Dying Your Hair, The Newest Trend For Pregnant Ladies Going Rogue
When you’re carrying a tiny human being inside of you, there are about a bazillion things that you aren’t allowed to do. You can’t eat queso at your favorite Mexican restaurant. You can’t relax in a hot tub or get a foot massage with your pedicure. No caffeine, no booze, no sushi, no diet-anything. Half of us can’t even digest our food properly while we’re pregnant. And just in case you forget, there’s always mind-numbingly nosy well-meaning people around to point out all the things you’re doing wrong.
We here at Mommyish are very familiar with the public-shaming of pregnant women who disregard any safety warning, no matter how much merit is actually has.
That’s why we’re kind of shaking our heads at the newest controversy to hit the with-child world. It looks like some rebellious mamas out there are throwing caution to the wind and dying their hair.
It all started with a Kardashian, and isn’t that always the case. Pregnant sister, Kourtney Kardashian blogged about lightening her hair color while she was pregnant. (It’s nice to see that celebrity mommybloggers are given the same merciless scrutiny that normal moms get online, right?) Suddenly, the world was outraged over her callous choice to endanger her little one with chemicals. Plenty of her own commenters called her selfish and ignorant. It might be the first time that a Kardashian stirred controversy without even meaning to.
Still, Kourt defended her decision. In a follow-up, she wrote, ”I also used products that did not contain any ammonia. It is also recommended to be in a well-ventilated area as well as being at least in your second trimester, and I followed both of those rules.”
Now, it looks like other moms are joining on the hairdye bandwagon. And some see this as a fundamental fight to keep their identity as women, even while growing a baby inside of them. One Salon writer, Marie C. Baca, talks about her “pregnancy rebellion.” During her third trimester, she walked right into a salon and got her hair dyed, enduring whispers and side-eyes from other customers throughout the experience. She writes that she knew about the risks and studied what she was doing, but this act of rebellion was obviously about a lot more than hair dye.
“The thing is, I’m not just an expectant mother. I’m a journalist who doesn’t want to worry about sweat stains around my armpits when I’m interviewing a source. I’m a wife who likes to feel feminine when I go out to dinner with my husband, and sometimes that means wearing makeup ”” not the natural kind. When I grab a cup of chai with my non-pregnant girlfriends, I want to be able to focus on the conversation and not the fact that my grays make me look about a decade older than they are. These roles and the others that comprise my identity are not dependent on the beauty products I use, but they are supported by them.”
So what do you think ladies? Is dying your hair a fundamental right that every woman should have, whether they’re carrying around a little one or not? Is this fuss over chemicals in hair dye a load of nonsense? Do your friends really care if you have roots, especially when you’re pregnant?
(Photo: WetPaint)
