Annabel has been asking me if she can dye the ends of her hair for over a year, ever since she saw some YouTube video about how “easy” it is to dye your own hair. I’ve resisted allowing it, partly because I thought she was too young, and partly because I thought it might open a can of worms. But much to Annie’s delight, I have finally given in.

I did have some conditions on letting Annie dye her hair. First, she had to earn it. To earn it, she had to accomplish a few things:

1) She had to improve in a few areas on her report card.
2) She had to remember to feed Schuyler every day.
3) She had to be a good teammate who tried her hardest at every practice and game.

I also told her that the dyed portion of her hair would have to be cut off before school started…mostly because that’s a school rule, and also because I wanted to limit just how much she dyed. She agreed to the terms, and she worked hard to earn her reward. I was very proud of her!

Last week was the big day. I took her to the salon where my friend, Lauren, works. Could I have done this myself? Probably. But I also knew that her hair would need to be bleached for the color to be noticeable, and I was afraid I’d mess that up! I wanted a professional!

Before

I warned Annie that it would be a long appointment. And it was, over two hours. She handled it like a pro. It took a lonnnnng time to bleach the color out of the ends of her hair.

getting bleached

It looked kind of cool when it was all bleached.

all bleached

After Lauren dried the ends of Annie’s hair, she painted on the purple.

here comes the purple

The whole time Lauren was applying the purple dye, Annie was squealing with glee. And she couldn’t even see it! But she was so incredibly excited, it was really cute. But she was even cuter once the dye was washed out and she finally caught a glimpse of the purple in the mirror.

seeing her purple hair for the first time

It looks awesome – the purple is still dark enough that it almost blends in with her hair, although I’ve told her to prepare for it to fade into a lighter violet.

Annabel VIOLET

One unexpected bonus to the dyed ends? Annie is now VERY interested in brushing her own hair! If I’d known that would happen, I might have let her dye her ends sooner!