Why do Parents put Color& Highlights in their young Daughters Hair these days?

Question

I'm a Teacher in an elementary school--and I notice that MANY of the young girls ages 6 to 11 years old are having their hair Dyed Blond (from brunette), and many of them have blond streaks and highlights. The kids tell me their Moms are doing this.


I'm 30--so I guess their Parents are about my age & younger--but I dont understand why a Mom would do such a thing to a young daughter. When I was a kid, kids were expected to look and act like kids.

Isn't that too advanced? Are there no longer lines seperating adults from children anymore?
Is this teaching also young girls that blond is better?

Do you do this???--Please tell me WHY. I am a Teacher and I am very CURIOUS.

Answer 1

Because they don't know what to do with their kids anymore. Remember these parents are in-mature parents. Parents are kids having kids. And if its true that kids run down the parents so they can get their hair colored, you can see that parents don't have control over their children. Most of the time is not the kids but the parents you have to analyze. I have two daughters. They are not into dying their hair. I am so happy about that. One is 12 years old and the other is 14.

Answer 2

My little girl had long, straight hair with beautiful natural blonde highlights... until she was at her dads last summer. Her grandmother cut her bangs and gapped up both sides of her hair very badly. When she came home, the only solution our stylist and I could come up with was to cut her hair short and let it grow again. My daughter was devastated. She thought she looked like a boy and cried for days. I asked her what would make her feel better until her hair grows and she said if she had curls she would look more like a girl, so I let my stylist give her a kiddie perm. Her hair wasn't damaged by the perm and it boosted her self-esteem, so I can't see that anyone else should have a problem with it. I guess it all depends on the child and the parents reasoning behind the hair color and such...

Answer 3

My BFF'S daughter is 12, she wanted blond highlights for so long, she didn't want her ears pierced or a new outfit, my friend wanted to give her this one thing, she felt she deserved it. But i thought it looked great and it wasn't anything wild and crazy cause her hair was kinda a dirty blond. She's 32.

My one co-workers daughter is 7 and has gone from a Burnett to blond, cause of her mom, she does look cute but i thought it was a little vain, if u know what i mean.

Last, my bosses daughter is 9 and got a lot of blond highlights. But, she was in a family of blondes, her 2 younger brothers were blondes, her older sister, and her single mom. She was a burnette like her dad, who was completely out of the picture. She felt like an outsider and a counsler even suggested blond highlightes. I had no problem with that.

Answer 4

No I don't do this now, but 10 years ago I did. Some parents think thats acceptable, and the other kids parents are doing it so it's a keep up with the jones sort of thing. It's also to be more grown up and beautiful. Blonde isn't better, but thats what some like to do. It's just something that you will have to accept like everything else in this world people like you and I disagree with.

Answer 5

I don't think it's too big of a deal. When I was young, if you wanted to put streaks in your hair, it was a very expensive process. Now you can pay $10 for a home kit and do it yourself. My brother's theory was always "hair grows, it's not permanent" with his boys growing up, and one of his sons often had green or purple or dyed black hair. My kids haven't asked for highlights, but if they did I would probably say okay. By the way, I'm old, and not overly permissive, and my kids aren't spoiled. For me, it just comes under the "don't sweat the small stuff" category.

Answer 6

I think it looks horrible and it's also sad. Children have naturally beautiful colors in their hair and it's horrible for the parents to want to mess with it. I see it as they're already putting the strain of vanity on these kids when they should just worry about being kids rather than having a better dye job than so and so. It seems like this may also teach the kids that they aren't good enough as they are...that they need to dye their hair in order to look better and that's something they don't need to be dealing with at their age.

Answer 7

I have no idea Im a very young mom and it doesn't make sence to me my daughter has Brown hair with natural light highlights and its long and curly and people ask me all the time if she has highlights and a perm and I look at them sideways because shes only 6....No one should do that to lil girls it will only make them grow up to fast and I mean FAST!

Answer 8

i have seen that too. and personally i remember when parents would even let their kids' hair get cut till they were like 12 or 13. now they are really young and getting dyed hair and streaks done. i think alot of it is parents to be honest. i think everyone is so much into competition these days its unreal. everyone is trying to be the best, and i guess they want their kids to be "better looking" or "better groomed" or whatever they are trying to do. but im not sure why they are doing it.

Answer 9

I have a 9 year old boy who has blond highlights in his hair. He is an A++ student, respectful and considerate to others. He is popular with or without the highlights because he is a good kid. He regularly gives his old toys to charity, has donated some of his money to worthwhile causes on his own (I have never asked him to do this) and is a teacher's assistant in his classroom. I allow him to get highlights because he likes them. It is only hair and it grows out. We enforce strict rules in this house but the colour of his hair is not one of them.

Answer 10

I let my daughter put red streaks in her hair when she was 9, and she's had highlights before. It's just hair, and it's her head. I didn't force her to do it, it was something she really wanted and looked cute. She wants a blue streak for the summer, and I'll probably let her do that, too. Like I said, it's just hair, not symbolic of anything else. It's just fun for her.