Bearing Disability: Bad Hair Day? Make Life Easier

Happy New Years Eve! I hope you all have had a wonderful year, I know I have. I like New Year because it marks the middle of winter, meaning spring is on the horizon. Yes! I’ve got to say, winter is my least favourite season because Cerebral Palsy and cold do not mix well. So, with spring and new year on the way, let’s talk about Personal Care and managing hair.

It has always been an issue for me, but I do have some tips up my sleeves as well! Some have been suggestions by others, and some are tricks that I have discovered myself. With that, lets begin!

Cerebral Palsy and Bad Hair Days

I have right hemiplegia cerebral palsy which makes one side of my body limited in what it can do. So I mostly use one hand. I am used to it but it does come with challenges. Only being able to use one hand most the time is a struggle. That includes getting dressed, hair management and showering. Today, I am going to talk about hair management, because let’s face it, we all have a bad-hair-day at some point, right?

After all, we cant all get it to look as good as Ariel so that a fork can run smoothly through it.

A little story

If you have one hand, hair is something that is constantly a pain. This one has a little story behind it. When I was a child of around five or six years old, I once told my mom that I wanted my hair to be as long as Rapunzel’s. I got obsessed with that video … videos, remember them?

She let me do it. So, this influenced how often my hair would be trimmed and it was never cut for almost a decade. At that point,  it had reached the bottom of my back when plaited and became a nuisance. It would get trapped in my bag, or on nails sticking out of walls. School banisters tugged at it. I could very rarely ever have it down because it would make it hard to go and use the toilet or it would just get in the way. P.E and Cooking at school also meant that I needed my hair tied back.

I couldn’t manage it myself because I couldn’t brush it, let alone wash it or plait it. All of that I needed assistance for. Being a teenager, I wanted independence and privacy, but my hair prevented me from having that.

The change to prevent bad hair days

One day, a teacher suggested getting my hair cut to see if that would help me manage my hair and so I did. I was much older now. The Rapunzel phrase was well past me. I now maintain it at shoulder length. Usually I get it cut just above my shoulders so it can grow and not cost me a bomb. I probably visit the hair dressers every 6 months. It is much easier to brush and it no longer gets trapped into things. However, washing is sometimes still an issue that I have to plough through.

Here’s a tip that helps me crack hair washing majority of the time: use the shampoo like it’s glue. This will only work if you don’t have very short hair (I don’t know what hairstyles are called):

1. Dump shampoo in the centre of your head,
2. loosely rub it in over the whole of your scalp
3. bring the rest of your hair to your scalp and it should stick as if you’ve glued or attached it in some way
4. rub the shampoo in again, add more if needed.
5. wince

I still struggle with it and I miss parts. The front usually. But it is better than what it used to be like.

Styling and expressing yourself!

My hairstyle hasn’t changed since I was a teenager because it works and I am not the kind of person to care what it looks like. I think it’s called a bob or a pixie-cut. But for others, style may be important. They may want variety, or they may want layers, or having long hair is important to them. There’s nothing wrong with that.

If style is important for you, I would also recommend speaking to your local hair-dressers, let them know what you struggle with, what limits you find you have. Why and how. I bet you anything that they will be able to come up with some ideas and solutions and they would be happy to do so as well.

Mine have offered me advice on shampoo that they think will help my hair not malt as much. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t really tried any of them. I tend to buy off-brand shampoo, though I have to be careful which ones I use as some sting the scalp!

However, if you like having your hair long, or these tips don’t help you, Ask Sara also gives some equipment that you may be able to use to make life easier. One that has caught my attention is the long-handled, curved hairbrush which may allow you to keep your hair at a longer length if that’s what you prefer.  There is a similar brush for washing your hair in the shower, which I may invest in at some point. I hope you have less bad hair days than me!

Hair drying

When it comes to drying the hair, Sara suggests a hair dryer holder, which will be perfect so I can brush my hair as I dry it. At the minute, I cannot find one that does not have to be fixed in place and I live in rented accommodation, but I will keep looking. Hopefully, I will be able to find one that is portable so that I can dry and brush it so that it doesn’t force me to deal with tangles and knots.

Have a lovely new year