Bleh. The thing that bugs me the most about this article is how they use "mom" as a pejorative. When they say "mom hair", they are painting a stereotype of mothers as being provincial, out-of-touch, and irrelevant to current popular culture. You know, as if we are somehow lesser creatures than childless women or men (regardless of whether they have children or not).

But then I realized that I've used this type of shorthand myself with the term "soccer mom". It's always uncomfortable when you realize you're a hypocrite, lol. Moving forward, I will make a point of not using it -- or any term that belittles other women and the choices they make.

Unlike most other women on this forum, I have a rather low EQ.

Thirkellgirl - no, I'm not going back for more abuse about my hair - and the stylist was a woman. I should have made a snarky comment about her shoes. That would have ended that in a hurry

No one has so far mentioned the part I found most unrealistic: something about "don't change your normal routine" (of hair maintenance and upkeep). HA. As I recall it, becoming a mom involved figuring out how much of my "normal routine" I could eliminate while still retaining sanity and appropriate hygiene. I believe one thing that I gave up was going to the hairdresser... I think I averaged 11 months between cuts when my kids were little. I wore my hair long, so I could tie it up out of the way of little hands. The frustrating thing with the post partum hair loss was never "receding hairline" (who gets that?), it was the flyaways as the new crop of hair grew in, 2 then 4 then 6 inches long, all over my head.

Since when is being a mom something to be ashamed of and to be hidden? The term "mom" is NOT a pejorative, and from here on out, I refuse to use it as one. This is absurd.

Thinking one's life was over as soon as one became a parent (or hit 30) is something that should have been a passing phase when a person was a teenager, but it seems that it is an attitude that holds on much longer.

There are plenty of highly fashionable and stylish moms, and there are plenty of frumpy and unfashionable people who are not parents, and vice versa. One has no necessary relation to the other. I'm entirely done with the shaming and lack of respect for anyone who has children (or even works with them, as teachers are certainly no longer respected), and I will not participate in it.

Actually, I think they've got it wrong --- isn't it long in the front, slightly shorter in the back?

One of the easiest ways to feel important is to communicate your superiority to others -- and for journalists, it seems to be a way to get attention. This is deeply embedded in our natures, but we should be mercilessly digging it out and throwing it away, along with all the politically uncivil speech that is flying about at the moment.

It would be so nice to spend more time considering what hairstyles I love, and which work well with my face and hair, and less about what's "in." Of course, my problem is that, no matter what I ask for in a salon, I end up with either a long bob or a Rachel. I think even skilled and well-meaning stylists tend to categorize their clients.

How much nicer would the article be if it offered 'low maintenance, fun haircut suggestions for busy women'. Tone really is everything.

Nebraskim, I do believe you're in my relate/time category. I have a dd, but I've never been pregnant or married or anything. I have nothing against the whole thing, I'm just not particularly motivated. Easily distracted by Martha Stewart craft projects, lol, for weeks at a time. One thing I don't like as a non-mother mother, is using children as an excuse. Folks do do that sort of thing. Let's be honest. Confession time - me and my mom sometimes use my being a type 1 diabetic as an excuse to minimize our time at family gatherings. We say (to our hilarity), 'we'll just come for dessert,' and wait to be called on it.

Anyways, how dd came to live with me is quite the story, but a LOT of people were 'oh, heh, yuck' about the idea of a child. They were just 'child - yuck.' She's grown now, and yet I'm getting more and more of it. To shevia's point, the only people who don't do this in my small world are people with ties to other countries. I will also add I find there's a tie in to bodily functions. Just an incredible squeamishness. I'm not sure it's separate from an overall discomfort with...reality. When I lived in SF I saw virtually no children and stood in line behind these long lines of people at the supermarket with big boxes of plant poison...I mean, you get a postage stamp of soil in the city and people preferred barren soil even in that square foot of space. People are this way with food too. It's like they'd rather eat a pellet and why Alice Waters started the school yard garden project...people are afraid of their food.

This article wasn't what I expected. I think it actually focussed on the practical side of being a new mom (hair loss, need for practicality) and what kind of options might work best if someone cares what their hair looks like. I DO find a lot of references to moms in our culture offense, but this didn't meet that bar for me.

I think it's funny that they are caught in their own trap. Fashion is so fluid right now (including hair), that they can't do a simple "here's the expected/here's the unexpected) piece where they show you the standard-issue blah haircut that everyone has and then perk it up. Instead they have to talk vaguely about how there's this boring, unflattering haircut you are seeing at all the malls around the county....Am I blind? I don't see any uniform haircut. It isn't like when the Vidal Sassoon five point cut or the Dorothy Hamill or the mullet ruled the day. And they just throw moms under the bus because it's easy shorthand for "booooooring."

I'm rather glad I had my kids back in the days when the media discussed politics and events instead of of offering unsolicited advice to moms about their appearance.

And the biggest reason I cut off my long hair because of my inability to keep the dang hair from falling into my face and mouth while changing a poopy diaper. Tucking it back wasn't an option for obvious reasons. The ombré effect would have been quite unintentional...

As for all this mom bashing, I suspect it's just lazy writing. Offensive and irritating, but basically just a limp way of trying to be noticed.

Yeah, it's almost like the headline and first paragraph were written by someone else trying to spark a controversy.

My hairdresser worked with me when I was pregnant and post-partum to come up with something that worked and made me feel good - something a new mom desperately needs - and I feel like this hair guy was basically explaining the process of doing the same thing, but it got twisted by the editor.

My hair guy was totally cool when I brought my newborn - the other hairdressers held him the entire two hours, and I even breastfed under my cape. It was one of the MOST supportive new mom experiences that I had. They were cool with me as a mom, but also wanted to make me look my best (within the constraints of new motherhood).

I feel like there is a pressure ON LINE for a new mom to almost pretend she didn't just have a child. Still have great, hair, a great body, train that kids sleep through the night by two weeks old, blah, blah, blah. But luckily, I did not Experience this mentality IRL. I wonder if I'm just lucky or if people really do experience this judgment in their everyday life? Or is this just a subculture that is created on line?

Please everyone of female sex..
No one is asking much of you. You have one job: to be or look or pretend to be/look like someone from 16-26years of age .. Great skin, great hair, great body.. No matter if most of them IRL don't have it.

One job and you still can't to it properly..
Do you really have to get your real bodies, your intelligence, your talent, sense of humour, your family, social, financial things into it? And kids.. What kids.. Oh you mean trophies..
What are you, if not inadequate?

Hahaha, Nishaa! We had just one job!

Ha, Nishaa, spot on!

Love it Nishaa.....

I read this article the other day - and I have to admit that I chuckled about it because it brought back memories of SNL's skit about "the cut" a month or so ago. I honestly didn't take it too seriously - but then, I've got plenty of other things that bug the daylights out of me! This article just isn't one of them.
I'm curious - for those of you who took offense to this article - is the "mom hair" anymore offensive than "mom jeans?"

Marley, so about the mom jeans, my mom wore/wears mom jeans. She is a beautiful woman with a great figure and dresses to utter disadvantage because she just doesn’t care, which is it’s own kind of moxie. Which is all just to say mom jeans provided a clear description of a look, which at the time the term came to be known, was often sported by moms, so had at least some kind of descriptive value.

So ridiculous-I have always hated when "mom" was used in this kind of negative light. There is no other group that we would feel comfortable doing this with. Can you imagine using "old lady hair" ?

Two things stick out for me though- first of all, for the past several years the look they are talking about has been pretty much the most popular cut around. All variations of the 'bob' have been worn by many models and actresses and have been celebrated. So why then when a woman who has children wears it, is it suddenly bad???

Secondly, the real fact of that matter is that past a certain age most women look bad in long hair. I know as modern women we often choose to call this an outdated notion, but in my mind it has always been true. Hair thins as we age and our faces change enough that long hair just does not flatter us anymore. Some women can definitely sport long hair for a while but most just can't. So chances are better than good that these hipsters who think they are too cool to cut their hair actually look pretty bad.