Remember the days before you had kids when you could spend ages doing your hair without little hands wiping food – or worse – in it. Or the fabulous shiny locks you had in pregnancy that disappeared as soon as you’d given birth? And don’t even mention the hairstyle all mums are said to have.

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Yep, when it comes to your hair, motherhood has a lot to answer for. Here's a light-hearted look at the 11 stages of mum hair.

Your hair before kids

1 You (probably) spent hours on your hair before kids
Straighteners, curling tongs ... in the days before kids you had all the hair styling tools going.

And you’d spend ages perfecting the Holly Willoughby -inspired loose curls, or poker straight Kim Kardashian look.

Nowadays, after kids, it's more the Edward Scissorhands 'dragged through a bush' look.

Your hair in pregnancy

2 You have THE BEST hair
Seriously, your hair has never been so swishy and shiny.

Your higher oestrogen levels in pregnancy means your hair falls out at a slower rate ... which is why it looks even better than Gigi Hadid’s tresses.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. Sorry.

3 You chop it all off before childbirth. And then regret it.
In the hairdresser’s – your last visit before giving birth – it seems like a great idea to get your hair cut shorter so it will be easier to manage when you’re a mummy.

Now you’re home, you hate it and are Googling ‘how quickly does hair grow back’.

Your hair when you’ve got a baby

4 As soon as you’ve had kids, your hair starts falling out
Bye bye lovely pregnancy hair. In the first few months after you’ve given birth, it’s not uncommon for your hair to start falling out at what feels like an alarming rate.

According to experts, there’s no need to panic. When your hormone levels readjust, you are simply losing all your ‘extra’ hair that didn’t fall out in pregnancy.

Don’t worry – after a few months, you’ll be back to normal.

5 There is always something lurking in your hair
Could be weetabix. Could be something from your baby’s snotty nose.

Whatever it is, you’re so used to going out with clumps of *something* in your hair, you’d feel lost without it.

Your hair when you’ve got a toddler

6 You realise you've gone grey. WTF
Okay, so there’s no specific link between pregnancy and grey hairs starting to appear.

But you’re pretty sure you didn’t have any rogue white or grey strands before your kids arrived. Must be stress from all those toddler tantrums .

Sob.

7 You’re rocking the (accidental) ombre look
It’s been so long since you’ve had time to go to the hairdresser (thanks to the endless toddler groups ) your roots are now out of control.

Luckily the ombre look – light ends and dark roots – is still on trend.

Your hair when your kids are at school

8 You wash your hair about once a week. If you’re lucky
When you’re rushing to get the kids ready for school and out the door , the last thing you have time to do is wash your hair.

Thank god for dry shampoo.

And on the plus side, your bottles of shampoo and conditioner lasts for ages.

9 You can’t remember the last time you had a hair cut ...
Not only is it expensive, it’s also all but impossible to squeeze in the time to get your hair cut.

Less six to eight week trim and more like six to eight months ...

10 … and you’re lucky if you find time to brush it
Ponytail it is.

Again.

11 You realise you have ‘mom’ hair
If your hair is a shoulder-length bob, longer-in-back and slightly shorter-in-front, then you have what the New York Times describes as ‘mom hair’.

But given you – and your mum friends – are totally nailing the style, you couldn’t care less.

How has your hair changed since you’ve become a mum? Has it got thinner, have you spotted grey hairs or have you radically changed your style? Why not join the chat in our Coffeehouse forum, below.