Is salon-style gloss good for girls?

WHILE MOST little girls have been known to raid mummy's make-up with often hilarious results, bringing a small girl to a beauty salon to have her hair styled and her nails professionally painted is moving into different territory altogether, writes ITA O'KELLY

Tomorrow Hamleys toy shop in Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin will open Ireland’s first dedicated hair and nail bar for girls between the ages of four and 12 years. Tantrum will offer weaves, pigtails, ponytails, clip-on extensions and a sprinkling of fairy dust while they watch movies and have their nails painted. The colour scheme will be decidedly pink with pampering and fun being the name of the game.

Valerie Ford, Hamleys marketing manager, says that the new children’s salon is designed to offer visitors to the store more than just a retail experience.

“Tantrum has been hugely popular in London and we have no doubt that it will be a hit in Ireland too. Tantrum is a dream destination for all things fun and girly. It will also be the first of its kind in Ireland and is exclusive to Hamleys in Dundrum.”

The Tantrum concept is the brainchild of Latasha Malik who first set up a children-only salon called Tantrum on the King’s Road in London in 2007. It was such a success that Hamleys invited her to open within their flagship store in London.

“Tantrum is about glitter and gloss and fun but it is not about beautification. We don’t use make-up. It’s about having fun and it is certainly not designed to make little girls into little grown-ups. We don’t do beauty treatments like manicures,” says Malik.

The salon in Dundrum contains lots of pink leather and glittery decorations with a hair salon at the back and a nail bar to the front.

There are televisions, Wii consoles and plenty of popcorn to keep the young customers happy while they are pampered to their own specifications. Prices are from €5 to €10 per treatment while salon birthday parties come in at €20 per child.

The growing popularity of child beautification is something that is extremely well advanced in the United States. In the affluent neighbourhoods of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, children have regular salon appointments for manicures and pedicures, eyebrow shaping and waxing procedures in dedicated kiddie salons.

The question is whether salons like Tantrum amount to anything more than an extension of the dressing up box at home or whether they represent a baptism of fire for little girls into the whole world of grooming. By moving a child’s appearance into a salon setting, are we turning our little girls into little appearance-obsessed ‘kidults’? Or perhaps the more pertinent question is what do you say to your five-year-old girl who has just had her nails painted and now wants to hit the play dough?