Tweens seek more beauty treatments, often with moms

But now girls as young as 9 are getting highlights, facials and spray tans, too, at metro Phoenix salons and spas.

Tweens are requesting luxurious beauty treatments that not even their mothers get on a regular basis. They are waxing their eyebrows and using "High School Musical" face scrub.

Girls want to be more grown-up, mimicking the celebrities they see on television and in magazines, and moms want to be their daughter's cool friend, said Samantha Skey, executive vice president of marketing for Alloy Media + Marketing, a firm that works with Fortune 500 companies targeting the age group.

This makes tween girls, between the ages of 8 and 12, the new darlings of marketers, even in a slumping economy.

"Right now, you see girls who just want to be beautiful; these girls are looking at the magazines and of pictures of Hannah Montana and are shooting to look like them," says Autumn Driggs, salon director for Dolce Salon and Spa's Peoria location.

Little girls dressing up as princesses is nothing new. But now these girls are playing dress-up in a new way — with makeup designed just for them.

Last year, tweens spent $51 billion themselves and their parents spent an additional $170 billion on them, according to Alloy Media + Marketing.

Unlike girls just a decade ago, today's tweens have more options than stealing their older sister's makeup. Now, there are stores and beauty products tailored just for them.

The Limited Too, a mall store that once sold just trendy skirts and dresses for girls, has now added facial kits, "High School Musical" bath kits and "Hannah Montana" hair mascara to its lineup.

Bath and Body Works now features American Girl body lotions, fragrance splashes and conditioners. The store also sells a line of Goldie beauty products with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme that would appeal more to girls than adults.

All of these draw in girls like fifth-grader Natalie Layson of Peoria, who likes to wear makeup when she's not in school.

Her standard lineup includes eye shadow, lip gloss, blush and press-on nails. She finishes off her look with her long brown hair up in a clip. If her mother would let her, she'd get blonde highlights.

"Makeup makes me feel really good about myself," she says.

Natalie received her first makeup kit three years ago, when she was 7, and it has been a big part of her life ever since.

Her mother, Cathy, wears little makeup and closely monitors her daughter's use. When Natalie overdoes it, Cathy makes her remove it.

Kendall Ong, owner of Mane Attraction Salon in Phoenix, has always had a few tween clients but has noticed lately that the younger clients are requesting more and more color treatments. One of the youngest clients to request color was 9 years old.

Arriving with her mother and a marked page from a fashion magazine, the youngster was determined to have red highlights. In an attempt to please the client while not compromising his values, Ong resorted to using Bumble and Bumble Red Hair Powder, which is a temporary color that washes out with one shampoo.

Ong tends to discourage parents from allowing their children to get their hair colored. He believes that girls are growing up too fast and says, "As a businessperson, it is probably not in the best interest for my business, but the kid's interest is more important to me than any profit."

And this new breed of ambitious and young beauty mavens is not just exclusive to cut, color and highlights.

Sandra Wingo, owner of Camelback Tan in Phoenix, says that she has seen an increase in mother-daughter teams coming in to get spray-tanned together. Fuchsia Spa in Mesa has noticed that moms are bringing in their tween daughters more frequently. The spa has always hosted spa parties (in which the girls can choose either a massage or a facial, and then get their makeup done by a makeup artist), but a few weeks ago the spa hosted its first spa party for a 12-year-old.

Lisa Vukonich, co-owner of the spa, says that when younger girls come in, it is almost like the spa experience is nothing new or exciting for them, just expected. Many of the mothers bring in their children, she believes, because they think it is important for the girls to learn about good skin care. For other mothers, "it is about keeping up with the Joneses," Vukonich says.

This type of dressing up and adult role-playing is fairly innocent fun but can be risky for some, depending on their motivations, says Barbara Tinsley, chairwoman of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University in Tempe.

When dressing up and experimenting with makeup crosses the boundary from make-believe to everyday life, parents should take notice, she says.

"It does not necessarily put them at risk, but it depends on the motivations and how it crosses into their real Monday-through-Friday life," Tinsley says. "Girls who appear more mature than their experience and age can experience social demands according to the age that they are representing, and these pressures, they are sometimes not ready for."

Some younger girls who play with makeup on a regular basis, even under the premise of a party, might notice that they get extra attention from others and are more likely to try to wear makeup and style their hair a certain way all the time. Tinsley advises really watching your child and how she responds to this attention. Parents also need to set boundaries on when makeup can be worn.

Betsey Roudi, mother of 11-year-old Rana, has been taking her to Mane Attraction salon for years, but only for monthly cuts. She allows her daughter to read Tiger Beat magazine, watch "Hannah Montana" and listen to Rihanna and Avril Lavigne but closely monitors all of Rana's media intake.

"Kids are just so much more aware of how people dress and look like," Roudi says. "As long as we can prolong their youth and preserve their innocence, the better."