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I’ve had this debate with myself so many times. It seems like I’ll wait to color my hair, put it off , or swear it off, (like I’ll never do this- I like it natural.) But then…sigh…I’ll get bored with my hair after it gets super long and frizzy and I just feel uninspired and ugly. And then I’ll start talking about cutting my own hair. Which I’m not that bad at actually. But my husband gets nervous when I start talking about cutting or coloring my own hair.
Usually when the talk from my husband turns to fear of me looking like a church lady with a frizzy bun, the sideways glances, and suggestions of going to a hairdresser reaches a critical mass…I launch into some sort of action. I was just about to reach for my scissors, and my pack of Creaclips when my husband announced that he had made me an appointment with the hairdresser and he’d watch the children.
I was actually disappointed. I wanted to use my Creaclips on my hair, they really are fun and give me the confidence that I can cut my own hair. But then I thought, well, maybe I should let the professionals handle this one. I mean, how often does your own husband make you an appointment at the salon and say, “Get whatever you want done, I’ll watch the children.” ? So I got highlights and a trim. My hair feels so much shorter to me, but it somehow still looks long. The girl did a great job too. It was nice to be pampered…it was refreshing.
But Isn’t Coloring, Dyeing or Highlighting your hair bad for you and your baby during pregnancy and breastfeeding?
This is the question I always find myself asking because most of the time I’m in one of those 2 stages.
There have been studies done on it, and almost all of the ones which I’ve read in the past have made me fearful of using hair dye at all…ever. But when I looked into it this last time one of the pages that came up, said that getting highlights was the safest if you were going to get anything done because if done right the dye doesn’t come in contact with your scalp and is washed off fairly quickly afterwards.
This is the article I’m referring to:
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/949.aspx?CategoryID=54
So in essence. While I don’t think being newly pregnant is the best time to color your hair. I think it’s always a good time to NOT stay in a slump when it comes to my appearance. Me being depressed about the way I look is also unhealthy. Not putting makeup on unless I’m going out of the house is not really a great message to send to my husband and family either. It sends the message that I only care what strangers think of my appearance. Putting my hair in a bun everyday because it’s easy and I prefer it is not always the best choice. In my case, my husband specifically asked me to not do my hair that way because he had negative connotations associated with buns from his childhood. Man, I struggled with this. I have so many excuses I could use.
Finally I felt God gently nudging me with…Emily, have more fun with your appearance. It does matter. You’ll feel better. You like makeup, you like hairstyling, don’t you remember how you used to play when you were a little girl? You can do all of that stuff now, and you have almost unlimited resources compared to then, why don’t you play anymore? You need to cultivate joy in your life again. You need to have fun again.
So…I feel so much better getting highlights, even though I totally could have done without them and the haircut itself would have looked great. It was nice to have such a dramatic change. Someday I’d like to go completely blonde. I’ve decided to also start wearing more makeup. I want to master the “Smokey Eye” look and messy braided up dos. They are so classic in my mind. For me, it’s fun to try new things. And I really need to cultivate more joy and fun in my life.
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