A coworker was telling me they’re going to buy make up for their daughter who’s entering middle school. :eek: I wasn’t allowed to wear make up until high school and this seems really wrong to me.
So, at what age were you allowed to wear make up? What age was your daughter allowed to wear make up? If you don’t have any, what would you let them wear it?
I was allowed to wear lip gloss and maybe a dot of concealer starting at about 4th or 5th grade. I didn’t wear them every day.
I was allowed to wear real makeup at the beginning of 7th grade. By makeup, I mean mascara, eyeshadow, lipstick, and blush. I was not allowed to wear eyeliner or foundation until 9th grade.
I should mention that great emphasis was placed on “moderation” by my mother.
heh. One of my earliest memories is raiding my mother’s bathroom vanity and making up psychotic blends of makeup and toiletry supplies to paste on my face in various combinations to see what I could make myself look like. I recall using mouthwash, toothpaste, shaving cream, eyedrops, and some ancient foundation of my grandmother’s that was actually bright pink. I was around 3 at the time.
I never recall either of my parents ever telling me I could or could not wear makeup or any type of clothing at any point in my life.
That said, makeup is a statement for me now - I wear foundation maybe once a year, and lipstick perhaps once or twice a week. ‘Normal’ makeup for my everyday purposes is all in effects like glitter and fun eyeliner and crazy colors of body paint or temporary painted-on tattoos, or full-scale theatrical effects makeup like zombie or green fairy stuff.
If I had a kid, she’d be in costume makeup before she could walk, and would probably rebel and wear “normal everyday makeup” all the time as her teenage rebellious phase.
I can’t really see getting upset over makeup. Bleaching out hair - that has to wait until at least ten. High heels likewise. Other than playing dress-up in mommy’s shoes, or being in dance class or a theatrical production, there’s no reason for a kid under ten to have their own shoes with heels.
I have a 5th grader. She likes a little eye shadow and some lip gloss. It’s fun, and it’s her face to decorate. I don’t see any harm.
I didn’t want to wear makeup when I was in school, so it was a non-issue. I think my mom forbade my sisters from wearing it until they were 15-16 (tho I’m sure they snuck around it). I don’t often wear makeup now, and when I do it’s very subtle. Both my sisters wear mascara and such every day (we are blondish with light lashes), but they don’t cake on the foundation and 12 other things like some young girls I know.
If I have daughters I suppose they will be ‘allowed’ to start wearing it out of the house about the same age most girls in these parts seem to - 13-14, 7th to 8th grade. Of course I would be leaning heavily on her to avoid the ‘clown’ look, but mascara, lipgloss etc never hurt a kid. I think you should let them experiment with their image at that age, if they want to.
Stage makeup: always. I did ballet till I was 16, my sister took bharat natyam till she was in her 20s. They just plaster it on you.
My mom always let us wear lipstick and blush with Indian clothes, in fact she was the one who usually suggested it. So I don’t know…the usual Diwali/Ganesh Chaturthi, Indian cultural stuff. Not everyday. Maybe once a month at most.
Other than that, there were no real prohibitions on makeup in our house. My sister became makeup/fashion obsessed faster than I did, which was early on in high school (freshman year), whereas I hit that obsession later (seniorish year). My mom used to enjoy doing our hair once in a while.
My parents don’t like excessive consumerism and we made money to buy our own clothes when we began to develop opinions about what we wanted to wear (which was Not Caldors). Other than that I didn’t come from an excessively rule laden household with regard to any of this stuff. Definitely crazy expectations academically, but not as many rules as you’d think. Although looking back I am shocked at how little gumption my sister and I displayed in trying to get into any trouble. It almost makes me a little mad and desirous of going back in time to show my parents what real teenage rebellion looks like, considering the shit they bitched about.
I was told I could wear makeup when I turned 13. 13 was a big age in my household, for some reason. And no, we’re not Jewish that I’m aware of. 
Not sure when that subject came up, exactly, 'cause when I turned thirteen and wanted to try on my mom’s lipstick as promised, she and my dad got the ‘whoops’ look on their faces. I wasn’t that interested in makeup anyway, it was just something new I could do. I’d been in theatre productions and knew I hated pancake makeup, but the creamy stuff seemed cool! I don’t think I wore anything at all regularly until I was about 16, which for me was my last year of high school, so…not so young or anything.
As a side note: lipstick has always looked retarded on me, probably because I have thin lips, and the upper one looks like someone razored a piece right OFF on one side; without having the patience to outline and fill in and fake it, I stick to lip gloss. I have one lipstick that I’ve had for 20 years, and occasionally I break that out. Go go, Mary Kay! Can’t believe it’s lasted this long, haha.
My daughter started in 7th or 8th grade, but she would go to the makeup counter at the mall at least once a week and have her face done there to learn how to do it.
I never started wearing makeup in earnest until I was a junior in college. My mom doesn’t wear a lot of makeup and she never seemed interested in giving me any tips, other than “don’t wear too much of it.”
If I had a daughter I’d let her start as a teenager, but I’d teach her myself so hopefully she doesn’t go around looking like she’s plastered it on with a trowel, as so many teens do.
Probably when I was in about 6th or 7th grade. Seventh at the earliest. I’d probably be the same way if I had a daughter.
Honestly, I couldn’t wait to wear make-up. And I still won’t leave the house without it.
When my cousin and I were kids, when she’d come over my house, we used to ask my mom sometimes to do our hair and make-up. She’d curl our hair and put on a little eye-shadow, some blush and lipstick. It’s not like we were going anywhere – we were usually playing dress-up. (I had this HUGE box of dress-up clothes.)
I was allowed to wear powder, blush, lip gloss (no eye makeup) in 7th grade. Mom let me wear eye make-up i 8th grade, if it wasn’t too heavy. I pretty much stuck with the same age limits with my daughter, except that she was wearing lip gloss and occasionally a little concealer in 6th grade. I’ve seen girls as young as 6 wearing make-up (not just a little tinted Chapstick), and I think it’s disturbing, frankly.
What I had a hard time with was when I found my daughter was secretly shaving her legs at 10. I thought that was too young, but she’d already been sneaking my razor, and forcing her to stop would have led to stubble. I could understand why that was a problem. In my opinion, she didn’t need to shave her legs, but she was self-conscious about her hard-to-see fuzz, and it turns out most of the girls in her class were already shaving (teacher confirmed) AND a little research showed that’s pretty much the case across the country. And my mom was upset when I started shaving my legs at 13. :rolleyes:
I asked my mom in 6th grade (11 years old), she said no. I asked again in 7th grade, and she said no again. So in 8th grade, I saved my lunch money to buy some eye shadow and blush. (Yaaay, Cover Girl!) I’d put it on at school, and got a whooping once when I forgot to take it off in the afternoon. Finally, my sister convinced them that it was a form of etiquette to wear makeup. :dubious: I didn’t start wearing foundation until 11th grade or so, though.
I was a tomboy, and when I was 12 and starting 7th grade, my mom bought me a bunch of makeup and a bra and strongly encouraged me to start wearing them.
My mom always wore makeup, and when I was little I’d get in the bathroom and experiment with her stuff.
When I was eleven, I was in a pageant (the only one!) and Mom was more than happy to spackle on the products. For events like prom or whatnot, she always wanted to do my makeup, and she did so with a heavy hand, but for everyday wear she always told me the idea was to look like you weren’t wearing any.
I probably started wearing makeup regularly by about 8th grade, and I think my daughter was about the same age.
I don’t remember any big battle about it. Back when I was a tween and a young teen, blue eyeliner was all the rage. I had a strong preference for green eyeliner (I use “raisin” – a purple eyeliner now). My dad, probably in an attempt to shame us out of wearing make up at all, would tell us he thought we had moldy eyes. This, of course, caused us to lay it on thicker.
I think I probably started experimenting at home with mom’s old make up around 10-12. I maybe started wearing makeup to school around 7th or 8th grade – mostly because my friends were the source of my blue or green eyeliner for a while until I started babysitting (around the same age) and had my own money to buy make up with. I know my parents wouldn’t pay for it (it was like pulling teeth just to get lunch money; luxuries like make up were not even on the table as an option).
I don’t recall my parents – and I’m talking about conservative mormons here – ever saying squat about it, as long as I wasn’t made up like a cheap hooker. Subtle application that gives a natural look was fine. Aqua blue eyeshadow up to my eyebrows was not going to happen.
I remember girls starting to wear frosted lip-gloss and lipstick starting around the 6th grade. I remember thinking it looked slimey.
I had play makeup when I was a little girl—before school age, for sure. I always wanted to be like my mom, so she bought me some cheap makeup to tart myself up with at home.
In 4-6 grade, I was allowed to wear clear mascara and nude or just shiny lipgloss to school by my mom. 7th grade on I was allowed to wear whatever I wanted.
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Stage makeup: always. I did ballet till I was 16, my sister took bharat natyam till she was in her 20s. They just plaster it on you.
[/QUOTE]
Oh man, dance recital makeup was the BEST! You needed the plastered-on look so you’d actually have a visible face from a distance. With my smaller, deep set eyes I looked like a 5/6/7/etc year old Russian hooker! 
Strong slashes of blush, bluey-purple and smokey eyeshadow that extended a good deal past my eyelid*, thick winged eyeliner with ~49594837 coats of mascara and reeeeeeeed lipstick. Having my mom do dance makeup was one of the best parts of recitals.
My mom has always liked using makeup (more face/eyes instead of lip stuff). I didn’t start regularly wearing makeup till sometime in high school, but it didn’t occur to me to ask permission and she didn’t make a fuss over it, either. Interestingly, I know we had dyed my hair a bunch of times starting either in junior high or early in high school; it was just changing hair color because a color looked neat.
I began wearing nail polish way before makeup and my mom was similarly laid back about that, too. I know I wore some black polish in 6th or 7th grade and around that time, she bought me a metallic royal purple color that she thought was really neat.
Meh, I was having my nails painted as young as three or four maybe. I loved having my nails painted!!! I still do, actually.
Well, my mom was never into nail polish herself (didn’t want to deal with chipping polish, etc), so I didn’t have the early opportunity, heh. If she had been, I’m sure I’d have been a 3 year old with sparkly fingers, too.
Nail polish was probably the biggest beauty product difference between us. I’m a nail polish whore (I’m closing in on 300 bottles. : cough : ). Recently, she’s actually started to try polish and I’ve been squeeing over the lil’ bonding opportunity. I just need to get her over that beginner’s hump and then I’ll have her in my Mean & Green-colored (nailblog photo; not mine) clutches! 
