Ready to get rid of your tedious beauty regimes when traveling? Meet Kiri Bowers from travelbumpkin.com, she learned to let go of her flat iron early in her travels and has never looked back.

Simplifying your beauty routine when on the road is not only a time saver but can also save your sanity. Raise your hand if you have burnt out a European circuit or two!

Why she’s over the fluff:

Ladies what were you thinking? Hot, sweaty and tugging wildly at your hair. This goes out to the ones swearing and cursing the day they thought it was a good idea to bring your hair straighteners on the road.  Seriously, what were you thinking?

I have travelled the world for over a year now and lost count of the times I have watched women desperately ironing their hair despite 40 degree heat and 90% humidity.  By the time you’re ready to head out the door, your hair has frizzled up and you have to retreat back to start the sweaty process again.

I have seen burn marks left everywhere, on sinks and carpets and I even have a scar or two from the days when I was a slave to the straightener and those evil hot tongs.  Yes, there was a time where I hated my natural hair and wanted to look like everyone else with glossy straight locks.  Well now look at my barnet?

It’s messy, it’s frizzy but it’s natural and to be quite honest if I wanted to look like Kim Kardashian on the backpacking trail, I would be the world’s biggest walking contradiction.  The Kardashian beauty regime turns looking good into armour, into a necessity before facing the world. It is applied by the truckload and the results are great for paparazzi but do they suit you sitting in a hostel drinking and playing cards? NO!

Some of the most gorgeous travellers I’ve met are the naturally sun-kissed ladies, who have damp hair straight from the shower, a ragged pair of denim shorts, a simple top and maybe a tiny sweep of mascara.  I would love to say that I don’t need to get dolled up to look good because it’s not true; it’s just that I’m too lazy. I refuse to spend hours fine tuning my eye-liner applying skills.  Every time I try anything more than mascara and eyeliner, I end up looking like the Jokers long-lost twin. It’s frightening how bad I am at it.

I’m literally afraid of foundation too. I’m convinced that women make their skin problems worse by caking the stuff on.  If you train your skin to stay free from powders, creams and chemicals, your skin will learn to breathe free.  Especially when you’re on the road, you’re often hot, sweaty, tired and these things don’t bear well for great skin.  I am convinced that there is probably some girl somewhere on a backpacking trip to the arctic, sitting on an iceberg trying to apply concealer under her eyes.  There are so many of you women out there…You’re all stark raving mad I say!

Yes, when you’re back home and want to pimp your look and feel good, then go for it but when you’re backpacking, the long routine doesn’t fit.  Carrying around huge bottles of expensive shampoos and conditioners, sprays and a huge makeup bag just doesn’t help your cause. To save the strain of breaking my back, I have had to throw away anything unnecessary, I now use 2-in-1 where I can, I only have a single mascara and eyeliner and that’s it.

I’m not saying become a hobo and abandon deodorant and embrace hairy armpits, there’s a limit, but I am saying learn to be more carefree. Save yourself time and money, two valuable things when you are travelling.

One thing backpacking is continuously teaching me, is that loving yourself is the key to happiness; constantly striving to look different makes me miserable.  Learning to accept what you have is actually pretty hot.