What you need (and I'm doing this in the cheapest, most cost effective way possible. I am not going to tell you to go out and buy all kinds of expensive shit that you don't really need):
- Soft Pastel Chalks (do not freaking buy oil pastels or you will HATE YOUR LIFE)
- A handful of plastic sandwich bags (if you plan on doing a lot of strands, you'll need more - I used these instead of rubber gloves because I don't have rubber gloves laying around my apartment for fun)
- Container of water (I used a Cool Whip tub)
- Blow Dryer
- Straightener
These are the pastels I used..
I got them at Pat Catans craft store & they were like $6.99
Here's what our finished product looked like:
Step 1: Dip the strand of hair you're going to dye into water. I varied the sizes of strands I did on Kell, but I wouldn't go much bigger than like an inch or so. Unless you plan on dying the entire strand from the root, you only need to wet the parts that you want to have color on them (about halfway up if you're just doing what we did).
Step 2: Dip the tip of your chalk into water and then color the strand while holding it in your hand with a plastic baggie over it. This part gets pretty messy, so the baggie helps a little bit. Make sure you don't rub the strand back and forth or up and down because you will matte the shit out of the hair and whoever you're doing this to will want to strangle you. Just use a downward motion and try and spread the strand out so you don't miss any sections.
see how it's all over my hand?
the baggie makes it easy to just color it without getting it all over yourself
Step 3: Once your strand is colored, let it air dry for a few minutes and then hit it with a blowdryer to dry it out a little before you straighten it to prevent frying your hair. If your strand is really knotty (some of them will get like that, there's no preventing it sometimes), try and brush it out GENTLY before you dry it. If you brush it after it's on the dry side, you're going to get a bunch of chalk dust flying around and you'll lose some pigment.
Step 4: Once your strand is dry (or mostly dry), run it through a straightener to seal in the color. I didn't turn my straightener up all the way heat-wise since some of the strands I was going over were still slightly damp, but it's up to you. I also curled her strands during this part, too - but you can just straighten them if you don't want curls. NOTE: THE CHALK WILL GET ON YOUR STRAIGHTENER BUT IT WIPES RIGHT OFF SO DON'T WORRY !!
We also used a double color technique where we did some strands red on the bottom and then purple on the top.. It looked pretty because they kind of faded into one another whenever we dried them.
And just a couple tips - the chalk dust got on Kell's shirt a little bit, so you might want to wear something you don't really care about when you're doing this. It wasn't anything crazy though, so you don't need to go buy a poncho or anything.
And since we were doing hair, I also did her makeup :)
I used Senna's "Itsy Bitsy Lashes", which are just meant to go on the outer wing of your lashes & are great for a more subtle look. They definitely did enhance her lash line even though they're small, though. I'm a big fan of them and they come with glue right in the package. I also smudged some of Senna's Black Violet Velvet Eyeliner on her lower lash line, as well. I did a post on that a little while back.
Purchase Senna's Itsy Bitsy Lashes here!
Hopefully this gives you guys some creative ideas for things to do with your hair this spring & summer! The chalking could be really pretty with prom hair if it was worked into an updo, as well :) Let me know if you will be experimenting. Thanks for reading, as always! XO!
