Thursday's second Ypulse Guest Post is from Melissa Rabey. Melissa is a teen librarian for a library system in Maryland. She contributes to Pop Goes the Library and enjoys all kinds of pop culture, from the cult stuff ("Doctor Who") to the mainstream ("Dancing with the Stars," "Supernatural") to the trashy ("America's Next Top Model," "Flavor of Love"). If you work in youth media or marketing and have an idea for a Ypulse Guest Post, just email me. Regular Ypulse posting will resume Friday morning.
Your Life In Color
Remember what hair care was like when you were growing up? You used Sun-In to get that just-from-the-beach look or permed your own hair. As an adult, you might go to the salon for highlights or you use at-home color kits to try being a redhead, a blonde, or a brunette.
That's why I was intrigued by the recent article in the New York Times, A Girl's Life, with Highlights, which discusses preteen girls begging their parents for highlights, blow-outs and chemical relaxers.
It's not enough to just get your hair colored, either. Preteens want the full salon experience. And salons are adapting to serve a younger, fidgety clientele, from learning about the pop culture figures that these girls want to imitate to providing a wireless-equipped laptop for the preteen to use during her service.
Some parents and adults would shake their heads, bemoaning how a focus on appearance is ensnaring younger and younger girls. For this group, welcome news is this report on states that have sought to ban teenage tanning.
Readers on the other side would applaud the preteen courage to have a bold look. Who else but an eleven-year-old would dare to have burnt-orange streaks in their hair--and isn't that kind of rule-breaking something to be encouraged in girls who are too often brought up to play by the rules?
This might be a passing blip on the culture radar, but more and more services are being targeted to younger consumers. Which side are you on?
Posted by anastasia
Tweens
Comments
For African-american pre-teens having the full salon experience is a way of life.
Our mothers took us with them to their weekly or, in my case, bi-weekly hair appointments.
We waited patiently with crayons and or books while listening to gossip and learning how to be "ladies" until our mothers were under the dryer for our turn.
Then, up we sat on the booster seat while our hair was washed, conditioned, straightened with a "hot comb". For Easter, Christmas, weddings, or Uncle Joe's, our hair was Marceled into candy curls as early elementary children.
Lots of us could tell you our burned ears and forehead stories.
As we got older, middle or high school years, that special time with our mothers continued; only with chemical treatments for straightening.
Still with our mothers. Still in the same chairs, often with the same hair dresser only without the booster seats.
I have my own 6 year old daughter and I was just this morning thinking (while putting her hair in pigtails), that it was about time she and I started the ritual that I meant so much to me growing up--beauty shop time with my mother.
Posted by: Lori | April 10, 2008 4:41 AM
First, congratulations, Melissa on posting at YPulse!
I have extremely mixed feelings about this trend, which Philadelphia Magazine has also covered recently.
The mother-daughter bonding experience Lori describes above is worlds away from the practices described in the Philadelphia & NYT articles.
While I certainly can get behind the notion of encouraging the kind of rule breaking Melissa describes, I don't think that's what is really at work in this trend. I think it's much, much more about an over-investment in looks (and a particular type of looks) among younger & younger girls.
I believe it's part of the normalization of porn-style looks and the sexualization creep in our culture, not to mention an unwelcome side-effect of the whole "Super Sweet 16" style of TV shows, which I think raises kids' expectations of the kind of money their parents should be spending on them for parties. I can watch those shows and find them humorous or absurd, but I think teens view them through a very different lens.
While I would support my daughter's interest in getting funky highlights or wearing unusual clothing (something she already does, fearlessly & with great panache), the salon experience as described in the NYT article is something I view as grossly age-inappropriate.
Wow, I am OLD.
Posted by: Sophie Brookover | April 10, 2008 7:13 AM
I've never dyed my hair but both of my sisters do, and I love that you bring up the idea of rule-breaking through hair color. That's what both of my sisters were in it for when they were pre-teens and teenagers. Both of them through junior high in high school had purple streaks and crazy cuts. My mom's attitude was that it was just hair; it wasn't permanent so you might as well experiment. Today, both my sisters work in creative fields.
On the other side of this, though, are the preteens who think (or their mothers think) that they need all these treatments in order to be beautiful and perfect and without them, no one will ever love them. I think that's another post, though :)
Posted by: Carlie | April 10, 2008 12:25 PM
One of my stepcousins missed every Friday of kindergarten because that was her Mom's hair appointment & her daughter always went with her.
For my 2 cousins (boys) the rule was during the summer they could do whatever they wanted with their hair; but come September, it had to be school appropriate.
I barely have the patience now to get my hair done; I think it depends on the kid. For some kids, sitting in that chair for a long time would be a punishment.
Posted by: Liz B | April 10, 2008 4:11 PM
Anastasia, thanks for these guest posts. While I enjoy your thoughts and articles, I appreciate your willingness to allow others that I might never find to voice their thoughts and opinion.
Posted by: Paul Loeffler | April 11, 2008 9:23 AM