Didn't anyone else use Sun In or Kool Aid or anything like that? Some of the faster girls that I knew wore make up at that age in the 80s. I don't see it as a problem personally.

08:09 poster -- Thanks for your perspective. This girl is very into fashion and I bet she does see the highlights as an accessory. For once I feel better after reading responses on DCUM!

21:19 PP here - I can see why some people would think highlighting at such a young age is bad because it teaches girls to change their appearance to be more attractive. But I can honestly say when I did it in 5th grade that had absolutely nothing to do with it. I was mimicking my sister and in the early 90s frosted hair was very much in (yuck!). And for me it was purely fun and had nothing to do with making myself more attractive. To this day I still like to play with the color of my hair and it still has nothing to do with making myself more attractive. Some months I'm in the mood to be a natural brunette and other months I feel like being a blonde and other times I want to be a redhead. It's for me and nobody else. So I don't think you can always draw the correlation that someone is doing it to make themselves more attractive. They may be using their hair color as an accessory (albeit a more permanent one) like a nice necklace.

My current hair stylist has a 9-year-old and often puts streaks of color in her hair per the daughter's request. Again, it's not about making yourself more attractive but having fun with your appearance in a non-permanent way.

Got my first perm at fantastic sams in fifth grade haha.

Sure, why not? It's just hair.

I've put wash out dye in dd s hair. She is 8.

Ugh, please excuse typos in above post. I think I'm tired and need sleep!

I don't think it's a big deal, but I wouldn't do it. IMO, highlights at this age places the emphasis on looks in a way Ilm not comfortable with. I think it sends a message that I as the parent don't think my kids is attractive enough on her own, with artificial help. I know some people will call me old fashioned, but that's how I feel. Anything before high school just seems to early for this.

Anonymous wrote:I highlighted my hair for the first time in 5th or 6th grade because my sister was in high school and was doing it to her hair. My mom saw it as something fun and never cared at all. I have been coloring my hair ever since then (I'm now 34) and am a happy, successful, well adjusted person. Who cares if a 5th grader is having fun by highlighting her hair? Live and let live.

Me too. Older sisters were doing it so I wanted to also.

My mom is a hairdresser. She started doing mine around that age. Not a big deal.