A mother has called out negative social media users who criticized her for bleaching her five-year-old daughter’s hair.
In a recent viral video posted to TikTok, Demi, who goes by the handle @demilucymay_, documented her and her daughter Maude’s trip to the hairdressers after her daughter had asked to "bleach her hair so she could put pink in it".
The footage then showed the child sitting in a chair as a hairstylist mixed bleach and applied foil to her hair. "I couldn’t believe we were actually doing it," Demi wrote in the overlay text. "She skipped school to come with me to my appointment. She was so excited and felt so big."
The mother proceeded to film her daughter's experience at the salon and ended the video with Maude’s father seeing his daughter’s hair transformation for the first time. In the caption of the clip, Demi wrote: "Here’s your sign to say 'yes' more. pure joy!"
Watch Demi's TikTok below:Since the posting of the TikTok video, it has amassed 13.4 million views and 1.6 million likes, with many users on the social media platform sharing their mixed opinions.
Some people praised Demi for letting her child get her hair highlighted and said it was "precious" and a "core" memory for her.
One user commented: "This is precious. She’ll remember this forever."
Another said: "Life is so short and this is so fun. This is for sure a core memory for her."
A third shared: "I feel like these things are so special to kids. You grow up and eventually, fun hair colors may not be an option."
However, other commenters criticized the mother and said that bleach can cause damage to children, especially because they have sensitive scalps.
One user said: "Not trying to be rude or question the parent's decision but genuine question isn’t the chemicals from the bleach bad for their sensitive scalp?"
Another wrote: "Absolutely not. There are safe dyes to make it pink, bleaching it was a hard no."
A third shared: "My mom did this and it just started years of dying and damaging my hair."
In a follow-up video, Demi explained why she let her child bleach her hair and addressed some of the vitriol she received from online users.
"You can disagree, that’s fine, but the minute that name calling starts or mom-shaming starts, based on one decision you disagree with, that’s where I’m going to put an end to that," she began.
Demi explained her daughter’s hair journey and said that Maude wanted to color her hair, so she had tried out a temporary pink shampoo. However, because her child wanted the pink to be more visible, she had asked her mother to dye it blonde.
The mother revealed that before going to the salon she had discussed the topic with her daughter's father, as bleaching a child’s hair is considered a "controversial opinion".
Demi then hit back at any "conclusions" that users had made about wanting her daughter to "be blonde for family photos," and said that she’d never make her child feel like she had to "change anything about herself".
"That’s not the type of person I am. That’s not the type of mom that I am. And I would never impose my will on my daughter. And I know how sensitive those topics are, as a woman," she said.
Although she understood why people would be concerned if she was forcing her daughter to dye her hair, she said that it was "simply an assumption and that is not fair because that is not what happened".
Demi then said that she’d posted the video to show a "fun bonding moment" with her child and highlighted how "sad" it was to see people slamming her.
"There are so many kids that are neglected and so many damaged parent-child relationships," she concluded. "So to turn something like this into a negative is really sad. And if you’re a mom out here mom-shaming, do better."
