how postpartum changed this stylist’s hair (for the better)

Rachel Bodt’s client roster reads like the Met Gala guest list. She’s worked with the likes of Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Claudia Schiffer, and Lorde, just to name a few. But she didn’t start her career working on international pop stars and 90s supermodels.

“I've wanted to be a hairdresser since I was a little kid,” says celebrity colorist Rachel Bodt. “I just always knew. I never veered from that.”

She opted out of college entirely to move to New York City for beauty school, working her way up from assistant to stylist to expert colorist to owner of Homecoming Hair Salon. Even with her illustrious career working on hair, it wasn’t until her first pregnancy that she turned her attention to her own curls. “[In postpartum] I started to notice that my hair was changing. My curls were coming back, but I wasn't fully ready to really wear them.”

After she had her first daughter, she slowly started to fall back in love with her natural texture. “I found K18 and just really committed to getting my hair healthy,” says Bodt (who is now a K18 ambassador). Growing up, she was the only one of her three sisters with curls. She desperately wanted her sisters’ sleek, straight hair. So she, like many of us, turned to the blow dryer. Every day was a battle of straightening or slicking her hair back, doing anything to conceal the curls. 

Pregnancy changed that. And now she hopes to pass her hardwon love of curls on to her daughters. “My older daughter has curly hair, and I really want to show her how to wear her hair curly and to feel good about it,” says Bodt. “I think it's really important we're raising little girls and women to know how to embrace what we have.”

It’s well known that pregnancy and postpartum can have a big impact on hair. The hormonal shifts cause everything from shedding to a total shift in texture or color. Before she became a mother herself, Bodt watched countless clients going through it. 

“You have to be gentle with yourself during postpartum and remind yourself how incredible you are,” says Bodt. “It might not feel like it in the moment, but you are strong and amazing and your body just did the most powerful thing.” 

In a season of life where everything is changing—hair, body, identity-–it makes sense to feel out of control. The shedding experienced postpartum hits at a vulnerable moment for new moms and it’s often dealt with in silence. None of these changes are meant to be dealt with alone and for many women, their stylist is often first on the scene. 

“Remember everything is temporary. I have clients who are like, "It's shedding." I'm like, "Okay, so should we go really blonde and get a bob? Maybe it's not exactly how you envisioned it, but maybe it still feels just as good, if not better.” 

For Bodt, it wasn’t until a year after giving birth that she noticed the shedding start. She was so busy juggling new motherhood and her salon that she barely noticed the changes in her hairline. Rather than stoke fear into the hearts of her clients, Bodt has made a point to share her own experiences, the good and the bad, through every phase of life. 

When you sit in her hair, it’s immediately clear she’s an open book, a girl's girl to her core. “I love being a mom,” she says. “When I got pregnant with my first daughter during COVID, I remember being so stressed, I was like, ‘I don't want to miss out on anything.’ I had to just keep telling myself what is meant for me, will find me.”

And find her, it did. The first time she ever did a color job for Beyonce, she was 7-months pregnant. This was a huge milestone for Bodt, something she wishes she could tell the younger version of herself who first decided to pursue this career after years of tagging along to all of her mother’s salon appointments, mesmerized by everything she saw. 

Now, she’s a mother to two little girls herself and her work has appeared on the cover of Vogue, Elle, and Harper's Bazaar. She’s styled models for the runways of Balenciaga, Chloé, and Saint Laurent—continually pushing the boundaries of what color can do. Motherhood has transformed her world and her hair, for the better. Now, you’d be hard pressed to see Bodt without her signature mane.

“With my second daughter, I never blow-dry it, I wear it curly,” says Bodt. “It does make me feel like ‘this is like who I am’, and I don't have to overthink it,” says Bodt. “It looks different every single day, I wake up and I'm not fighting something. It's really about giving into it and going with it.”

True of hair, and true of life. 

If Bodt has inspired you to embrace your own natural texture, see below for exactly how she did it:

rachel’s K18 favorites:

molecular repair leave-in mask

“The mask does not leave my bathroom, and there is always one in my kit. There's not many products that land on our laps that are like such a game-changer. I can't live without it. Even before this, like I was like, I will pay retail for it. And if a hairdresser says that, then they really mean it. (laughs) I will go to Sephora and I will pay full price and double just so that I never not have it with me.”

PEPTIDE PREP detox shampoo

“I love the detox shampoo. I love it for product build-up. We just moved to Jersey, so the water here is a little interesting. Once a month, I'll do the detox shampoo just to get rid of any mineral or film build-up.”

DAMAGE SHIELD pH protective shampoo and conditioner

“After I get it colored, I will use the DAMAGE SHIELD shampoo and conditioner, and kind of intermix that.”