Tweens and hair color

[RogueX]

For my daughter, she loved the idea of purple highlights, but I wasn't doing it myself. She never asks for anything, so we were more than happy to splurge on the salon cost. The results were great and she loves the color.

 

[nw6675]

Personally, I wouldn’t, because dying hair is not something I know anything about and I wouldn’t get into the expense of having it done, either. (I already pay for my own haircut monthly and the dog’s grooming every five weeks which costs more than my own haircut!)

I agree on the expense, including the dog!!

I have a daughter about to turn 11. She has beautiful natural highlights and thick hair that she inherited from DH. While hair grows out, I also feel like once you start you don't stop.

Tween is too young for me, but understand the reasoning from others. I remember my Sun-In days!

 

[Moliphino]

I have a daughter about to turn 11. She has beautiful natural highlights and thick hair that she inherited from DH. While hair grows out, I also feel like once you start you don't stop.

I did! I had fancy highlights late in high school, but once away at college I didn't want to bother with the upkeep so I had it all dyed a really dark brown (my hair is a medium brown naturally, but I was going for the Snow White look) and then let that fade out to my natural color. Since then I've only done the occasional semi-permanent box dye when the mood strikes, nothing with bleach or that needed regular maintenance.

 

[mjkacmom]

Personally, I wouldn’t, because dying hair is not something I know anything about and I wouldn’t get into the expense of having it done, either. (I already pay for my own haircut monthly and the dog’s grooming every five weeks which costs more than my own haircut!) DD asked about getting highlights in HS but decided against it once she knew she’d have to pay for them herself, and how much they cost. She just got highlights for the first time last year now that she’s working FT. (She paid $80+ plus tip with our regular hairdresser, so it isn’t cheap.)

My highlights, and my daughter’s, cost $230 without a cut. I have no idea what my oldest pays, it’s a friend at a salon in Philadelphia, she starts with a platinum base and then adds color (pink, purple, blue, long process). The downside of being born blond is the upkeep in adulthood. I only go a few times a year. I’d let a 12 year old color her hair, no I’m not spending $230 on it.

 

[OneOftheB's]

My daughter, now 12, has used semi permanent and color depositing color on her hair. She usually chooses blue or purple. We are fortunate that she’s blonde so the color works for a do it at home product, but idk if I would take her to a salon for a professional job if she had dark hair, she would have a hard time talking me into $100 plus every 6-8 weeks, which is what color would cost in my area

 

[leahgoogle]

We let our oldest DD get her hair highlighted (I would not allow full color primarily because of the maintenance involved) summer before 8th grade (14 years old). Her 12 year old sister has been wanting highlights, but she has to wait until she is 14 too.

 

[leahgoogle]

My highlights, and my daughter’s, cost $230 without a cut. I have no idea what my oldest pays, it’s a friend at a salon in Philadelphia, she starts with a platinum base and then adds color (pink, purple, blue, long process). The downside of being born blond is the upkeep in adulthood. I only go a few times a year. I’d let a 12 year old color her hair, no I’m not spending $230 on it.

I feel like being a natural blonde has helped my daughter. She can pull off lighter highlights and only has to touch up twice a year. She wanted to go dark all over last time and I said no because of the maintenance involved....lol.

 

[RangerPooh]

My girls are now 15 and 17 and we probably started experimenting with color at around 12. They both have varying shades of blond, but wanted to try out other colors. Both have dyed portions of their hair dark blue, teal, purple, and our oldest currently has a whole head of dark fuchsia. It's only hair. We started with the underside and have eventually gone full head. Often I do it, but on a few occasions our oldest has had hers colored by friends.

Funny story, this past June at BSA Scout summer camp our oldest who was staffing camp wanted us to color her hair. So when I arrived we dyed it in camp. This set a trend for so many of our scouts. Of course they all had to text/call mom/dad and ask for permission, but we had both girls and boys sporting fuchsia hair coloring. It's semi permanent so it faded or washed out.

My advice, ask what she's wanting? Is it a drastically different color? Can you start small with high lights or a few strips of fun color, or the underside? Also, double check school policy on funky colors. DD 17 could not have obviously dyed hair (blue, green, purple, pink) during colorguard/marching band or winter guard seasons. But that was their coaches policy.

 

[mjkacmom]

I feel like being a natural blonde has helped my daughter. She can pull off lighter highlights and only has to touch up twice a year. She wanted to go dark all over last time and I said no because of the maintenance involved....lol.

It’s great while they are still blond, but the majority of blondes end up with mousy brown hair eventually. I have two daughters who started out super blond (close to white), and one who started out dirty blond and is now brown. My husband was also a blond kid.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Sure. It's just hair. Nothing wrong with some self expression
They get such little control over things at that point, hair is one area where I say, why not
This was done at 12

 

[Mrs.AMC]

It’s great while they are still blond, but the majority of blondes end up with mousy brown hair eventually. I have two daughters who started out super blond (close to white), and one who started out dirty blond and is now brown. My husband was also a blond kid.

As a towheaded kid we are usually the ones to grow up to stay blond. It's the darker blonde who usually turn darker as adults. Always exceptions of course, just stating avgs.
DD was darker, dirty blonde and is now dark brown
My brother and I were both towheads, both blonde adults. As was my dad.
I color my hair fashion shades and don't have to lift it any, which is nice. Much healthier.

 

[Darcy03231]

I'd let her do it, with her parents' approval. All of our kids experimented with hair color starting around that age. My only rule was that they had to save the money to pay for it themselves, unless they wanted it done as a birthday/Christmas gift.

 

[aprilgail]

My daughter was in 5th grade (9 years old) and I let her dye the bottom 5 inches of her hair blue- so I would have no problem letting my 12 year old dye her hair. In 9th grade (13) she wanted white hair (not blond!) so she went from light brown to white- from the white she went to purple and stayed purple for about a year. Now she is just plain old dark blond. In between there someplace I remember bright red tips and another blue but don't recall those ages lol. As far as I am concerned it is just hair- you can always change it back- not like they are piercing their nose (which I HATE) or getting home done tattoos.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My highlights, and my daughter’s, cost $230 without a cut. I have no idea what my oldest pays, it’s a friend at a salon in Philadelphia, she starts with a platinum base and then adds color (pink, purple, blue, long process). The downside of being born blond is the upkeep in adulthood. I only go a few times a year. I’d let a 12 year old color her hair, no I’m not spending $230 on it.

Yes, it just depends where you go. I used to sometimes get highlights from my old hairdresser and although they weren’t as high as yours, they were up there in price and that was 20 yrs ago. Our newer hairdresser is very reasonably priced, and honestly, the highlights DD got look really beautiful, she gets a lot of compliments on them.

 

[aprilgail]

Sure. It's just hair. Nothing wrong with some self expression
They get such little control over things at that point, hair is one area where I say, why not
This was done at 12
View attachment 695086

love it- that looks great!

 

[GreatLakes]

I'm not sure hair color would be a battle I'd fight but I have a boy that's 5 so time will tell.
What I wouldn't do it try to talk my sibling into allowing a nice or nephew to die theirs. That is between the 2 of them.

 

[aprilgail]

For my daughter, she loved the idea of purple highlights, but I wasn't doing it myself. She never asks for anything, so we were more than happy to splurge on the salon cost. The results were great and she loves the color.

my daughters hair in 9th grade.

 

[amylevan]

Hair will grow out so it’s generally a very easy way to let kids express themselves.

That said, if we’re talking about a brown haired girl wanting to bleach to go blonde, that’s permanent, and will potentially look horrible once it’s growing out. So I’d be sure to discuss that with her to make sure she understands. Otherwise, have at it.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Hair will grow out so it’s generally a very easy way to let kids express themselves.

That said, if we’re talking about a brown haired girl wanting to bleach to go blonde, that’s permanent, and will potentially look horrible once it’s growing out. So I’d be sure to discuss that with her to make sure she understands. Otherwise, have at it.

This is a time where the Internet and photos of fails can be a good thing

Growing up (talking in the late 60’s) I had a friend with dark brown hair who wanted white blonde hair. They tried to die it at home. It was carrot top orange. Not a good look.

 

[NotUrsula]

It's the cost that would be the issue for me. I let DD (who is naturally blonde) get her ends dyed blue when she finished middle school. It was just under $100 to have it done, and it looked great, for the 4 *days* that it lasted. Our tap water has rather a lot of chlorine in it, and the dye did not stand up to it at all. (It was permanent dye, but had not been lifted.) She was heartbroken when it was gone within a week, but I drew the line at repeating that spend, not to mention the 2 hours that it took to process.