At what age would you allow your daughter to chemically alter her hair colour?
I’m pretty sure that most mother’s would never dye their young daughter’s hair chemically, but what about naturally? And at what ages?
a) Would you do permanent, but natural, hair colouring? Such as [name]Henna[/name].
b) Or would you do semi-permanent, but natural? Such as lightening her hair with cinnamon treatments?
The thought came to me yesterday, and I was curious. I’ve seen young children with highlights in their hair, there’s a boy at the daycare who had blue dip dye for a while, and now he’s got blonde chunks. I believe he’s 8.
My mother told me that I couldn’t dye my hair till I was a teenager. She let me dye my hair when I turned 13. It was a permanent regular hair dye that was not too different from my normal color. I did it once, then had my fill when the dye burned a little and smelled and I didn’t do it again for a long time.
For myself, I don’t think I’d do it that early with chemical hair dye. I would want to wait until 16 or 17 or so. As for natural hair dye or treatment options, I still don’t think young children need anything like that but maybe by the time they were 14 I might consider something natural that wouldn’t be harmful to them or their hair.
At my daycare, there’s a bunch of 11 year old boys on their schools football team. [name]Every[/name] Friday that they have a game they spike their hair and tip it icy blue. It’s wash out coloring and it can be removed after the game, so I think that’s fine because it’s made for anyone and is basically mouse with hair coloring in it. So I’d say during a special occasion like that if they wanted some washable hair coloring after 10 that might be fine.
And, one last thing, there’s a place down here that does a special “pamper party” for kids birthdays and whatnot. It lets little girls get basic manicures (with soft colors like pearl pink or baby blue), pedicures (same), and hair style with wash out coloring (usually pink that comes out in 24 hours) and I think that’s cute for over 5 as they use safe colors and it makes the girls feel fun and pretty.
For chemically altering her hair or anything permanent, teenager. Meaning fifteen or sixteen preferably though I could see possibly thirteen since that’s the start of the teen years in my mind. I would strongly discourage any hair coloring or perms though, it’s so bad for your hair. [name]Wash[/name]-out stuff would be fine for any age, as long as it truly washes out completely in a shampoo.
Where I live, a second grader with pink streaks in her hair died of cancer, and all of the little girls in her grade (and a couple of girls scattered throughout the school) got pink streaks to remember and honor her, which I thought was really sweet.
I don’t think I’d let my child dye their hair chemically or naturally until after 18 without a special reason like that, but I’d have no problem with temporary dyes.
Well, I was 13 before my mum let me dye mine, and I was only allowed to do it so long as it wasn’t permanent and it wasn’t too drastically different to my ordinary hair colour. I thought that was fine, and a lot of girls in my year were doing theirs a lot earlier than that. I don’t see why it’s such a problem. Obviously, if the kid is like 6, then in my eyes that’s not okay, but if they’re older, so long as it’s natural and non-permanent it doesn’t harm anyone, so why not?
Ooh, boy. I see a lot of this in Southern [name]California[/name] (2nd or 3rd graders–boys, actually! Those “frosted” tips!) and it makes me kind of sad. Why don’t they like the way they look at such a young age?
I’m hoping to discourage my kids from doing this until they are well into their teens. I just don’t want to allow them (if I can help it) to buy into the idea that they’re not good enough just the way they are. They all happen to have hair that naturally changes tone in the sun, and hopefully that will be enough novelty for the next decade or so…
Anything that chemically alters the hair, 13+, boy or girl. I don’t particularly like the look of the frosted tips that boys sport these days, but it would be hypocritical and sexist of me to allow my daughter a couple of highlights aged 13+ and not allow a hypothetical son.
[name]Henna[/name] is a big no-no, I’ve seen the most adverse allergic reactions to henna (both shampoos/dyes and those wash off tattoos). I’ll be discouraging the use of henna completely, if possible.
The only thing I would allow before the age of 13 is those fun spray cans of colour. They come in spray bottles (similar to hair spray) and are made of natural, non toxic ingredients. You can get them in a whole host of fun colours. I got some for my daughter this year for Halloween in pink, blue, and green. She was dressing up as a Mermaid. The sprays made her hair look cool, didn’t harm her, and washed out in her next bath. So before the age of 13, those sprays would probably be the only thing I’d let my kids use.
I was 13 when I started my relationship with bleach & crazy colors
Now I have gotten into my natural red hair. Which I used to hate.
I have friends that have dyed their children’s hair as young as 7 maybe? Like punky colors or manic panic or even koolaid.
I think I will be a bit stricter. I am more into natural products so I’m not into putting chemical dye on my kid’s head for fun when I spend my time researching detergents & baby washes!
Maybe later in the teens than I started. Im actually more into the idea of fun colors than natural looking & an attempt at’beautification’ as I hope my daughter thinks she’s beautiful but does it more for self expression than to’fix’ herself
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Yes Taz. I love funky colors. I probably still wouldn’t start till later than I started (13) but I wouldn’t discourage the weird colors unless the school did too.
After my first incident with hair dye, I didn’t dye my hair again till I was 17, and then it was black and purple, not a natural nice dye
I was 12 the first time I dyed my hair. I don’t feel like I was too young for it at that point, so should I ever have a daughter and she wanted to dye her hair, 12 is probably the earliest I’d let her do it for the whole head. Before that I had had hair mascara (oh that was a great trend). I’ve dyed my hair pretty much at least once a year, every year since then.
There was a girl in grade 2 at the school I worked at earlier this year and she had some multicoloured streaks. I thought it was a little young, but I don’t see the harm in it. I wouldn’t dye the hair of a 7 or 8 year old with permanent black dye (if they are blonde; just as an example of a drastic difference), but a few coloured streaks, or blonde chunks at the front (which was also popular-ish when I was young, haha), I could be talked in to.
I got my cartilage pierced in grade 5, and already got a second hole in my lobes when I was in grade 3 or 4, so my mom was pretty relaxed about stuff like that. I don’t think it’d a big deal. It was nice to be allowed to experiment. Hair grows, dyes can wash out (sometimes).
I let my son dye temporary blue streaks in his hair for [name]Field[/name] [name]Day[/name] last year when he was a first-grader, but even that was extreme in my opinion (he’s blonde, and it lasted longer than we anticipated). Honestly, I doubt I’ll let my kids do anything else to their hair until they’re at least 16. I know my husband would say 18.
I think I was 12, also. However, for my little girl, I’m just not gonna bring it up and see where it goes. If she comes to me and asks, I’d go with as natural a product as I could find anytime after she’s 12 or 13, probably. I dyed my hair blond…yeah, it didn’t turn out that way. Then I had to go through another chemical treatment to fix it, so I’d prefer to avoid chemicals with her as much as possible.
I don’t have a problem with the idea of dyed hair on a kid–I think my first was a natural red at 14, then over the years I had bright green (and blond from the bleach after the green washed out), bright red, black with a red streak, maybe green a 2nd time in there but I forget now. Anyway, my concern would be the chemicals. I was never all that concerned for myself, but of course stopped dying my hair when I got pregnant and I’m not sure how I’d feel about using those products on a child since they’re still developing and I worry about what really is or isn’t safe. I’d probably be more comfortable with a child using kool-aid as hair dye, with the hopes that a food dye would pose less risk, but my kids will likely have hair too dark for that to work well. So I guess for me it’s more a matter of ingredients than age. If I was able to read what’s in a particular dye and do some research on it, I’d be more willing to use it, but I had to bleach my hair to get the manic panic to show up right and I’d be pretty uncomfortable using bleach on my kid.
My mom let me dye my hair when I was 10. It was supposed to be blonde, but it came out red. We tried again later, with a different shade, and it worked. And I loved it! It was only 3 years ago, though, so…
I’d be fine with fun, temporary/wash-out colours if my kids were young. I remember going to a Spice Girls themed birthday party when I was 6 and getting temporary red streaks in my hair (I was [name]Ginger[/name] Spice haha). And dying my hair black (with a spray-in type dye) when I was about 10 because I was a witch! it’s fun and harmless.
As for permanent colour, definitely teenaged, I’d say around 14+. I first started getting permanent all-over blonde highlights when I was 15. It probably depends if they were going box dye or salon for the colour… my mom and I tried to box dye my hair twice and let’s just say it definitely didn’t work out as planned! so if they were old enough to have a job and save up a bit of the money, I’d encourage them to go to a salon.
I would let my kids start dying it at 16, probably. At twelve, I dyed my hair a deep auburn (I naturally have brown/black dark hair) and I could never get the red tint to go away. I wouldn’t want my kids to go threw a phase and end up regretting it, like I did.
I would probably do a “natural instincts” color. I’ve found it isn’t as harsh on your hair and fades after a couple months so it isn’t permanent. I don’t dye my hair so I’ve never used [name]Henna[/name] or cinnamon treatments, but I would probably look into it as it seems a bit more healthy and less expensive. I wouldn’t want to invest in something she might not like, especially at a young age.
I remember putting red in my hair one year for a charity day at school where we all had to dress in red (I don’t know if [name]Red[/name] Nose [name]Day[/name] is just a UK thing, but you buy little red noses and they often come in a box with different things - one year was stickers, one year was hair gel, another was hair dye I believe). I was in primary school then, probably about 10 or so, but it was wash in wash out type of thing and I was only allowed it because it was a charity day. Ditto the time I sprayed my hair green for my secondary school’s house sports day, just something that would wash out in the shower that evening. I went green for a charity day again more recently as well, though more because I forgot about it until the night before and that was the only colour I could find in the shops.
I’ve got friends that through their teens went an assortment of colours - one boy in particular I’m sure has done every colour of the rainbow and more besides - and others who just went natural colours but a bit lighter or darker. I’ve been too afraid of it going wrong to try it myself though.
I’d probably let my kid spray it a bright colour for something like a charity mad hair day when little, just as a bit of fun, and wash it out that night. For more permanent colouring, I’d not let them until their teens, and even then I’d want it to be something normal or just the tips in colour.
My mom
The first time I dyed my hair I was maybe 14. My light blonde was fading into brown and I hated it. Not to me to I was getting grey/white hair on the bottom. So I had a chemical blonde dye. It went on every six months for 3 years. At 16 I had my hair chemically straightened. And again about 8 months later. Also at 16 I had semipermanent fire truck red tips in my bangs that I had a love/hate relationship with. At 17 & 1/2 I had my hair dyed a medium brown but it faded back to blonde which looks so odd now where its grown out and my hair is almost brown again.
