Yesterday I went to work with icing (or plastic I’m not actually sure) stuck in my hair. I hid it in a bun so no one could see, and at 11:00pm I spent 35 minutes in the shower with multiple shampoos and conditioners trying to get it out of my hair.
Ultimately, I lost about as much hair as one of those shower experiences I had in the weeks following my daughter’s birth where my hormones were out of whack, and I thought I was going to end up bald.
My friend’s response to my story when I told her I was at work with matted icing hidden in my hair was, “this is why working mothers make such great employees. They are quick problem solvers because they have no choice but to be.”
I loved her comment because it’s so true. It’s amazing how much less I overthink things now than in my twenties. I don’t have time to debate, belabor or procrastinate anymore. The only way I can manage my plate is to be quick to take action because there are too many balls juggling in the air that I have to catch. I have to release each problem quickly so I can catch the next one before they all fall on the floor.
So when I had five minutes to solve a hair crisis, the solution was to hide it and keep going.
For those of you wanting to know how I ended up in that circumstance, here’s the full story line:
Sunday Noon:
I did my hair for a 4:00pm wedding. I have bone straight hair so I used a wand and two different types of hair spray to get those curls to last. They lasted all day, but my hair was hard as a rock. There was 0 chance I could run my fingers through it. I spent the entire time either chasing around my toddler son or carrying him on my hip. He was glued to me the entire event and wouldn’t go to any other family member.
Around 6:00pm
I changed into jeans and a T-shirt and threw that hair mess in a ponytail to help clean up.
Midnight
By the time we were climbing in bed after the event, I was exhausted. I fell asleep with the pony in my hair.
Monday Morning:
I woke up around 8:00am and had to be out the door at 9:30am to catch our flight. I had to get two small children ready, fed, and the bags from our 10 day trip packed up.
Needless to say, when I walked into the bathroom to finally get myself ready, there was no time to brush out that product-filled, hard-as-a-rock hair. I just reset the pony so it didn’t look like bed head and got out the door.
We pulled out the driveway at precisely 9:30am. That was a HUGE win. I felt very accomplished.
Monday Evening:
After flying by myself with two small children and unpacking us, I was beat. I still had to do the thousand tasks required of you when you return home from a long trip and to prep for returning to routine the next day. I collapsed two hours passed my bedtime still not done with all the things.
Tuesday Morning:
First day going back to work and I had to get my six-year-old ready for camp and my nearly two-year-old ready for daycare, flying solo. It was the morning chaos of feeding them, dressing them, teeth, hair, all the things.
After they were all set, I put on the TV babysitter and went to get myself ready. That’s when I took the ponytail out. I started brushing my hair, that rough brushing where it’s filled with hairspray and stuck together. The not fun kind. But then I hit a point in the back where the brush wasn’t going anywhere.
I finagled a way to look at the back of my head and there it was. A HUGE matted mess of something a little bit white, a little bit yellow, dried up, crusty and STUCK.
I paused.
What do you do? I had absolutely no idea what was matted in that mess, but I did know it was only coming out with shampoo and conditioner. It was 8:15am and my goal is always to be out of the door before 8:30am.
If you remember, I recently wrote this post about how I get ready in 15 minutes and only wash my hair on the weekends. This wasn’t in my plan.
I grabbed a handful of bobby-pins, positioned my hair in such a way you couldn’t see the matted mess and invented a bun shape that could be held in place.
The picture shown on this post was when I said to my co-worker “Take a picture of me with my new standing desk!!!” I 100% hid my cosmetic emergency. That juggling ball got tabled for later.
Finally by 11:00pm I was able to climb into the shower. Guys…I don’t know if it was icing. My son ate more than one cupcake and lived on my left hip. He’s right handed. So it definitely adds up that something transferred from his right hand to the back of my head, but I don’t know what it was. It was 35 minutes of trying to get it out, and it had the texture of plastic. I think it was icing mixed with two kinds of hairspray, but it felt like someone melted plastic with an iron and then stuck it in my hair before it re-solidified. It was awful.
I finally went to bed at midnight and went on to live another day.
For the record, a patch of my scalp is still soar from all the pulling and tugging.
Working mom life. We are quick on our feet and just roll up our sleeves to get the job done.
If you have your own get-it-done story, I want to hear it. Drop it in the comments.
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