Today’s guest post is from Penelope Trunk who gives advice at the intersection of work and life at Brazen Careerist.

For the past year I have traveled almost every week. Sometimes it’s to somewhere fun – LA, NY, SF. Sometimes it’s been to places where I will probably never go back: North Dakota. In each case, I had free shampoo. And in most cases, I was a hired speaker, so had a really good hotel room, with really good shampoo.

For the last month and a half, I haven’t traveled. The change has been huge – and anticipated. I have my favorite fresh vegetables in the fridge because they won’t go bad before I get home. And I know the soccer coaches by sight, now that I’ve been to four games in a row.

But one change that surprised me is I ran out of shampoo. That hasn’t happened in a year, because I have been maintaining a drawer full of tiny bottles of hotel shampoo. But after a month without travel, I depleted my stash. I started to write a note to the house manager to buy shampoo, but then I realized I don’t even know what kind I want.

So I went online to look at shampoo. I checked out the expensive brands and the cheap brands and I looked for women who looked like what I want to look like so I knew I was buying shampoo for my demographic. I settled on Bumble & Bumble. The women were hot, and I thought maybe not too hot for me because I think I remember my chi-chi best-friend LA hair stylist friend mentioning that brand.

Then I noticed there are shampoo brands for young boys. Marketed with the promise of getting the girls. Or hanging with the cool kids. I got my six-year-old some of that. Young, yes. But he’s almost seven. And besides, maybe there’s a chance that the road to good parenting is paved with consumer products.

So this is my new life: No late-night flights and missed connections. I’m in control of my schedule now, and even my shampoo. But I have to admit that I am going to miss the PMS-friendly mini bars: such an unbeatable selection of salty snacks.