Despite the personal flair she brings to the track (see her custom bedazzled Nikes), Mu describes herself as “low maintenance.” She’s loyal to a few no-nonsense drugstore brands and has only visited a hair salon once in her life. Months ago, as she prepared for the Olympic trials from “desert-y” Los Angeles, Mu got granular about the beauty regimen getting her through it.
Hair
[When it comes to hair,] sometimes I do the most, sometimes I’m not really doing anything, but at the end of the day, I’ve just got to run. At Prefontaine [Classic competition] last year, I wore two braids with my natural hair for the first time. It’s always a last-minute thing where I wake up and a thought or a picture comes to mind, and I’m like, “All right, let’s try it. Let’s see how long it takes.” Usually, I need about two hours to do my hair.
In my dream world, I would be doing a full-on wash routine every two weeks to keep my hair moisturized and co-washing every other week. Between 2019 and 2020, I started actually taking care of my hair, and I have been glued to Carol’s Daughter ever since. I’ve used their castor oil, shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in conditioner for the past five years. For someone that has 4B and 4C hair, it’s not the best to have stripping products, and that brand is really good for making sure my hair retains all the moisture.
This is probably not good, but I sometimes keep the conditioner in overnight. Whatever, it makes my hair feel really good! Then I’ll do the LCO method, which is leave-in conditioner, cream, and oil. For the cream, I’ll switch it up every now and then, but I was using TGIN [Thank God It’s Natural] most recently. And if I need to get my curls redefined, I’ll just hop back in the shower for a co-wash.
For the past three years, I’ve also been using Eco Style to slick my hair. I know it’s really stripping, but because it’s water-based, it’s able to get my hair to do whatever I want. I know the natural hair community is gonna be like, “Oh no, we gotta fix that,” but it slicks my hair so good, and it takes me five minutes when I’m getting ready to work out. I’ve started using wax, too, so I’ll wet my hair and use Murray’s Edgewax for a bun.
Funnily enough, I went to a hair salon, ORR Hair Studio [in Los Angeles], for the first time in my life one year ago. I’ve been trying to grow out my hair for the past five years or so. When I went, I got a silk press, but she also trimmed my ends to help get rid of the damage from all the years I wasn’t going to the salon. Once in a while, I’ll get a blowout, and [Nia Macc] does my braids. It’s so relaxing to be at the salon with someone else doing your hair.
Skin
It took a while to get here, but I’m now very excited to take care of my face. Before, it would just be a simple face wash, and sometimes I’d put lotion—not even facial moisturizer—on my face, which is crazy.
