around me. It doesn’t help that my two best friends are pregnant/have a one year old. Taking a break has been good for me mentally and has allowed me to refocus a bit, but I am feeling a bit hormonal today about the whole situation. Any advice on how to stay focused on work and the positive aspects of life generally when going through this situation would be appreciated.
I lost so much hair, and I also have no time/energy to spend styling, so it mostly just looks terrible. My solution has been to stop caring.
ETA: Sorry if that was excessively glum. It’s been a rough few weeks, sleep-wise.
Oh my goodness, this is so topical for me right now. I started losing my hair after about 6 months and have been shocked – shocked! – at the amount of hair on my brush every day. At just past 9 months, the hair loss seems to have slowed down but now I have wispies that are about 2 inches long. They were pretty funny when they were half an inch.
I didn’t do anything special about my hair post-partum. I just pulled it back into a ponytail, and when I started going back to work, I wore it up just about every day, which is normal for me anyway. However, I got progressively more annoyed with my hair as it seemed to get limper and limper with all the hair loss. The fact that I hadn’t had it cut since last November didn’t help – it was dragging down my face and looking very sad. I finally got it cut earlier this week and my amazing hairdresser put in lots of layers to give it extra body. It’s now just past my shoulders and feels great.
Luckily I haven’t experienced any changes in hair texture or such. Fingers crossed, at least.