Why New Mom Katherine Heigl Wishes Her Style Were More ‘Adventurous’

These days, it’s the little things in life that make her happy. And those little things often involve the very basics of hygiene, says Katherine Heigl.

“I’m so proud of the mornings when I do wash my face and brush my teeth,” Heigl tells Yahoo Style. “My shower routine is maybe every couple of days. Yesterday I went to get my roots done. It felt so good to take a shower and put on a little makeup and something other than leggings and a sweatshirt and get out of the house. But now I’m so exhausted by it.”

So shouldn’t she be out having sushi with her husband, singer Josh Kelley, and reveling in her temporary makeover? “My hair looks really great right now. It’s such a waste. I do feel like we need a nice dinner out,” says Heigl, adding that it’s never going to happen.

Why, you might ask? Six weeks ago, she gave birth to her first son, Josh Jr., who joins sisters Naleigh and Adelaide at the family home in Utah. Now Heigl is figuring out how to balance a newborn while raising two daughters, 8, and 4, and trying to wear something other than elastic-band pants with oversize shirts.

“I gravitate more towards classic styles, like Victoria Beckham dresses and fitted things around the waist,” she says. “Her stuff is very classic in my mind. I’m not as adventurous as I wish I was. You have to know the rules before you break them, and I don’t know the rules. I stick to what works for me. If I end up working with a stylist who can break the rules, sometimes I will, and sometimes I get afraid.”

On her new show, Doubt, premiering Feb. 15 on CBS, Heigl plays an attorney who wouldn’t sweat any of that style stuff.

“Sadie is smart and competent and good at what she does. But she doesn’t do anything else. She works. She orders a pizza. She goes to bed. She doesn’t have nice things,” says Heigl. “I believe personally that style is an important part of a character.”

When Heigl got the role, she gave the character a makeover of sorts. “I can’t have her be a total slob. Initially for me, her having style was about what looks best on me as a person. The easiest thing for me at the time to look good was my waist. I did a lot of high-waisted pencil skirts and fitted tops. Then I got pregnant, so a lot of the rest of the season was trying to hide that,” she says.

Adding to her family was never part of Heigl’s master plan. The pregnancy test’s coming up positive was a complete surprise.

“I wasn’t intending to have a third child when I did the pilot. We were waiting to see if they would pick it up. Everyone had good vibes about it. And I woke up one day, felt funny, took a pregnancy test and went, ‘Oh s***.’ I wasn’t expecting that. I would have to work all through my pregnancy,” she says, adding that she filmed until two weeks before delivery.

Now she’s admittedly suffering from massive baby brain.

“We’re in the thick of it. I’m so tired,” she says.

Her son was the first child she conceived biologically; both daughters were adopted. “For me the only difference has been the hormones. Your body goes through this physical process to birth a child. The hormones made me a crazy person and unlikable for the first couple of months. It’s so completely out of your control. I don’t use excuses. I try very hard to be kind. It overtook me. Once he was born, same thing. Your body starts producing different hormones to breastfeed and make you love your baby. The highs and lows of that are the only difference for me,” she says.

Heigl made headlines for her contentious exit from Grey’s Anatomy back in 2010, during the sixth season of the ABC show, earning a reputation for being difficult. But she has a pretty dead-on sense of humor. She’s spent the last seven years paying public penance for something she’s trying to get past. In fairness, men, no matter their transgressions, don’t seem to have the same issues.

Doubt, like Grey’s, is an ensemble cast, meaning Heigl isn’t carrying every one of the 13 episodes already in the can. “It took some juggling” at the smart of her pregnancy, she says. “It wasn’t as bad as I imagined it might be. Everyone was so supportive. It was only toward the ending of filming — I was so tired. Now I have this great time off to be with my newborn,” she says.

Her family is what it’s meant to be, says Heigl. “Becoming a mother has been the most beautiful experience of my life. I’m so blessed. My kids are pretty damn cool. They realize that he’s not leaving,” she says of her newest addition.

When she became pregnant, Heigl, 38, who for years had tried to quit smoking, suddenly found herself with zero desire for nicotine or alcohol.

“I wasn’t mentally prepared, but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It must be some kind of psychological thing. You just shut it down. I didn’t have any issue quitting smoking. I had tried to quit several times in the past. As soon as I got pregnant, I was fine. I’ll have dreams about having a cigarette. It’s really hard. It’s the idea of giving yourself this naughty treat,” she says.

Given that she doesn’t have to go back to work anytime soon, Heigl is digging being a temporary stay-at-home mom and running the show her way.

“I love being in charge at home. Being away from home is hard. It kills my soul. I’m so grateful to have time with him,” she says.

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