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Girls as young as 6 are getting facials and fake tans at special pamper parties.
At least two New Zealand companies are following worldwide trends by arranging beauty bashes for pre-teens.
Tracey Lowe, who runs Enchanted Mobile Hairdressing in Christchurch, offers mini manicures and pedicures, mini facials and
mini massages.
She started offering the parties _ which start at $30 a girl _ after reading about their popularity overseas.
"I haven't even fully advertised them, but I have had a lot of interest from local schools and even mothers at Plunket groups," she said.
"Little girls see their mum having these treatments done and want to have the same."
Lowe said her daughter, 6-year-old Cassidy, was always excited to have her hair done and her nails polished.
But she said children didn't need as much makeup as women _ "just a little bit of lip gloss and eye shadow, and they think it's the real deal".
Pampered on Location, another party-planning company, also offers "pre-teen princess pamper parties".
Aimed at those who want to host "the best girls' birthday party on the block", the website says under-13s can "sit back and relax while our therapists pamper the girls from head to toe".
The firm offers mini manicures, mini pedicures, nail gems _ "gorgeous coloured diamantes for fingers and toes" _ mini massages and an airbrush tan on the face, neck and shoulders. Prices range from $20 for one treatment to $45 for all four.
Lowe was not concerned about the age of girls wanting to indulge in salon treatments but said she would not treat anyone younger than 6. "A pamper party is once in a blue moon, they are not putting makeup on every day.
"I don't see any harm in it, and other parents shouldn't be worried.
"It's not all about getting done-up; it's just about having fun."
The trend is more developed overseas.
A child-only hair and beauty salon in London offers clients as young as 6 dolls to play with and DVDs to watch. Budding fashionistas can flick through a copy of Vogue while they are waiting for newly trimmed nails to dry.
In the US, children as young as 2 are reported to have been receiving the occasional beauty treatment in Los Angeles and New York.
Lucy Marr, who owns The Powder Room beauty salons in Newmarket and Ponsonby, said the pamper party concept was increasingly popular with Kiwi girls.
The trend hadn't extended to her salons but she had noticed an increase in girls "in their really early teens" having their hair done and getting mini manicures with their mums or on their own. Marr said there was "plenty of time for girls to get into that sort of thing", when it came to beauty treatments.
