Would You Let Your Daughter Dye Her Hair?

I'm at an uneasy junction as a parent right now. I must have been blinkered, but I really didn't see the huge change that moving from primary to secondary school would have on my little girl.

Just two terms in and she has become an independent, even more strong willed version of her younger self. Phone firmly planted to her being at all times, it's all about going out with friends, clothes and funky haircuts (that push the boundaries of school acceptance).

The hair conversations started tentatively after just a couple of weeks at high school. A new Pinterest board, with highlights and dip dye galore appeared in answer to my staling tactic, of proving to me, that she had thought about it properly.

I kept my head down in an attempt to avoid hair conversations at all costs. But I was only delaying the inevitable.

In a moment of weakness, I agreed to take her to the salon for a strand test, I was quietly confident that her hair wouldn't lift past a shade of ginger that she would hate and we could go back to normality (at least until the goth or punk stage hit).

No such luck. Her hair, it seems, shows no sign of its Chinese heritage.

I moved the goal posts (as all good parents do). Again I thought I was home and dry. A clean and tidy bedroom was surely a mountain too high?

I underestimated her steely resolve and now, here I am on the eve of the big deed, feeling really, quite sick.

Tomorrow, the beautiful long hair, that she has been growing forever, is going to get the shock of its life and I'm not sure I can cope with sitting through it.

Do you think she's too young?