Even if I tried, I couldn’t count how many times as a kid that I would watch my grandmother get ready in her bathroom. She’d be wearing a breezy cotton house dress while sitting at the mirror, “putting on her face,” or doing her makeup. She’d still be donning the puffy cap she’d wear in the shower to keep water droplets from piercing her hair with unwanted humidity. Because Southern grandmothers, as an unspoken rule, do not wash their hair every day. So unnecessary! Frivolous even!
Spending more time at home lately has meant I’m also not washing my hair as often. If that’s too much information, don’t even ask about the last time a proper pedicure has taken place. That being said, there is no reason why second-day hair—or gasp, third-day hair—can’t look perfectly fine and coiffed enough to dash into the grocery store, sans ponytail. Well, unless you suffer from the same apparent lack of awareness in the shower as I do. Because no matter how hard I try, my hair comes out more damp than a slice of soaked fruitcake. No amount of dry shampoo or blasting with a blow-dryer can help recover those limp, flat roots.
In this case, it wasn’t going to take a miracle or some expensive humidity-repelling spray; it just needed a grandmother’s touch. In that steamy bathroom staring at my sad, damp strands, I thought of my grandmother’s shower cap. It wasn’t cute, by any means. It was all about function, which I desperately needed. Later as my finger hovered over “add to cart,” I asked myself one thing: Was I ready to go full-on Golden Girls granny? You bet your biscuits.
Don’t ever let the humidity get you down, even in your own bathroom, by taking things old-school. Grandma has never been so proud.
Dry shampoo works a lot of wonders, but good hair starts in the shower, even when you aren’t washing it.
