I've been trying a new beauty routine for a few weeks now, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Naturally, I need to share this.
First, I began taking showers at night. I've always been a morning shower person, simply because within 8 hours my hair starts to collect a lot of oil and it begins to look like I haven't showered in days. However, taking showers at night was an adjustment I had to make. See, I can only work until about 4pm - 4:30pm at the latest. If I work until 5 or later, then it's 6pm by the time I get home with the kids, 7pm by the time supper is ready, and then it's baths and bed all smashed into an hour, which usually produces crabby children and leaves zero play time after we haven't seen each other all day anyway. This was just unacceptable.
However, in order to leave work by 4pm, I had to get there by 7am. Between getting the kids up and ready, packing everything for them and myself into the car (extra clothes for daycare, blankets, diapers, my lunch, etc), plus me getting up and ready, I was looking at an alarm time of 4am. Yes. 4am. When it was just Jackson, no worries. I could get up at 4:30am and be fine. Add in a second child and my body began to protest. 4:30am would turn into 5am, which sometimes would become 5:30am, and on those really tough days, 6am. If I get up at 6am, it's at least 8am before I'm at work, and it's generally frowned upon to show up late and leave early - at least multiple days in a row.
So I made the switch out of necessity. Plus, as any other parent out there can attest to, sometimes a shower is the only "me" time one can get, and taking this time while I was groggy and still semi-unconscious in the morning wasn't doing me any favors. At night though, the kids are sleeping, I've had a chance to clean the house, and I can totally relax and get ready for bed. And there really is nothing quite like climbing into a nice warm bed after you're all squeaky clean.
I was hesitant, though, as I'd tried this before but it never worked out. As I mentioned, my hair is pretty oily, something that has always been a problem for me. It continued to be oily for the first few weeks. By 4pm at work, I was wearing my winter hat and telling people I was cold. Little did they realize that I was hiding an oil slick under there.
I stuck it out because I was beginning to see some very positive results. First, I had a lot more time in the morning. I wasn't dreading jumping out from under nice warm covers, just to strip myself naked in the freezing bathroom, jump into hot water, and jump back out into the cold air again.
The biggest difference was in my hair. Yes, it looked oily and lifeless by the end of the day and felt pretty gross at the scalp, but as my hair was clean and dry in the morning, I wasn't using my blow-dryer anymore. The only thing I had to use was my straightener, and only for a quick run through. My long hair, which was normally dry and frizzy, became sleek and shiny. And after a few weeks, my hair becomes much less oily during the day. Now, you can't hardly tell that it's been 16+ hours since I've taken a shower, and I've retired wearing my hat at work.
Something else positive happened as well. I'd heard of using oil to wash your face, and while I didn't have the kinds of oil that the recipe called for, I did have baby oil. My face, kind of like my hair, has a split personality between dry and oily. In the mornings after washing, it's dry and tight. In the afternoon, it's oily and shiny. All along I thought it was my skin, but it turned out to be the products I was using. I replaced my face lotion with baby oil - just enough to dampen a cotton swab and rub all over my face. I was worried that this may cause some acne outbreaks, but it didn't. In fact, my face was smooth and glowing. The blotchy red patches that were appearing under my eyes (which a lot of the women in my family have due to our voluminous cheeks) disappeared and the rest of my skin tone evened out. I stopped wearing foundation because I didn't have to. My face wasn't shiny or oily by the end of the day. It was amazing.
Naturally, I started using the baby oil more liberally. If it can do that to my face, what about my legs that are always a little dry? I've found a few lotions that work amazing on dry skin, but they are expensive, and my kids need clothes and food. So I tried the baby oil. Let me tell you - there is something luxurious about getting out of a nice hot shower at night, coating yourself with a little big of baby oil (only a little, we're not talking Playboy photo shoot here), putting on some nice warm pajamas and crawling under some nice thick quilts on a cold winter night.
I now do this every night. My normally thick dark hair on my legs that I hate shaving because I don't have time is thinner and softer. My skin is soft, glowing and hydrated. My hair is shiny and healthy. And I sleep much better as I have time to relax and spend by myself without any worries. It's amazing.
I found it wasn't me - there wasn't a problem with my skin or my hair. It was the products I was using and how I was using them. My hair has never looked this beautiful and my skin has never been this soft. And now mornings are a breeze as I roll out of bed, run a straightener through my hair, put on some eye make-up and I'm ready to roll. It's actually taken out a lot of stress in the mornings. And now I get to work earlier so I can leave earlier and I have more time to spend with my children.
And when you're a working mother with two small children, anything that helps release stress and allows you more time with your family is a complete win.
