Kiddies with dyed hair

[jan]

When will you let your kids permanently dye their hair? Not the spray on stuff or the Kool-Aid trick but with real dye? This little girl showed up to school with her lovely brown hair permanently dyed red...her momma musta be on crack....there were patches she missed that made it look worse.

[poison ivy]

Funny you ask this.

Yesterday my sister-in-law (former hair dresser)tried to lighten my 13 yr old nephew's hair. It was a light mousy brown/dishwater blonde color before.....now, it's a bright banana yellow-blonde with an orangey tinge. It wasn't supposed to be that shade. Keep in mind, my nephew LOOKS about 11. lol

Personally,I think it's a little creepy seeing youngsters with dyed hair and/or makeup.

[psyck]

i would let them permanently dye their hair around 16-17. before that, it would have to be the 28-washing type. but i dont have kids yet, so what do i know?

in the end, its just hair. it will grow back!

[ShootToKill]

its just hair...it grows back surprisingly.

[LornaBrigid]

Probably thirteen. That's how old I was when I first started mine, so I can't exactly be hypocritical.
I had this discussion with my husband..... I am me and will always be up front with my kids.... if my child ever comes home with stupid looking hair, I will soooo laugh my arse off at them! :) It IS just hair, so....

[GumdropKittie]

holy hell, I thought I was the only who dyed my hair with kool-aid.

[candy apple red]

Eh, sure. Why not.

*edit*

That wasn't the question. :p Yeah, I can read. So, when? Sixth grade is when I became interested in things like that. That seems OK to me. Really, whenever they want to do it, I don't see anything terribly wrong with it. I'd ask them why they want to, and wouldn't go for anything too drastic, but yeah. It is just hair.

[haunted]

my parents let me start in on temporary dyes around 12 or 13 (both natural and unnatural shades of color. only in small portions of hair), then dyed my hair completely with more permanent dye at 15. if I had kids, I'd probably do what my parents did. small portions of hair at 13 or so. permanent around 15 or 16 +.

[Spacegrrrl]

I wouldn't let them.
After they move out of the house they can do whatever they want with it.
But i'm there to keep them safe from harm and you have 2x more chance of getting bladder cancer if you permanantly dye your hair then if you don't.
If they wanted to use that wash-out paint on haircolor that would be fine. I have nothing against funky colored hair as I've been purple, myself. :)

[i am a cat.]

I had a friend who, at the tender age of 8, was allowed to have the whole Billy Idol bleach-blonde semi-mohawk thing going on.

Ah, 80s children. :)

[sprout]

I was allowed to at 11. I didn't want to but my mother didn't like that my hair got darker as I got older and I was no longer white blonde. At 15 I let it all grow back in again, but she kept telling me how ugly it looked so I did it again. I would let my kid do it around that age too if they wanted to.

[Vindemiatrix]

i first dyed my hair when i was twelve, my mom helped me pick out the dye. unfortunately, it turned out to be a copperish light brown (from my light blonde red), i was called "copper top" by my peers for awhile there ... i'd say it's okay as long as the color is a shade close enough to the child's original hair color

[chloe dancer]

16ish i guess. i am not letting my kids fuck around with permanent hair dye from cvs. if they want to add like a tinge of red or something when they are 14 or 15 i probably wouldnt care. but like if my daughter wants highlites or a full color - she is paying for it and waiting until she is about 16. same with the boy. you never know he could be a screaming queen.

[jan]

Personally I let my 13 y o dye just the tips of her's fushia (could be hidden for formal events) and the 10 y o Kool Aided hers a few times last year (Elly's son taught her the trick)<br>The little girl with the dyed hair is 6...but looks four..i. Everyone was commenting on it...kids making fun and adults wanting to know if she did it herself (it looks like it but she says her momma did)...

[courey]

In some [maybe all?] of the schools around here they won't allow "any unnatural hair color"... there were two girls that were suspended from school for dying their hair pink this year. I believe these were highschool kids, also. I think that's going a little overboard, but I can also see their point. I started using that god-awful "Sun In" garbage when I was about 12, but didn't really dye my hair the first time until right after I graduated high school. Right now I just hope my kids don't want to do that to their hair because, having taken cosmetology courses, I know how bad it can ruin your hair, especially if you do it yourself. Salem tried the spray on halloween blue stuff and I think he decided he didn't like it. If Kaiya wants to try anything more permanent, I'll take her to a salon, but she'll probably have to be in highschool before I feel comfortable with it.

[Selina Kyle]

Hmm 5 year olds with dyed hair..That's weird.

[stupidANDcontagious]

If and when the time comes and my son asks me if he can dye his hair a crazy color I'll say sure: we just have to wait until Summer time. As far as I know many elementary/middle schools don't allow non-natural colored hair. I don't see the harm in doing it during the Summer, but I wouldn't let my son do it during the school year. It could be something for him to look forward to, good behavior = blue hair the following summer, etc. Vegetable-based color is completely non-damaging and washes out. Of course, growing up around his mom and dad who have crazy hair all-year round might turn him off to it, lol. If I ever have a daughter and she wants to do something more permanent, like highlights, I'd wait until she is 12-13. Like someone said, it's only hair, it grows back.

[lanya]

in the kindergarten class i assisted this year, there was a little 4 year old hispanic boy with bleached hair....i remember that really surprised me cause i never see kids that young with their hair dyed....his 1st grade brother also had his hair bleached. i always wondered if it bothered them or they wanted their hair dyed.

[i am hydrogen]

the only person i know who tried the koolaid thing was in 7th grade...her hair remained the same but her face was dyed purple for a day....

this girl became valedictorian, i think

[pirateprude]

My brother is 11 and he hasn't asked about dye, although I am sure my mother would let him. He has long hair and I bet a lot of other parents would not allow that, but fuck 'em. His hair is really cute.

I think that, to her, the dye thing would not be an issue big enough to fight about. Choose your battles.

[CocaineLipgloss]

i think i'd be ok with my kids wanting to dye their hair at a young age, or get a funky haircut. for some reason i think i would feel more comfortable with crazy hair colors, rather than my daughter wanting to go blonde.

when i was in england last summer during the world cup, i saw tons of little boys with bleached blonde hair and little mohawks, after one of the star soccer players. i thought it was cute!

[PotatoFace]

i would do it for them. my mother was a hair stylist and she used to practice on my hair. blonde highlights in the front. ginger hair colour. there is nothing wrong with it. its hair and its grows. i love little boys with mohawks and such.

i actually think my boyfriend(husband to be) would have more a problem with it then i would. He wants to dread our sons hair when we start a family. he wanted to have all the kids hair in dreads, but i said no at the little girl. cause boys can always shave their head, little girls cant.

[Martmaduke]

Isn't damaging to the hair? I think you should let kids have fun with hair colors while they are kids. Sheesh. There'll be plenty of time to be boring when they are older. Some schools... They should suspend bullies before hair-dyes.

[Martmaduke]

How do you do the kool-aid thing? Does it works for adults?

[MTC]

My 10 yo son went blond last summer and is planning on it this summer too. It's better than a piercing or a tattoo. Not that I would allow that at 10, but I see plenty of 5th and 6th graders with piercings, and a couple with mohawks.

And how does that Kool-aide thing work? I'd like to do that for fun.

[PotatoFace]

ohhh good dont do kool aide. the sugar atracks bugs. my friend did this and had such a problem with flies and bees and bugs. plus the sugar can rot your hair. its fucking nasty

[lollipop gestapo]

how long does Kool Aid stay in? and how strong is the colour?
ive never tried it and this thread has really sparked some interest in me to dye it some funky colour.

i would say like 13. i got highlights at around my age. my family is pretty ok with me dying my hair but it has to look semi natural nothing nutty like green or rainbow. right now im happy with my fiery copper red. :)
i guess it would also depend on the colour my kid would want but i would try to be reasonable and look at both sides of our coin.

i still use weaker gloss dyes. nothing permanent and full of amonia because i dont want to destroy my hair.

/done/

[PotatoFace]

dont do kool aide. do raw hair colour from hot topic its veggie dye and gets great colours. but for the love of all goodness not kool aide

[lollipop gestapo]

hehe.
ok.

i think i would be too afraid to do Kool Aid and the idea of all those sugars in my hair seems soo bleh. who the fuck discovered dying with Kool Aid anyway!?
it must have been some poor extremely bored soul with boring hair.
:)

[sprout]

Yeah, don't do the kool-aid. I did when I was about 14 and I had the worst knots ever. Plus you have to boil the stuff first and then dunk your hair in it without getting your head...it's a pain in the ass.

[GumdropKittie]

Tried food coloring when I was 13........omgod what a fucking nightmare.

yesh, I was desperate.

[lollipop gestapo]

aww. what color?

[GumdropKittie]

orange. it worked and turned my hair the color of my sig, unfortunately it turned everything else orange as well. :p

[OnlyBride]

<font color="#CC0066">•</font><font color="#FF6600">•</font><font color="#FFCC33">•</font>I think my mum's problem with permanent dying was more about fucking my hair up and having bad regrowth than about crazy colouring. She wasn't prepared to let me bleach my hair while I was at school.
I always had semi-permanent blacks and purples in throughout school though, and my mum was 100% fine with that.
She let me get streaks at 13/14, and she let me enhance my natural colour with a permanent red at 16/17.

My cousin was allowed to get his hair bleached at about age 11, and a lady at work lets her 10 and 12 year old kids get streaks and subtle ligtening done to their hair.<font color="#FFCC33">•</font><font color="#FF6600">•</font><font color="#CC0066">•</font>

[Relentless]

How do you do the kool-aid thing? Does it works for adults?

Kool aide is an ok drink, but a terrible hairdye! The colors turn out dull and blotchy, and fade too quickly to bother with. If you are going for a crayon colored hair, please do it right. Bleach, or at least lighten it first. Then, get some special effects brand dye. Its semi-permanent. The colors are SO vivid, and the staying power is much better than manic panic or punky colors. Special effects blues dont fade to green either. Nothing makes me squirm more than a bad blue dyejob gone grey/green. BLEH!! I have had many, many different hair colors, including blue, pink, purple, neon red, orange, platinum blonde and black (including combinations of the above too). I've experimented alot, and I know what Im talking about.

As for kids and hairdye..
I say if they want it, let them try it, if the school allows. How can I tell my child no with all the photos of me with blue hair and whatnot around? It isnt harmful, and its fun. Permanent dye is a bitch to get out, so I'd probably draw the line there. Semi permenant is good enough for kids. But, if youre going to dye it an unnatural color...please do it right so it can look well-done!

Relentless

[E.E. and Otacon]

My hair is currently a lovely shade of blue. So there is no way that I can tell my kids that they can't have a strange hair color.

But I'd like to make them wait until they are around 15 before they really go all out with it and do a strange "crayon" color. Highlights and things like that aren't such a big deal before hand, so I won't object to it.

My parents have outlawed any sort of hair dying... which is why I'm glad that I'm an adult and don't have to put up with that lame, "no hair dye" rule. I plan on being more lenient with my kids when it comes to hair color. I mean they could be doing so much worse. A little hair color never hurt a person. I'd rather that my kids dyed their hair strange colors rather than become juvinile deliquents.

[Fluffy]

I'd be okay with letting a 12-13 y/o dye their hair if they wanted to. I started to dye my hair when I was around... 11? I've always loved coloring my hair. A girl I was friends with in middle school had her hair dyed blonde from the time she was in 3rd grade on. I don't see anything "wrong" with it and I echo the "it's just hair" sentiment.

[jan]

It isn't uncommon for middle kids (12ish) to have funky colored hair, but this is the first time I have seen a child this young with perm. dyed hair...when I said "red" I should have been more precise..."Lucille Ball" red. <br>given the mom's past behavior I just worry about if she was straight when she did it...with all the chemicals in dye...it isn't something you mess with a child with you are fucked up.<br>Martaduke...I wouldn't recommend KoolAid for adults...Ali has very light blonde hair and it has a washed out look on hers.

[Dianna.]

a friend of mine dyes her 5 year old little girls hair with whatever is left over after she dyes her own. (blonde, light brown from a natural mousy brown)

I suppose whenever Elise has a sincere interest I'll compromise with tips or highlights. At almost 7, it hasn't occurred to her that 1. she has a choice and 2. her brown hair is't simply wonderful. Piercing on the other hand will have to wait until she's 17. If she's a good student.

Anything to avoid tattoos.

[Erika]

A friend of mine did her hair with kool aid and it took months to wash out.

[TwistedMister]

Yeh thats right. I let my son do whatever he wanted to as far as his appearance. Of course this is contingent on school regulations. Fuckin' rules!!

[Spacegrrrl]

I just wanted to reiterate something I said a few pages back b/c I think people must have missed it since they keep saying "hair dye isn't harmful".
People who permanently dye their hair have 2x the chance of getting bladder cancer than those who don't. It's because of two chemicals in the dyes which I can't recall right now b/c they don't exactly roll off the tongue. ;)
But, yeah,...and hairdressers have 10x the chance of getting bladder cancer b/c of working with those chemicals on a constant basis.
Not good.

[Autumn]

I was allowed to at 11. I didn't want to but my mother didn't like that my hair got darker as I got older and I was no longer white blonde. At 15 I let it all grow back in again, but she kept telling me how ugly it looked so I did it again.


:s

What's up with your mom? She sucks!

[twin-peekaboo]

I just wanted to reiterate something I said a few pages back b/c I think people must have missed it since they keep saying "hair dye isn't harmful".
People who permanently dye their hair have 2x the chance of getting bladder cancer than those who don't. It's because of two chemicals in the dyes which I can't recall right now b/c they don't exactly roll off the tongue. ;)
But, yeah,...and hairdressers have 10x the chance of getting bladder cancer b/c of working with those chemicals on a constant basis.
Not good.

for curiosity, do you have any sources to back this up?

i'd let 'em run wild at 12 or so... that is when i did... but i think i would encourage the semi-perm stuff... just because teens change their look more often than some people change underwear.

[Autumn]

Whoa. What does dying your hair have to do with your bladder?

I'm confused?

[Spacegrrrl]

www.greatestherbsonearth.com/articles/bladder_cancer.htm

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1934496.stm

http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/hairdyehigri.html

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m3233/7_35/73866853/p1/article.jhtml?term=%2BHair+%2Bdyes+%2BHealth+%2Baspects

http://www.state.oh.us/cos/phd&bc.pdf

www.mercola.com/2001/feb/4/cancer_hair_dye.htm

www.health.harvard.edu/medline/Women/W801f.html
www.usc.edu/hsc/info/pr/1vol7/702/bladder.html

A Nay-Sayer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A42933-2003Mar17&notFound=true

[pirateprude]

yeah, i agree with the nay-sayer. i live in freaking delaware, the carcinogens that legistators allow in the air i breathe are probably a lot more harmful than my hair dye.

[twin-peekaboo]

spacegrrrl... very interesting. thanks for the links!

although personally, i think i am more likely to piss broken glass than to get bladder cancer from my hair dye.

[Spacegrrrl]

It kind of makes sense, I guess.
You're putting chemicals on your hair..some gets on your scalp...some might get on your hands...get absorbed into your skin.
I don't know.
I heard about this study awhile ago and just wanted people to be aware so they can make informed decisions.

[Seed]

Well, kids want to experiment and the way I see it, dyeing their hair is one of the least risky things they will be doing.

[tigermilk]

I wasn't allowed to dye my hair a color of my own choosing until I was 20. Yes, 20.

I dyed my hair a color of my own choosing about a week and a half ago. Because my mother is crazy.

For FOUR YEARS I had bleached blonde hair done by a crazy Italian hairstylist with four screaming kids, at her house. It was about fifteen different shades of blonde and all black underneath: completely unnatural. And I'd always have ROOTS sticking out. I asked my mother for something different and she said no, it looks pretty!

[bang]

So this semester I was Bianca in "Taming of the Shrew" and became friends with my director who told me I should dye my hair brown. I called up my mother and told her about my decision. This was her response:

<b>"HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME. You're going to look UGLY and STUPID and nobody is going to like you. The reason you got asked out on dates was because of your hair. All I can say is I hope you like babies because if you come home with brown hair I'm going to kick you out of the house and the only place you'll be able to live is with your ex-boyfriend who's going to rape you and make you pregnant."</b>

They also changed the message on our answering machine at home to omit my name.

So I began to realize this was much more than hair. This was giving up control. And I dyed it. And I came home and my mother cries every day. Because for 20 years she's been able to control my weight, the clothes I wear, my college major and step by step I am releasing that control from her hands.

Before:
<img src="http://userpic.livejournal.com/4247996/701202">

After:
<img src="http://userpic.livejournal.com/5058975/926135">

I think that if parents give their child enough autonomy to make their own decisions at 13 or 14, then God bless them. If the parents MAKE the child dye their hair like mine did, then that's another story. But the whole thing is letting your child make decisions and letting THEM deal with the consequences.

Kids can be doing a LOT worse nowadays. When I was in junior high school I saw kids doing drugs in the bathroom stalls. A straight A student deserves some kind of perk and that perk is letting them realize that THEY OWN THEIR BODY and if they can do what they want with it, they may as well do healthy things. I think it's the best kind of confidence you can give someone and the fact that it came so late for me made me doubt myself for years. Nobody needs that.

[twin-peekaboo]

well you didn't ask my opinion, but i love your hair brown! i think it looks gorgeous!

[jan]

As for dangers...the box sitting in my bathroom counter has a warning on the box about potential risk of blindness.

[tigermilk]

well you didn't ask my opinion, but i love your hair brown! i think it looks gorgeous!

Thanks for the compliment sweetie! I'm much happier with hair that's all one color, haha. ;)

[stupidANDcontagious]

I just wanted to reiterate something I said a few pages back b/c I think people must have missed it since they keep saying "hair dye isn't harmful".
People who permanently dye their hair have 2x the chance of getting bladder cancer than those who don't. It's because of two chemicals in the dyes which I can't recall right now b/c they don't exactly roll off the tongue. ;)
But, yeah,...and hairdressers have 10x the chance of getting bladder cancer b/c of working with those chemicals on a constant basis.
Not good.


I too will reiterate that there are many hair color alternatives that are completely non-harmful and non-damaging. Henna and vegetable dyes can achieve just the same, if not better, results and include no harsh chemicals and don't require developer or any other mixing agents. I know you are referring to permanent dyes, Spacegrrrl, but I just wanted to counter those links with some options. ;)

[Spacegrrrl]

Tigermilk> I agree. It looks better brunette:)

StupidandContagious - :)

Have always wanted to try henna but didn't think it would be smart to try to dye it myself since I'm a newbie.

[lanya]

I wasn't allowed to dye my hair a color of my own choosing until I was 20. Yes, 20.


i can so relate to you! i always thought i was the only one with a parent that psychotically obsessed with their hair. i'm blonde and i've been wanting to dye my hair brown since i was like 13...and i'm 18 now. but my dad always screams and yells at me and threatens to kick me out if i do....his rationalizing of it is: "you're pretty!!! why would you change that? your hair is pretty, not everyone's hair is pretty, so why would you want to go and ruin your hair and make yourself ugly?!" :r

it pisses me off a lot, cause my hair has looked almost exactly the same way ever since i was like 12....

[tigermilk]

i can so relate to you! i always thought i was the only one with a parent that psychotically obsessed with their hair. i'm blonde and i've been wanting to dye my hair brown since i was like 13...and i'm 18 now. but my dad always screams and yells at me and threatens to kick me out if i do....his rationalizing of it is: "you're pretty!!! why would you change that? your hair is pretty, not everyone's hair is pretty, so why would you want to go and ruin your hair and make yourself ugly?!" :r

it pisses me off a lot, cause my hair has looked almost exactly the same way ever since i was like 12....

Totally! It's such a control complex. & I think Sprout can relate as well. Nobody else understands just what a big step it is to dye our hair in families like these!!

You should REALLY dye it though. Believe me, it's so liberating. Take control over your body because ultimately it's your own and no one else's. :)

[killamsbest]

For all of you who say "I hate the sugar mess of Kool-Aid" DON'T USE SUGAR. Buy 2 or 3 packs of unsweetened Kool-Aid, add to about 3 quarter sized globs of conditioner, massage into wet hair, bag it up, leave it for as long as you want to, rinse out. dry and style as normal. This works for kids, adults, dogs, whatever...

Hope this helps !

[jayme]

.

[1500]

When my daughter was 6 she asked me if she could have red hair. I was always coloring my hair so she was curious about it. I don't think it is such a big deal. We did it for fun once (strawberry blonde) and she has never asked about it again.

My youngest (who is now 5) has no interest in coloring her hair. My oldest ( now 7) doesn't anymore but she always talks about the time I let her color her hair and it's just a nice memory of one fun night we hung out together.

I say let kids have fun (as long as it doesn't harm them or others). It's hair, it's will grow back.

[Vampire Kites]

well i didn't start dying my hair until I was 17. Big mistake. My hair cannot handle dye yet I constantly dyed it until recently, I'm 22 now. My hair is really thin now and it looks like I'm going bald. I finally stopped in December but it's gonna take a real long time for my hair to go back how it was before. But enough about me.(sorry). I wouldnt let my kid get their hair dyed. Hold on to the natural beautiful hair for as long as possible!