Mom Dyes 2-Year-Old's Hair Bright Pink, Sparks Parenting Debate
A mother has ignited a parenting debate on Instagram after dying her 2-year-old daughter’s hair fuchsia.
Charity Grace LeBlanc, a vlogger from the U.S., explained in a June 5th YouTube video tutorial of the transformation that her daughter Felicity (“City” for short) had been asking for pink hair for some time.
“I’m dying my 2 year old daughter’s hair PINK!” the summary of the video reads. “She has been begging me for a long time so we finally just went ahead and did it! I used Manic Panic Hot Pink which is a direct dye and is safe for kids. It washed out in about three to four days.”
In the video, LeBlanc said, “I’m not lightening the hair because I don’t want to damage her hair, cause she’s still really little,” adding, “The dye I’m using is a semi-permanent dye, which will wash out.”
A post shared by Charity Grace LeBlanc (@charity.grace) on Jun 5, 2017 at 10:30am PDT
The mom, whose own long locks are dyed a bright blue and sea-foam green, also took to her Instagram to share a clip of the video and to ask other parents if they’d consider dying their own children’s hair. “City’s pink hair is now up on my YouTube channel! Link in bio! What do you guys think!? Would you let your daughter do this!?” she asked in her caption.
The post quickly sparked a debate about whether it was OK to dye a toddler’s hair. Some parents were totally against the idea.
“This is so irresponsible of you. Of course she’s going to want it. She’s a kid! She doesn’t know what she wants! And you, the parent should know better! She’s going to be bald by the age of 20,” one parent wrote.
“How can u do that to such a cute child I feel so bad for her,” added another.
“Adorable! But no I wouldn’t do it to my daughter,” another parent commented.
A post shared by Charity Grace LeBlanc (@charity.grace) on Jun 4, 2017 at 11:07am PDT
But others couldn’t see anything wrong with it, with some parents claiming they had also experimented with dying their own children’s hair.
“Love it, I personally would let my kids have bright hair …because let’s be honest. With my blue hair currently I’d be rather hypocritical if I didn’t let them, but would of course go for the wash out variety,” one woman commented.
“Manic Panic is vegan and natural. It’s not that deep. It washes out. It’s doing nothing to hurt her or her hair,” one user wrote.
“At the end of the day, it’s not permanent and obviously is safe so I don’t see a problem! Let the girl have some fun,” another added.
“I love this, my 5 year old has asked me to do this to her hair also, it’s a fun way to bond and have fun with your child. As long as it’s not damaging her hair (which it’s not) then it’s fine it’s only a bit of fun!” another woman wrote.
It’s not the first online debate about child’s hair dying. Last year, hairstylist Mary Thomaston shared photos of her 6-year-old on Instagram after giving her unicorn-inspired hair.
A post shared by Mary Thomaston (@marythomaston) on Sep 13, 2016 at 6:04am PDT
She said that she’d been begged by Lyra to do it for ages, before finally caving. “I told her if the school gives us permission then I’ll do it, and they allowed it,” she told The Luxury Spot. “Her hair is already really light, so all I had to do was add the temporary color. I tried to talk her out of the shaved side because I thought she might regret it once it was done but boy was I wrong. She was so excited.”
After facing criticism from some who accused the mom of damaging her child’s hair, she defended her decision. “Don’t worry folks it’ll wash out,” she said. “She wasn’t harmed in the process. Just putting that out there since some people seem to be having a hard time with me coloring my child’s hair. It’s hair and it’ll grow back!”
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