To let DD (8) dip dye her hair?

[cluckyduck]

Just that really.

She has asked, several times, to dye the ends of her - verrrry long - hair pink or lilac, on the condition that its chopped off sept 1st for school.

Will be no more than an inch but I feel conflicted. Part of me wants to encourage her to be creative and that there's nothing wrong with having fun with your appearance etc (based on my own issues as a child with DM, but that's another story!) but I am worried that people will judge her, and me!

It's the only thing she wants to do this summer and she wants to "look like a superhero"...

I absolutely wouldn't allow it - I think it looks bloody awful on adults and would look worse on a child.

But then I am very conservative in my outlook.

Why do you think people are happy to let their dc dip dye their hair, but not wear high heels or false eyelashes then worra?

Well this is what I'm asking because I have no idea

As I said, I can understand the high heels due to safety

But I don't understand how hair dye is ok for a small child and yet not make-up/false eyelashes/spray tans etc.

To me, they're all something teenagers and adults have

Little children have traditionally been encouraged to be happy with their natural looks.

Yeah let her do it! My DD is 13 and I've been letting her do mad things with her hair in the summer hols since she was slightly older than your DD. I just bought some Directions dye today for her to do her hair pink tomorrow like she had last year :) it fades fine by the end of the summer, especially with swimming etc.

They have to dress so conservatively at school - especially secondary - that it's nice to let them relax in the hols.

I remember using spray on hair colouror a little wand thing like a mascara brush that you used to put col our on your hair, only when it got wet it ran...

My boys have had spray on col our and glitter etc for their hair.

But who says she is doing it to 'look beautiful' its just a bit of dress up/play in the superhero theme as the child has said

Then what's wrong with buying wig to go with a superhero outfit?

A wig will be hot and sweaty and to get a half decent one expensive.

Did you do nothing like this as a child? I remember buying little wands of col our like mascara but for your hair, I also learn how to wrap my hair in embroidery thread it plait it in, spent hours doing that as a child, it was just fun, something non permanent and a bit like face painting etc. Ditto glitter hair spray, at least now you can get decent dye and it won't run every time it gets wet in the rain or swimming etc.

If she wants to play superhero's buy her a spiderman suit.

I dont think 8 year olds should be dying their hair, especially dip dye which is the favorite pass time of 15 year olds trying to look like an extra from Townies

www.amazon.co.uk/Neon-Hair-Mascara-Silver/dp/B0045UELF6/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1374343059&sr=8-6&keywords=hair+colour+wand

Actually you can still get the hair mascara! I had loads of these!

My dd(6) is desperate for pink hair like mummy's. However, she has very long dark brown hair so not sure how it's going to work, as don't really want to bleach it. Desperately needs cutting though, so perhaps I could make a cut a condition of dyeing it. Or maybe just dye the boys at the front that are naturally sun bleached and let it wash out in time for school.

www.amazon.co.uk/Temporary-Hair-Mascara-Glitter-Hologram/dp/B00CQMISS6/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1374343059&sr=8-8&keywords=hair+colour+wand

A glittery one, op if you decide against coloring her hair these may be a good compromise :)

A wig will be hot and sweaty and to get a half decent one expensive.

What?

I'm not suggesting she walks around town in it...just that she puts it on when playing Superheros, like children have done for decades.

My kids wear superhero costumes all day, ds2went to london zoo as buzz light year, a costume can be worn all day if they want, unless its a good wig it will be uncomfortable, we have a red one its itchy as hell.

I do think the hair mascara is a good compromise, I might buy some for our dress up/face paint collection.

So did mine

DS3 spent around a year dressed as the Incredible Hulk

He managed to survive without dying his hair bright green

My DD is 11 and starting secondary school in September. She asked if she could dip dye her hair over the summer because 'all her friends are' and I've said no. End of discussion.

I'm obviously weird then, because I didn't dye my own hair until I was 17 and was never into any of the stuff mentioned above. I'm trying to instil in DD the need to be comfortable in her own skin. I'm already getting the shit about 'my hair is awful', 'I hate how I look in photos' etc. Wtf? She's at primary school! There was none of this crap when I was her age. Time enough for that when she's older - she's a CHILD now and I'm dreading letting her go.

And we've agreed that fake tans look shit on everyone

Worra agreeing with you on everything but Hulk has black hair and green skin.

Hair that's going to get cut off at the beginning of September, perfectly fine (and tbh, I get more judgemental at grown women in their 30s squeeing over dip dying).

Anything that affects the skin directly would be a no from me, though.

I don't like it.

Well I don't like it on any age.

OP my dd is only 4. My worry would be when does it stop?

8 is still very young.

What if it was a boy? See lots of little boys with spike/mohican styles in school holidays, often with the ends coloured. Again its only a school holiday thing, my boys have done similar but only with the spray on hair col our that washes out at the end of the day. Ditto glitter hairspray etc.

As I said as a kid the hair mascara, spray on one day colour were very common for school discos and summer holidays etc. It wasn't about being sexy or grown up, it was just play and my boys are the same, they have mainly had silver hair spray or red but whatever colour fine as long as it washes out and its school holidays.

How about a braid or some beads instead? I don't like the idea of using chemicals on children, so that's one of the reasons I don't like it.

The idea of fake tan on children fills me with horror tbh, and make up on girls younger than teen is tacky and horrible imho.

When I was 8 or 9 I use to use hair mascara :) not because I wanted to look older, because I liked having bright coloured hair (still haven't grown out of that, currently sporting baby pink hair).

Yuck on boys too!

I'm sure none of us ( boy or girl) worried this much about how we looked back in the 70's 80's

personally I think it's too young. Maybe for an 11 year old, between primary and high school, but I'm not there yet with DD, and DS who has just left Yr6 is not yet interested in his appearance, other than wanting to grow his hair a bit.

False nails is an interesting one for me though; we went to a wedding last year when DD was 5 and I had my nails done as I'm a serial nailbiter and wanted them to look nice for a change. When I was in the chemist I saw these little stick on nails with flowers on that changed colour in UV light so got her some. She loved it, as she was just like mum, but there was no harsh glue involved and they were really fun and girly and had all fallen off by bedtime

Worra agreeing with you on everything but Hulk has black hair and green skin.

Oh right. Maybe that's how he survived?!

Go for it, sound fun to me.

stargazer and directions both do some lovely shades of pink and purple that are not permanent or very chemically, alternatively you can use chalk on wet hair and fix it with a hairdryer/straighteners, it washes out in 1 wash too so if she wanted she could change colours lots. You can buy special hair chalk but normal chalk works too.