Hair Fashion for (Very) Time Poor Mums

For a girl like me – who gets to a hairdresser about 4 times a year – a trip to Sydney to have my hair coloured and styled is like a dream come true!  

You see, looking after my hair is pretty much at the bottom of my list when it comes to personal care.  It just all seems too hard sometimes so I either leave it out or throw it back (unbrushed) into a bun. I actually feel a bit disheartened.  Throughout my pregnancies, my hair changed colour, fell out in epic proportions (about 3 months after giving birth to each of my four children) was pulled at by toddlers and is basically not what it used to be. So my hair pretty much goes into the too-hard-basket and I get the odd cut now and again and colour my hair when I feel desperate.

When I talked to Pantene Hair Style Expert, Barney Martin, I felt some hope! But first, I want to tell you about flying to a different city to have my hair styled. How crazily awesome is that?!

Diary of my day

6.00 am Wake

8.45 am Drop kids to school

9.20 am Meet award winning blogger, Nikki from Styling You, at Brisbane Airport

10.30 am Board plane

11.45 pm Arrive in Sydney

12.00pm Driver takes Nikki and I to the event

12.30 pm Arrive at Barney Martin Hairdressing. Drink great coffee and moist orange cake.

1.00 pm Introduced to Pantene Pro-V Nature Fusion Shampoo & Conditioner (200ml $4.89), enriched with ingredients derived from Cassia seeds.  It smells wonderful! The new formula combines science and nature to give hair fullness and shine.  I use Pantene Pro-V at home because it doesn’t weigh my hair down, so I’m excited to try this new formula. Nikki from Stying You covers interesting facts about Pantene, hair colour, silicons and a lot of other cool stuff  this in this post:  I Flew to Sydney for a Blow Dry.

2.00 pm Colour my hair with the Nice ‘n Easy Colour Blend Foam ($17.99). Extremely easy to prepare: I pour one bottle into another, tip the bottle gently up and down 3 times and squeeze the bottle to apply the no-drip foam. 

2.10 pm Colour washed off with an awesome head massage.

2.30 pm Enjoy a pot of tea while having my hair styled (bliss!). My lovely hair stylist puts Wella Pro Series Volume Mousse (250ml $7.99) into my wet hair before blow drying.  The gorgeous lose curls are set with Wella Pro Series Max Hold Hair Spray (400ml $7.99).

2.40 pm Confessed to hair stylist Michael that the extent of my  styling is blasting my hair in the car using the car heater. He makes a good point about the importance of  focusing more on the condition of your hair rather than styling…because if hair is in good condition, any style looks good. Still feel disheartened about having so little time to even look after my hair, let alone style it!

2.45 pm Ring husband to check he is okay to get the kids from school.

3.00 pm Say goodbye to my fellow bloggers.

(from the back) L to R: Me, Nikki — Styling You, Emma — Emma’s Brain, Lori — RRSAHM,  Zoey — GoodGoogs, Brenda — The Mother Media, Mrs Woog — Woogs World, Trish — My Three Little Drummer Boys

3.10 pm Driver takes Nikki and I to Sydney Airport

4.00 pm Board plane at Sydney Airport

5.15 pm Arrive in Brisbane

6.00 pm Home again

Before and After

I’ve always wanted to do a before and after shot. HA! Love my new shiny colour (Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Dark Reddish Brown).

Hair Care Tips for Time Poor Mums

I love trying new hair products and learning new things, but when it comes down to it, I don’t have much time to invest in hair care.  So, I asked Barney Martin, Award Winning Hair Style Expert, what his top 3 tips for (very) time poor mums.  The tips cover these three concepts: invest, protect and style.

1.  Invest

To make sure your hair is healthy then protection is key! Treat your hair styling tools as an investment for great hair. The cheaper brands may be tempting but spending a little extra and the results will pay off, and make sure you always use heat protection sprays and serums when blow drying or straightening your hair.

2.  Protect

Certain activities with the children can have adverse affects on your hair, for example swimming lessons. You should wet your hair with fresh water before swimming in chlorinated swimming pools, to will help prevent the harsh chemicals penetrating the cuticle and drying your hair out. If you do have regular swimming sessions then using a treatment once a week can help top keep the hair hydrated and nourished.

3.  Style

If you have straight hair and want to give it some more waves, go to bed with your hair damp in a twisted top knot. Let it out in the morning for natural-looking beachy waves. Spritz with hairspray to hold.

The Week After

This week, I challenged myself to think a little about “Hair Fashion” (which is honestly not something I’ve thought about before).  I’ve put it together in this Vlog:

It comes down to three concepts I drew from Barney’s tips: Invest, Protect, Style.  If you’re like me and find your hair fits in the too-hard-basket, start with the three concepts and apply them to your own hair, and go from there. It’s all about discovering what works for your hair, so looking after it becomes easy and quick.

Invest — Protect — Style

Did your hair change after you became a Mum?

Products I’m Using

• Pantene Nature Fusion Shampoo & Conditioner
• Wella Pro Series Volume Mousse 
• Wella Pro Series Max Hold Hair Spray
• Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Dark Reddish Brown

Note: I flew to Sydney thanks to Procter & Gamble. I was not commissioned or paid to write this post.  You can read about the different types of posts I write on this blog in my disclosure statement.

Professional Photos Courtesy of Georgina Morrison

Other Hair Style Posts

Easy Elegant Hair-Do Tutorial

Elegant Christmas Hair Style Tutorial

Hair Up, No Hair Band

Where I’ve Been

Tagged as: Barney Martin, Hair Care, Hair Fasion, hair style, Hair Styling, hair tips for busy mums, nice n easy colour blend foam, Pantene Nature Fusion, Procter & Gamble, wella pro series