In August, Mary Thomaston, a hair stylist in Florida, colored her daughter’s hair to look like “unicorn hair,” or rainbow hair. Her daughter loved it. Complete strangers on the Internet did not.
Thomaston shared a photo of her 6-and-a-half-year-old daughter Lyra and her new hair on Instagram on Aug. 21. She told The Huffington Post she has gotten mostly positive reactions to the photo and is “flattered” by the compliments. However, some people took the opportunity to judge Thomaston’s parenting skills.
“There are some who don’t agree with it and have voiced their opinions about it,” she said. “It’s OK, though. You can’t please everyone.”
Some commenters on the post said Lyra, who has been asking for her new hair for a while, is too young to have her hair colored. Others asked how long the process took.
“How long did this little girl have to sit to accomplish that!” one commenter wrote, adding later, “Sometimes we forget they’re little and not a little doll.”
Thomaston told HuffPost that she wants the people who left negative feedback to be “more open-minded.” She later commented on her post with an open letter to the “haters.”
Dear Haters, I have this weird goal of raising self confident, self assured children, who know and feel the freedom of self-expression. So when my child asks for blue hair, I tell her how much I like her choice and how beautiful she is. Even better, I do it with quality products, that not only respect the integrity of her hair, but also fades out with time. I am not sure how you are raising your children, but keep your unwelcome opinions to yourself in regards to my child-rearing. You do not like blue, cool, say so. You don’t like rainbow hair, cool, say that. These things are opinions you are entitled to, your disrespectful comments about my child are not. Lastly, I am not sure who the f**k does your hair, if you have chosen bad stylists in that past. But you are 100% inaccurate is assuming my child’s hair was damaged in this process. As a trained and licenced [sic] stylist, I can assure you it was not. Oh, and keep your negativity off my page next time.
Lyra isn’t letting the negativity limit her freedom of expression. According to Thomaston, she completely approves of her “unicorn hair.”
“She absolutely loves it and can’t wait to try other color combos,” Thomaston said.
You do you, Lyra.
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