Beauty After Baby

It's Thursday afternoon, I'm in a crumpled t-shirt, shorts and terribly tousled hair. It's been this way for quite a while and every time I visit a salon, my cute little toddler finds many ways to mess up my lovely, styled, nice smelling hair, or cause the neatly painted nail varnish to chip. After many such visits, I soon realised I could save time, money and my own feelings of regret by insourcing my beauty regime (to myself) and it has been working well (except for the permanently tossed hair). 

Recently, and thanks to all these beauty magazines I suddenly felt very "unpretty". I don't typically feel this way because (as mentioned earlier) I was very happy with my insourcing regime and my dear husband has never ever made a bad comment about my appearance. In fact, I remember how several times after our son's birth I sat teary eyed, with puke and yes, tousled hair all because I felt ugly and he would convince me that I was the same pretty girl he fell for. Enough to keep me happy for a few days and then back to my tee and tossed hair. It didn't help to see fresh, pretty moms (make-up, salon hair, heels et all) at the malls and it definitely did not help when I compared photographs of my days before baby with current ones. So I firmly set my sights on bringing back the old "pretty" me.

I quickly got chatting with a couple of acquaintances whose well-meaning suggestions left me baffled. One suggested I squeeze in a brisk walk or (imagine) run everyday, as if I wasn't running around enough. Another thought it would be fun to get a make over and surprise the husband which I wasn't very keen on for fear of ending up disappointed with the result. Most of them suggested I take time apart from baby duties and chores to fix my own beauty regime and sternly stick to it. I sat back in disappointment at the suggestions I only knew too well would never work for me. I've never been a make-up sort of person (my definition for make-up is lip balm and kohl) but I definitely wanted to look nice after becoming a Mom, slimmer, fresh, (you know) in something more than just a tee (and shorts) everyday.

So back to today, I look in the mirror and all I see are the dark circles around my eyes, the tired face reminds me I must sleep more and the t-shirt does nothing except make me look frumpy. Forget about pretty. I've got half a mind to ditch my fear and get that much-needed make over that is sure to bring my old pretty self back. That's when it hit me... I realised that it's not the physical attributes that matter. Beauty After Baby means embracing who I am today instead of mourning who I was a while back. It means looking in the mirror and being happy about what I see (not what I feel). It's about being confident that I can rock in a tee and shorts at whatever time of day instead of worrying that my wardrobe doesn't have the latest trendy clothes. It's accepting everything that motherhood has given me: scars, dark circles, not so lovely hair and all. It's knowing that my son doesn't love me because my hair is perfectly styled or I'm wearing lip balm and kohl but because he sees the 'real' me. Things won't stay this way forever, I know I will slowly start to love the new me tossed up hair and all.

Have any of you Moms felt the same after having a baby? Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading.