Controversial Viral Sensation: The Incredible Hair of a Five-Year-Old Divides Opinion_baby baby

This five-year-old girl’s hair is better than yours.

Thanks to her luscious locks, little Mia Aflalo from Tel Aviv is fast becoming an Instagram sensation.

 

But that’s something that is dividing parents.

With a following of more than 54,000, the tot’s Instagram feed often features her posing for the camera with some pretty amazing hairstyles.

From bows made out of hair to the bounciest blow dry you’ve ever seen, there’s little doubt the five-year-old is total #hairgoals.

But while some fans are loving her jaw-dropping ‘dos, others have expressed concern about Mia being in the spotlight at such a young age.

“Why would a mother put her child out there like this?” one Instagrammer commented.

“Small girl dressed like a woman… strange parents,” added another.

“She looks like she is forced to do that shit stop doing it and let her play w barbies or smthing [sic] like that. She is not a doll,” another critic agreed.

Others are concerned about the practicalities of some of Mia’s hair styles and whether the looks were achieved with hair extensions.

“(Assuming it’s extensions because she has different amounts of hair in every pic) that’s not good for a little girls head/neck,” one user commented.

“This girl is gunna [sic] be mad when she grows up and her luscious hair is all damaged cause her mommy treated her like a doll,” another wrote.

“How the heck are you gonna get all the knots out from the teasing?” another concerned user commented.

But some users did come to the defence of Mia’s parents.

“Wow!! Beautiful hair and little girl. Why shouldn’t you be proud of her and sharing her pics!” one user wrote.

“None of this is any of our business, she’s not our child so these comments and opinions don’t matter so until she becomes your child, shut up,” another agreed.

Of course, there’s also the rights and wrongs of a young girl constantly being told she’s beautiful to consider.

Like it or not social media and the critique it opens us up to is having an effect on young girls self-esteem.

A survey published by the Girl Guides recently revealed that girls as young as seven are feeling under pressure to have “the perfect body.”

And older girls are affected too, with a further survey revealing that over the past five years, there has been a worrying increase in the number of girls, aged from 17 to 21, who say they are dissatisfied with their appearance. It was 36 per cent in 2011; today, half of all young women can’t stand the way they look.

So how young is too young for children to be exposed to social media?

’s editor, Gemma Taylor, believes there are some guidelines that need to be adhered to if parents are thinking of setting up social media profiles for their little ones.

“As Parent Zone’s research with Nominet showed, parents love sharing images of their kids on social media, with mums and dads posting on average 11-20 images a month,” she says.

“It’s natural for parents to want share special moments with friends and family.”

But you do have to be careful, particularly once your child gets older.

“Our research showed that over a quarter of parents (28%) admitted they had never thought to check if their child minded them uploading images of them online. I think this raises an interesting conversation around consent,” Gemma Taylor continues.

“We’ve already had  and French lawyers have warned parents they could be violating that country’s privacy laws by doing the same.”

“Adults need to be aware that as children grow up, they may not want their formative years exposed in such a public way. It’s also hard to control images once they are posted online, so, before uploading, it’s good to consider, ‘is this in the best interests of the child?’”