My daughter has blue hair ~ thanks to Protein 21 shampoo.
In another installment of everything-we-do-as-an-adult can be traced back to a life-scarring via express mail from our parents:
Mom and I had hair wars.
No. That’s not it.
Mom told me what to do with my hair and I smiled.
All the while standing for hours at the mirror channeling my face onto Laurie Partridge’s head.
One thing I was sure to make all my hair dreams come true was this.
A bottle filled with Laurie Partridge, heck even Marcia Brady possibilities.
I can’t remember what mom brought home to wash our hair, but this certainly wasn’t it. And I had to live with my mousy brown, slightly Florida-humidified, bumpy, low-sheen hair.
* * *
My daughter is twelve.
And tweens are all about hair. Their hair to be specific.
For her 12th birthday a few weeks ago, she wanted a belly-button piercing. An upper ear-cartilage piercing. Or highlights.
I thought the highlights the most reasonable. Sure that was extravagant. I didn’t have my hair professionally highlighted till my 40s. (We won’t talk about my own attempts with the plastic cap and pulling through hair with a prong. Or how my husband still refers to his pet name for me when we first met: skunk hair.)
All I thought about was not becoming a mom engaged in mother/daughter hair wars.
“Sure,” I said to the highlights
“It has to be a color,” she replied.
Brown, light brown, dark brown, amber, amber with mahogany tones. Of course it has to be a color.
Well, seems a tween’s definition of color reasonable for highlights can be found in nature such as . . .
a. Birds
b. Zac Efron’s eyes
c. Snow cones.
She went with blue.
Now turning virgin brown hair blue isn’t as easy as saying “Katy Perry” three times while clicking your black Converse low-slungs.
No sir.
Pam started to work.
Turning my daughter’s hair blue.
For her birthday.
This is a process people.
First, the hair has to be bleached — have the dark pigment removed so the blue can attach.
Great. I’m paying a very nice person to maim my daughter’s hair.
Every time my brain would indulge in such a silly mom thought I squished it deep down into a little box marked future therapist fodder and remembered — no hair wars.
At least she got some good reading.
And at the end of two and a half hours, we ended up with . . .
Hmm.
I’d seen more blue hair during lunch time at Madison House.
Undaunted, the consummate hair-stylist, Pam would not sleep or eat (all the while staying properly hydrated) till my daughter had blue hair.
So a few days later, I dropped tween off and returned two and a half hours later to . . .
Yes. This time we’ve definitely got some blue hair.
As I wiped away tears of joy — I knew that even the Jerseylicious gals at Gatsby’s Salon couldn’t have done bet’ta.
I took my happy little Jersey tween home.
And started cleaning house for my born-and-raised South Georgialicious mom’s visit in a few weeks.
Wonder how long this stuff lasts?
Or better yet – check the levels on the therapist fund.
I love it! And she’s adorable. (And great reading material 🙂
It’s pretty! although she could get the same results ( and more variety) by using “hair chalk” . . . twist wet hair, rub the chalk on, and set it with a hot iron. Supposed to stay for 4-5 washings, then on to a new color! (ok, confession, I ordered up a box of chalk to see if I can color my silver streak )
Oh, dear. Haven’t had to go there with my girls. And thankfully not Sam, either. My niece has hair the color of HK’s and likes a hot pink streak. She is in high school and gets it colored in June and has to “undo” her color before school starts because her public high school doesn’ t allow hair color that isn’t a ‘natural’ color.
-Trish
I don’t know which hair color Pam used but pray the hair color wears off only after the bleach has worn off, otherwise it has that despicable olive-yellow tone. I just struggled through that phase with my hair.
But all in all that blue is the very pretty blue
Yes Tua. I tried to explain the consequences of it to her. Will see.
Michelle, I tried the hair chalk for Christmas. I thought I’d found the perfect gift. But she wasn’t interested. She also tried the Koolaid route but it didn’t work. I hope yours works. I can bring you two boxes of colored chalk in two weeks when I come to run the Princess.
jamie… this brought back memories of 13, trying to dye my hair with koolaid. once i made the painful mistake of applying the koolaid while in the shower… with freshly shaved legs. the citric acid irritated my skin and i had a red rash on my legs to match my tropical punch hair.
hk’s blue looks awesome!
That does sound like much the teen trauma. Will pass along your thumbs up to Hannah Kate.
I have to admit, I think the blue looks fantastic on her. And her age group is really the best to pull it off. And you? You are a brave and compassionate mama who might should top off that therapist fun just for kicks. 😉
As a mom, I would definitely prefer hair color over piercings. It looks nice! (I had a bad time with Sun-in spray when I was a kid. It bleached my hair a horrible greenish-blonde. I think because chlorine was involved from the pool).
If only I had a therapy trust fund Missy. ha.
Oh Marcy. Sun In. Too funny. Guess what I also was dying to try but couldn’t? Had to do it with lemons and the residual seeds. Poor deprived child I know.
Your daughter looks great! As a former teacher of twelve year olds (sixth grade), and as a parent of just recently turned four year olds, I know through experience that life is cyclical. . . i.e. that three year olds and twelve year olds are both inscrutably determined and unreasonable in their pursuit of what they want. . . so, I commend you on your decision to not get into the hair wars. . . you probably would’ve lost. . . 🙂
Her hair looks great! I had no idea that getting ‘color’ highlights was such an involved process. Or that it was a tween thing. I’m totally with you on hair coloring being better than piercing. Getting holes punched in your kid is a real commitment. This was a really funny, charming read!
1. Wise choice of picking a your battles.
2. If anyone can make blue highlights look cool, it’s a 12 year old. She makes it look good.
3. It’s not permanent.
4. You have photos to embarrass her with 10 or 15 years from now.
Love the blue! Why didn’t I think of that? I’m Jerseylicious!
I like the blue! Then again, I had a blue and purple mohawk when I was 16. As a grown-up of 32, I had red/orange hair. I haven’t had my hair colored since then because it’s naturally black and the bleaching process really ruins your hair. Tell your daughter that. 😉
Thanks Bee. They all told her how hard it was on her hair. I guess at 12 you feel your hair is invincible. I told her I’d pay this time for her birthday present. We’ll see if see comes up with the money again.
I tried to get green hair in college..didn’t stick to virgin auburn. The fish is kid I did but looked like I decided to color my hair with magic marker, a watery chunky faint color. Then I saw a “regular” color at the store, chai tea it was called. I tried it and well it worked…to color my hair all one color, my natural color, thus making my highlights or darker parts made by nature disappear. $20 to look…muted. Haven’t colored since.
I’m thinking about a blue mohawk — very professional.
She is darling! And you’re a good sport for letting her mess around with her perfectly-beautiful hair; I don’t know if I could do it!
Looks fun! I actually got the hankering for some blue highlights last summer (I’m 35). I am kind of in the mindset that letting kids do stylistic, harmless things is good for staving off rebellion later on. It’s when parents flip out over something that kids suddenly want to do it even more–to rebel, not just out of curiosity.
That being said, you can snag “Splat” hair color from CVS or Walmart for $10 or so and it comes with bleach and color. I used that and my hair is black–worked really well. It does NOT work for touch-ups, so after it fades, you just have to dye it back to your normal color. But next time…might save you salon trips. 🙂
I’ll pass that on to my daughter Kirsten. I let her know this was a birthday present. If she wants to keep it up — she’s on her own money wise.
It’s beautiful! It’s the perfect age to do it too. When you’re older you have to be so boring (unless you’re fortunate enough to work in a creative field).
I said, “Oh no!” at your title, and “oh no” a few more times and then I said, “Wait, that’s kinda pretty.” I took a leap out of the box this year and a walk too long down the hair coloring aisle at Walgreens. I went home with a color can’t remember the name of it, but let’s call it Rihanna Red because that’s what I was going for. Let me tell you, for the all the panicking I did while I had the color on my hair, I am SOOOOO glad it didn’t take. I had something sort of a like a rusty pink on brown until I washed it. So much for permanent. Anyhoo – I like the blue!
Thanks for the smile Kenya.
You are a better woman than I. I know I need to pick my battles at 12 years old; I need to remember that when my daughter asks for blue hair too. My SIL just had a baby girl and she asked for my advice on raising a girl. I told her to start saving now for her therapy. 🙂 BTW, your daughter looked awesome with blue hair!
Love, love, love the blue. Your daughter is so beautiful and it looks great.
You are such a good Mom to let her have her blue hair. even better than the leopard bra!
xoxo tiffani
[…] mini-me and also Petals employee it was done. To the other Katie, who cuts hair it was done. And Pam, who dyed my daughter’s hair blue, just looked at me with her lovely Pam every-woe-in-life-is-fixed-by-a-talented-hair-professional […]