FashBlog.com

About 18 months ago, my teenaged daughter began to be mesmerized by the fad of streaking hair with colors holding such dubious names as Bubblegum, Lime and Blueberry. Although these food-oriented titles might reflect usually delicious treats, there’s nothing natural about seeing the colors on anyone’s head. But it’s apparently considered status-quo nowadays, at least in real life, if not in many high-fashion venues. Have you ever really given the issue any thought? If you’re a mom of teens, you may have. If you’re under 25, you’ve probably done it. But, I need to ask, what was the reason?

About six years ago, a friend mentioned that other mothers “hated” her because she often allowed her high schooler to put those colored streaks in her hair. Her response was to shrug and say, “It’s only hair.” I think that’s one more dividing line among people-those that see such things as “No big deal” versus those to whom it is a big deal. I never in a million years thought I’d fall into the latter category, but wouldn’t you know that's where I happen to be. What’s funny is that I don’t know how I arrived there.

Perhaps having my daughter in my 30’s instead of my 20’s made a difference. Now, I can only envy those girls, who, simply by virtue of the fact they’re young, are beautiful. Their hair is naturally shiny and free of grey, and even doing absolutely nothing, their exuberance and youth radiates. They’ve no need to spend 15minutes applying toning cream, plastering makeup, and covering that which needs covered. Sun makes them glow pink instead of causing wrinkle worries, and even with no sleep, dark circles rarely appear. So, given their gorgeous natural state for which those of us “more experienced gals” yen, why would they do something so blatantly artificial and contrived? People then notice the streak of color instead of their lovely face or naturally pretty hair. (And, if it happens to be a white streak in black hair, how could they not think "skunk"?)

I am stumped, just as I am over face piercings and obvious tattoos. (See my article from February.) I ask the same thing about unusual-color streaked hair, and that is, do women really, truly think it makes them more attractive? It’s bad enough to resort to artificial color when you don't want grey; to do it unnecessarily seems rather wasteful, doesn’t it?

Last year, I dropped my daughter off at the house of an older girl I’d not yet met. When she answered the door, I think my mouth dropped open. She not only had facial piercings, she had bleached all color from her hair, and then did a rather fanciful design with pink dye. Minutes later on my cell, screaming at my husband for not warning me when he’d previously met the girl, I received the simple answer that she looked “normal” when he’d met her. Even though I see pictures of this look on MySpace folks and occasionally in public, it’s not a look most mothers want of their daughters who are not even out of junior high. Regardless of whether the streaks are in platinum blond or dyed black hair, the first impression of the person is fake, hard and attention-getting-not what we wanted of our daughters as we’d gaze into their sweet little infant faces, surrounded by pink blankets. (For those of you who aren't yet mothers, let me say that never changes, either.)

Anyway, every few weeks, my daughter would ask and my answer would be the same. Finally, she wore me down. I figured I’d let her do a washout hair pen, which goes on like mascara. I chose the pink version, since I figured that would show up best on her dark brown hair. Of course she tried it immediately, and loved the results. I must admit it didn’t look bad-but then again, you really couldn’t see it anyway.

So, you ask, has she now become a streak freak? Do we now have all the colors of the rainbow? Are outfits co-ordinated with hair highlights? Hah! You guessed it…she’s never used it since. When I asked her why, she said she doesn’t like it washing out so soon, but wouldn’t mind having our hairdresser do more permanent ones…purple, preferably.

Does anyone want to take bets on whether or not it’s going to happen? As the waitress from the TV shoe “Alice” used to say, “When donkeys fly…”