What do you do when your child wants to make a drastic change to their hair? Perhaps it’s a hairstyle that you think they’ll later regret. Or, in the case of one mom named Demi Lucy May Engemann, it might be that your 5-year-old daughter comes home from school saying she wants to dye her hair pink.
Engemann responded to her daughter’s request by scheduling a “girls day” for the two of them at a local salon. Her daughter, Maude, joined her to get bleach blond highlights so that they could later dye the hair pink as Maude requested. Engemann shared a video of the girls day on TikTok.
Some people who viewed the video praised Engemann for the fun day she shared with her daughter. One comment reads, “Life is so short and this is so fun. This is for sure a core memory for her.”
Another viewer wrote, “This is so precious. She’ll remember this forever.”
Not everyone was so nice. Many trolls bashed what Engemann thought of as a “special and fun bonding moment.” These trolls criticized the entire experience. One person wrote, “This is so cringey.”
Another comment reads, “My mom did this to me too and it took me 18 years to be comfortable and love my true self as a brunette again.”
Other people pointed out less harsh options Engemann could have used to give Maude pink hair, such as hair chalk and hair dye that isn’t permanent.
Many other people asked “where’s the pink?”
In a follow-up video several weeks later, Engemann shared another video of dying Maude’s hair pink, this time at home instead of at a salon.
And here’s the big reveal – pink hair.
In another follow-up video, Engemann addressed the controversy over her decision to let her daughter dye her hair.
In the end, Engemann thanked “the haters.” Because of her video blowing up, she ended up with quite a bit of attention and a lot of new followers.
Do you think it’s inappropriate to let a 5 year old bleach her hair blond, or do you think it’s a “special and fun bonding moment”?
