Coloring a Young Child's Hair Yay or Nay?

Most people will tell you that even as their kids turn into teenagers they will not allow their child to color their hair. I am not talking about natural color, I am talking about clown colors, red,pink, purple, blue, orange, green and any other color you can think of. What about those parents who decide that their 4 year old can color their hair any color they want? What happens when that child colors their hair repeatedly for years?

These are all valid questions and only ones that can be answered by other parents who are on either side of the argument. As with most things there are two sides to every story but regardless if it is permanent, demi-permanent or washable, what makes it okay for a young child to have colored hair?

There are many views on whether it is okay for your young child to have rainbow hair. Honestly, why would you want that for your kid? sure it may seem cool in the moment but when you look back at pictures taken you are going to feel silly about it and more times than not wonder what you were thinking.

The majority of people that you ask will tell you that coloring a child's hair is wrong and as a parent you need to stand up and put your foot down or offer the alternative of hair chalk that will wash out when they shower causing no damage to their hair at all. I understand that parents want to share things with their children that they enjoy or find "cool" but at what cost?

What makes the parent say or even persuade their child to color their hair? What is the "logical" deduction behind that?

Any age before puberty is not okay to color your child's hair. With the exception of hair chalk the dyes and the chemicals in any hair dye, even demi-permanent color is harmful to the fine hair of a child. Using such dyes causes damage and the hair to become course. The hair of a child is fine and not finished changing. By adding chemicals to it you forever change the makeup of that child's hair.

According to an article on Good House Keeping, fumes are especially harmful to those who have asthma. (Hearst Communications Inc., 2016) so not only does the chemical in the hair color damage and change the hair but there are so many other factors to consider. The long term effects of using the chemicals on the child's hair and how that will affect them in the future. Not only that but what about the emotional state of the child after prolonged image changes? What does allowing them to essentially not be okay with how they are naturally make their long term image of themselves better? As a child you should always be taught that you are beautiful as you are and if you so choose to make a change later in life that is fine. But allowing such a young child to change his or her image so often can lead to more issues in the future because they won't know who they are truly.

If you absolutely must color your child's hair, use hair chalk which doesn't alter the hair at all, or off the scalp temporary colors that will fade within a months time, not ideal but better than permanent colors. Is is really worth the damage that coloring your child's hair will cause in the long run both physical and emotional?

I am a mother, a Step mother, a wife and everything else that comes with it. In my experience I have learned a lot about parenting and co-parenting as a step-parent. You will have disagreements and different views on things but in this case I have a very strong opinion about coloring a child's hair. As a parent it is your job to protect them and make sure that they do not do things that are harmful to them. Every kid at young ages want to be like their mom or dad or someone else they might admire and look up to.

As essentially a by stander in all of this my step-daughters mom has been coloring her daughters hair since she was 4 years old, she is now 7. I have never agreed with this or been able to carry any weight on the subject because I have no legal rights to. She has colored her hair rainbow colors for years without knowing all the facts of how that affects her daughter. she does it because she herself colors her hair often and in an attempt to bond with her daughter gets her daughter to do it as well. Now mind you that her daughter has asthma, very severely at times and all the coloring cannot be good for that at all. Not to mention the damage it has caused this girls fine blonde hair that is no longer blond because it has been tainted by all the coloring.

I know that my opinion on the matter does not make it better or go away but it infuriates me to think that this mother thinks she is doing nothing wrong and if I try to explain to the daughter all the side effects and show her what it is doing to her she just tells me her mama said its safe and that it doesn't do any of that. What do you do?

I would love to hear other stories about this kind of behavior, I feel I am all alone in this and at wits end.