Pretty. Simple.

I have never wanted to be an Ivory Girl. I've never really been able to pull off that fresh-faced, well-scrubbed, pink-cheeked look, largely because I've spent most of my life dressed in black with my hair dyed several shades darker and redder than it is naturally and cut into a more or less severe bob. Shirley Manson has long been much more my aesthetic speed than Jessica Simpson.

Then I had a baby, and discovered that spit-up really stands out on black and that it's a bit harder to get to Vidal Sassoon for bob upkeep when you're on baby duty 'round the clock. So I had to simplify my look.

So it was that when a representative from Ivory contacted me about doing a quote-unquote makeUNDER as part of their Low Maintenance Revolution promotion (which includes a contest to win a makeunder), I really had to laugh. Really. Like, ha ha ha ha ha ha. Because, really, who needs to be made under less than a new mom? A new mom who rarely pauses to even put on lipstick anymore, and considers herself groomed if she brushed her hair. One's look just doesn't get any more low-maintenance than bare face, unkempt hair and yoga pants.

But they insisted, so I went for it. Hell, I could use a haircut. And if it was going to be a low-maintenance haircut, all the better. I can barely remember how to use the flat iron anymore.

Which is not so good, because after this haircut, I need it more than ever.

To be fair, it's a good haircut. It's still a bob, which is important, because I'm not so good with change, and it's short, which is generally easier to care for, but there's this funky flippy part at the front that I will NEVER be able to reproduce in the comfort of my own bathroom. It's not exactly low-maintenance. Nor was the make-up that they put on me as part of the makeunder - in particular the eyebrow powder (apparently I need to darken my eyebrows for maximum eye impact). It looked really good - if a bit more 'done't han what I'm used - but who has time (and steady hands) to put on eyebrow make-up when a toddler is climbing your leg? (The make-up artist said that the whole routine would take me less than ten minutes, but that assumes that a) I know what I'm doing with an eyebrow brush and b) that I care about the eyebrow brush.)

So it wasn't exactly a makeunder. But it was still pretty cool. And I can totally get behind the idea of reducing one's beauty routine to a few simple steps so as to save time for a totally chilled-out bath or shower. And when I got home that afternoon and ran the bath and poured in, like, a pint of the Ivory WaterLily shower/bath foamy stuff that they gave me... that was nice. Really nice. (WonderBaby, I should say, luuurved - LUUURVED - the WaterLily shower/bath stuff. 'MORE MORE MORE!!!' It pours out like opalescent syrup and pools up in your hand before you suds it up into a fistful of bubbles. Toddler heaven. But she can't have it - it's mine.)

Anyway. What matters is, I look good. And I - and WonderBaby - smell really, really nice. And maybe it's about time I reacquainted myself with that flat iron.