I let my 5-year-old daughter bleach her hair, trolls came for me
Like mother, like daughter.
A mother has come under attack from online trolls after a video of her taking her young daughter to the salon with her to dye her hair went viral.
Demi Lucy May Engemann, the self-proclaimed “CEO of cool mom,” shared a TikTok of her and her 5-year-old daughter Maude skipping school to have a “girl day” at the hair salon.
“My daughter asked if she could bleach her hair so she could put pink in it,” the influencer from Utah explains at the beginning of the clip, which gathered 7.7 million views on TikTok.
In the video, Maude is seen excitedly smiling throughout the process and enjoying her salon time.
“She was so excited and felt so big,” the caption reads as Maude is seen helping the stylist mix her dye and chatting with everyone at the salon.
In one adorable clip, Maude gives her mom a thumbs up as two hairdressers put foils on her little head to match her mom’s in the next shot.
The young girl excitedly claps her hands and swings her feet as she gives the mirror a big smile unable to contain her excitement as she begins to see the final product.
“Oh my!” Maude says as she gets her freshly bleached hair styled.
“Here’s your sign to say ‘yes’ more pure joy!” the mother captioned the video.
After going viral on TikTok, a follow-up video showing the hair transition earned 1 million views in less than 24 hours with a wide range of comments.
Some have commented how “precious” and “fun” the video is while others have accused Engemann of ruining her daughter’s hair for wanting a blond child.
“My mom did this and it just started years of dying and damaging my hair,” irk said.
“Absolutely not. There are safe dyes to make it pink, bleaching it was a hard no,” Colgada.como.una.pagana commented.
But others were very excited to see the little girl having so much fun with her mom loving her new hairdo.
“This was my dream as a child,” jensen replied.
“She was so full of joy and it’s a precious memory you’ll both have. Absolutely beautiful,” paola said.
“I don’t care what anyone says, hair grows anyway. These memories created are priceless!” Fega_el wrote.
Many commenters have questioned what happened to the original idea of dyeing the little girl’s hair pink but Engemann said the pink will come later.
But whether it’s blond or pink, doctors advise against dyeing hair for children under 16.
“I really don’t think it’s safe to dye or bleach a child’s hair until after puberty, and ideally not until their late teens — at least 16,” Dr. Sejal Shah, a New York dermatological surgeon, told Good Housekeeping.
Children’s hair is thinner than adult hair and still susceptible to change as they age and the chemicals in hair dye may cause damage. It is recommended to speak to a pediatrician before dyeing children’s hair or using non-permanent coloring.