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Teens Making Money Online My Child Wants Goth Hair  Someone recently came to my website through the keywords "My Child Wants Goth Hair". I guess the parent was worried that their child wanted something less vanilla than the norm. I remember the first time Sophie wanted blue hair. She was nine-years-old. I wasn't surprised. She loved wearing blue... all blue. Blue jeans. A blue top. Blue socks. Blue shoes. A blue bag. Blue hair clips... I'm not really an all-one-color person, but Sophie sure was and her color was blue. So, when she wanted blue hair I wasn't too surprised. Besides, I had always wanted to color my hair but was too much of a coward to do anything more extreme than platnium blonde or plum... and both came out of a bottle. I was kind of happy that my child didn't have my same unrealistic fear of coloring her hair based on social stigmas that I had harbored since my teen years. What does hair color mean? Hair color is simply another form of expression particularly for a person with a creative nature. I wasn't worried that Sophie was going to start doing anything differently just because she wanted to color her hair nor did I feel it was going to lead to harder hair colors like forest green or bright pink! Just kidding... Hair color is hair color. It is a new generation. Kids have more options to explore today than I did when I was a kid or than my parents had when they were young. It doesn't mean anything more than that.. and it doesn't mean anything less. What I've learned from our experience... From our experience, I can tell you this... When Sophie changed her hair color nothing changed in her except her hair color. She did learn a hard lesson in friendships, though. She learned which of her friends were shallow and cared more about her hair color than her personality and which friends still loved her just the same no matter the color of her hair. That was a valuable lesson and probably one worth learning, and perhaps a good lesson to learn at a young age. If someone doesn't want to be friends with you because of your hair color, were they really a friend in the first place? Is that a lesson you want your child to learn? It was a very strong and self-defining lesson for Sophie both in the way she viewed herself and the way she viewed her friends.  Although Sophie first asked to color her hair at age 9, she didn't actually color it until she was 13-years-old and was away at boarding school. (Yes, she called first and asked my permission.) I'm not sure I would have let her color her hair at age 9. I might have thought it a little young. But when we had the conversation again at age 11 and she had an agent and was acting in LA I simply asked her which was more important to her, acting or hair color. I allowed her to make the decision on her own. At that time, acting was more important. By the time she was 13-years-old and had hit adolescence she was done with acting for the time and off at boarding school so her hair color wouldn't affect any aspect of her life negatively. Why don't you want you child to color their hair? If you don't want your child to color their hair you might want to ask yourself why you feel this way. Is it because you are afraid your friends will not approve? Are you worried what the neighbors will say? Do you think only kids who do drugs color their hair? Do you think colored hair leads to bad behaviors at school? Are you afraid your kid will start hanging out with bad kids at school? Question your motives, then ask your child about their motives and why they want to color their hair. If the child says it's because their idol at school who cuts themselves and takes drugs has purple hair, then I'd say, "No way!" If it's because they like purple or they think it's a cool color, then who cares! Hair color is a form of creative and personal expression, especially for an artistically-inclined child. It could be worse. It doesn't hurt them and most crazy hair colors are made of vegatable dyes, so the blue, green and fushia hair colors aren't as toxic as the colors you, or I, use on our own hair. If your child's school won't let them color their hair an 'unnatural color' then maybe summer would be a fine time for fun hair colors and by allowing your child than opportunity you are also saying to your child, "Yes, I trust you and your choices. I know this won't hurt you, so go ahead." What I've noticed...  I've noticed that nobody really treats Sophie any differently because she has blue hair... or when she has blue dreadlocks in her hair - unless that person has bigotted tendencies anyway... and even that is rare. She's a good student who gets along with the other students, gets good grades and her teachers like her. None of that has ever changed because of her hair color. Her French teacher was very happy when Sophie took the 'tenacles' out of her head... So was I, I thought she looked like Eyeore. Nonetheless... her grades didn't suffer, nor did her personal relations with others with or without looking like Eyeore or the Queen of Tenacles.This world could probably use a lot more individual expression. Most of the famous people in the world got that way by being unique rather than just like everyone else. As long as it doesn't hurt your child or anyone else, what's the harm? If they would rather be Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough than plain old Vanilla... cool! Dreads for Heads on Facebook
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