To ask for help with my 10yr olds hair...

[Gigglebert]

Morning all,

My 10yr old daughter has bum length dark brunette hair. She is gutted that she can't dye her hair cool vivid colours for the summer like her blonde haired friends. One of her friends mums told her to ask me to bleach the ends so she could dye them and then get them cut off for going back to school in August but this feels WAY beyond my beauty abilities!

Is doing that as tricky as it sounds? Or would it be achievable? A quick Google suggests salons are unlikely to do it for us as she is under 16?! Any hints/tips/give my head a wobble and tell me it's ridiculous?!

Thanks!

Do not attempt to bleach brunette hair yourself! This is a recipe for disaster and you will ultimately either turn it to straw or an awful colour.

why don’t you look into those cool braids that can be done using colourful material or hair tinsel?

Thanks! We tried clip ins/hair tinsel etc last summer but to quote DD10: "it's not the same, they look rubbish and it's not fair, why do I have to have boring brown hair?!?"

And to be fair to her, after a lifetime of also having dark brunette hair, I get her point, it's absolutely not the same.

She’s 10 why does she care? Why do you care?

PS I know no 10 year olds with dyed hair?!
Can you get those coloured powders?

My then 11 yr old had blonde highlights put in by a hairdresser. They just did a stand test first. I guess you just need to look around.

I did this exact thing when my daughter was a similar age. Watched a lot of YouTube videos and made sure I got all the stuff required. I bleached the ends, use a clear plastic bag (I used a shower cap) to hold the ends together & blowdryed through the bag. Then dyed the ends purple. It looked fab & she loved it.

Clip in streaks would be easier, you can get loads of different colours and she can change them out to try new colours. They will be brighter and more vivid than you will likely get with home bleaching anyway.

A salon might do it if it is dip dye as the bleach is nowhere near her skin

We also have done this at a similar age. Start of the holidays did the bottom 6 inches. All summer then used the wash in and wash out blues and pinks. She loved it.

Had it cut off just before going back to school.

It's dead easy. Did my daughters hair purple and blue during lockdown. She was eight. Hair was fine, just make sure you get a good conditioning mask and as it's being cut off anyway it's fine.

Totally doable in my experience. I did my DD's hair twice in the past. I'm not a fan of box dyes/bleach usually as you don't really know what the strength of the developer is but as it wasn't going on the roots I was less worried about it. We used Bleach London to lighten and then Stargazer dye to colour the ends and DD was really pleased with it. I'd recommend watching some Brad Mondo videos on YouTube to get an idea as to how long to leave the bleach on for to get the required final colour.
If nothing else, it's a good excuse to tidy up the ends once summer is over and the fun has been had.

Here it is

Her hair is naturally brunette

It's very easy. Just get a bleach kit from Superdrug. It doesn't matter if it goes dry as a pp has said. It will take any colour added to it and as you say, you will have it cut off in a couple of months and it will all be back to full health again.

I don't care, I'm the least bothered person about appearance ever! She is a well adjusted, outdoors loving, sporty kid in almost all aspects, in fact she is currently playing out wuth the street kids, covered in mud! She isn't particularly into beauty or the nonsense skin care trend that seems to have consumed so many wee girls but she is jealous that her friends are able to have "cool" hair in the summer. If I can help her with that then I am happy to.

Surely bright clip ins put in under atop layer of her own hair would work well and can be mixed up do you have any shops or market places nearby that do fake hair, go and get some advice, much better than starting the whole colour bleach shit this young.

As I said, we tried fake hair last year, loads of different clip ins and she wasn't impressed, found the clips uncomfortable and doesn't want streaks, she wants to be the same as her friends. Surely you can remember wanting to fit in when younger?

I'm undecided on whether or not to try it with her but I can understand her wanting it to be her own hair.

Fair enough, maybe splash out on a hairdresser and cut off or dye over before school starts after summer

Its easy, follow the instructions, do a strand test, then get cracking with the Crazy Colors/Directions etc.

Yes, it may well need two goes. Yes it might turn it strawlike and damaged.

So what, that is perfectly ok because its being cut off in a couple of months time, we're talking the last few inches which are already the oldest and most damaged part anyway.

Yeah, I'm going to try contacting my hairdresser, she might be happy to do it as it would only be the ends... Hmm...

I've not tried bleaching as DD's hair was a dark blonde (now much darker) but we did lots of fun dip dyes on the ends several summers on the trot. She loved it, and it was pretty easy to do. I'd watch Brad Mondo as pp suggested and go for it!

It's really easy to do but you will need to bleach it first. I'd do it over two days. You can buy all the stuff in Superdrug. Use the live colours if you want really vivid colours.

I used to do the ends of my daughters hair, you can just get it all trimmed off before school starts.

It's really easy to do, just follow the instructions on the box. If it's being cut off anyway I don't see the problem?

Relax and experiment, it's just hair. She'll remember it forever!

Thanks! I'm a bit useless at beauty stuff, my mum was never interested and squashed any inclination I showed towards it. I'd rather be led by my daughter and what she wants!