A better blogger might name this post “Labeling Shampoo and Conditioner Bottles to Keep Teenage Boys from Washing their Hair With Conditioner,” but I have a very hard time believing anyone would search for that.
In case you’re one to follow along closely, you know about our broken shower.
Which might mean that when I mention it’s still broken you’ll have a much better idea of how long it has been broken than I do.
I have T.P.A.D., y’all.
Hubby has adjusted to showering on the other side of the house, and I’ve become accustomed to washing my hair in the bathtub. And I am completely overwhelmed at the thought of picking out tile. And mostly . . . T.P.A.D.
Anyway, I decided my curls needed better conditioning than I could provide with the little conditioner I had left in my bathroom, so I took a shower. I planned to use some of my daughter’s conditioner and glob it on good.
As I held the bottles in multiple lights and at various distances to let my 42 year old eyes read which was shampoo and which was conditioner, panic rose in my chest at the realization that my less-observant teenage boys might not be going to as much trouble.
Even with their youthful and not-yet-betraying-them eyesight.
There’s a very high chance that they’ve been “washing” their hair with conditioner instead of shampoo, because the fact is: they don’t care as much as I do.
They just don’t. Just like they don’t care when there is dust under a TV stand.
So I found my trusty Sharpie (<-that’s an affiliate link, FYI) and labeled them.
Because we are long past the days of helping them wash their hair, but this mama has to do what she can to make herself feel better.
And teenage boys need clean hair.
Really.
Confession: Fine. I’m glad to not have to squint and search to figure out which bottle is which.
Another confession: I made POO bigger because I’m pretty sure my kids will think that’s funny.
One more confession: Fine. I think it’s funny, too.
Since I love affiliate linking to things like Sharpie markers in hopes you’ll click out of curiosity (to see how much they go for over on Amazon) and then remember you need to order a new pair of running shoes while you’re there, did you know you can get shampoo and conditioner on Amazon too? You can even put them on Subscribe and Save so you never run out! Here’s my post about how Subscribe and Save works.
I did something similar with the bottles in our basket of medications. Since we were looking down on the tops you had to pull up each one until you found what you were looking for. So I labeled all the over the counter meds with their name (and dosage for the aspirin since we had 81mg and 325mg). For the prescriptions I added an initial, the medication, and dosage. Older prescriptions got a red X across the top (we keep them when they are a different dosage than current as a backup if there’s a delay with refills or in case we need to taper off).
Hahaha! I had to do the same thing, with the nearly identical bottles in our shower, for my 18 year old son. Without his glasses, he couldn’t tell the bottles apart–next time, I hope I’ll remember to write “POO” great big–he’ll love it!
I should give labeling a try! Not that it would help me much because I have long (as in past my waist) hair and find it’s easier to bend over the side of the tub and use the handheld shower head to wash it. That means I get it wet, then blindly reach out and grab my bottle of shampoo.
One time, I found I had to keep adding more and more and more shampoo – because it wouldn’t suds up. It was also seriously hard to rinse out. Of course, I realized later – after my hair dried and it looked like I’d slathered it in Crisco – that I’d used the conditioner instead … enough to condition all of the hair attached to all of the heads in NYC … and probably a truckload of wigs too.
In my defense, I’d always bought a combination product but my daughter wanted to try a new shampoo and conditioner. As in two separate products. There’s too much going on in my brain to remember stuff like that. Or at least that’s what I used to believe. After having to wash what felt like forty gallons of conditioner out of my hair, I decided it needed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience – and now I grab MY bottle of shampoo and set it on the edge of the tub BEFORE I turn the water on.
O.M.G….. YOU ARE BRILLIANT!!! I’m 46… and it is unbelievable to me HOW hard it is to tell the shampoo and conditioner apart… I mean REALLY PEOPLE! Would it be so hard to make the words bigger!?!?? BUT I actually do look down on the shampoo and conditioner so writing it on the top is BRILLIANT! I’m a little scared at the fact that I’ve been struggling with it for so long and didn’t think of this – so thank you SO MUCH for sharing!
Even easier…wrap a rubber band around the shampoo bottle. When you’re blindly groping around, you can identify it by touch.
Nony, thank you for proving my hypothesis, that all I need is shampoo!
Let’s face it, when you only have 2 inches of hair, who cares??
Good idea! I might just put a 1 and a 2 on mine
So happy to hear I’m not the only one having a hard time reading the bottles. And be careful with that TPAD. My in-laws are about to hit 14 years without a shower. I remember the 2 year anniversary the summer I joined the family.
I put a giant S and C on the tops (as one peers down at the bottles) of our shampoo and conditioner–it started out as a way to help my husband not grab conditioner by mistake, but then 42 came and went so now it’s for me. 🙂 I also, as another reader commented, label the tops of medicine bottles–again, simplified, with a giant C on the tops of all children’s medicines to make middle of the night searches through our medicine basket a little easier when a kid has cold symptoms.
TPAD, huh? The only meaning I could find on Urban Dictionary was “take a pill and die”
Help, Nony, and cure my confusion the way you’re helping with my slob vision. I don’t want you or me to die.
Click the link when I mentioned T.P.A.D.! It has my explanation! (It’s a totally made up by me disorder!)
Sharpies are my friend. I write on everything that I can’t see with my 47 year old eyes. Okay, maybe not EVERY thing… My kids think I am losing my mind for panicking when I can’t find my Sharpie.
I’m a physical therapist and your labeling reminds me of the patients who come in for therapy after surgery with the Sharpie still on their legs. One knee says, “Yes!” and the other knee says,”No!”