If you have ever wondered how to chalk your hair, this is the post for you. Chalking your hair is an easy way to add some special effects. Wild but not permanent, expensive or difficult. Results last around 3 shampoos. Chalk your hair for a party, for halloween, or just for fun! Scroll down for complete instructions.
Here is what you’ll need to chalk your hair:
- Artist’s Pastels or colored sidewalk chalk suitable for hair chalking. NOT oil based pastel crayons. You only want to use the chalk based ones.
- A flat iron
- Hair ties or clips to hold back hair
- A rat-tail style comb for separating hair into sections
- A cup or bowl of water
- Old towels to wipe up any drips and to wipe your hands
The technique is simple. Separate a section of hair and paint it with the chalk. It’s easiest to do this if you wet the chalk by dipping in the water. Use your fingertips to dampen the hair as well. It’s a little messy so you will want to wear old clothes and have towels ready to clean off. Protect your surfaces. This is a good activity to do outdoors on on tile!
Best to work light to dark if you are doing multiple colors on one strand.
After you have achieved the coloring you want, use a flat iron to set in the color. Don’t overdo it. You don’t want to burn your hair! We used a “wet to dry” iron and stopped before the hair was totally dry. This worked great.
The hard part was deciding when to stop. You can do one color or keep going for a rainbow effect. Chalk “dye” will typically wash out in one to four washes.
Looking for a slightly longer lasting but still temporary way to dye your hair, without harsh chemicals? Check out this Kool Aid hair dye tutorial .
This is awesome! Dumb question: artist chalk: very very different from sidewalk chalk?? or is it oily like pastels? Great post! Hair looks cool! I think I’ll let Ruby go wild for the last week of school, just for fun!
Artists chalk is also known as pastels – it’s much more vibrant than sidewalk chalk, You can pick it up in the art store. Go for a cheap brand! Do not buy oil pastels or oil crayons. The good news is that they will wash out (ask me how I know, a certain child of mine was impatient and used them!). But they will make a big mess that is tougher to clean and leave hair super stringy.
That is so freaking cool. Can you still do that when you’re over 45 or does it make you seem somehow desperate? Especially if you had your nails done with cougar strips?
I think the key here, Shannon, is to carefully color coordinate your stripes. That’s my plan.
Love this – bringing back the 80’s!
What a great idea! I might be a little afraid to do this on my bleached *gasp* highlights but I’d totally throw these in my little girl’s hair just for the fun on it!
Wow…that is impressive…how did you learn how to do that?
we tried this tonight for Lauren’s rock star concert. she was so punk rock! thanks! we used sidewalk chalk because that’s what I had in the house and her hair is light so it worked.
Fantastic! Great to know that sidewalk chalk works too 🙂
i tried that but it really makes my hair rough and dry after i washed that out !!
i’m afraid it stay like that forever !!
Will just a regular flat iron work too? Won’t the pastels ruin the flat iron? Such a cool trick! Can’t wait to try it on my 4 girls! 🙂
Have you tried it on dark hair?? I’m afraid it won’t be visible…
FYI pastels/ artist’s chalks are VERY toxic! In art schools thy are only allowed to be used with the use of a respirator. Do not use them on children’s hair or anyone’s hair.
Both me and my oldest daughter have dark brown hair and it worked just fine! 🙂
Will this ruin your flat iron?
Ours was fine
Our chalk was purchased for children’s art classes and was not dusty. If you are concerned you can use ordinary sidewalk chalk or try dip dying your hair with kool aid!
Isn’t that super bad for your hair? You’re putting chemicals on WET hair, then putting HEAT on it? Good way to ruin your hair.
where are you getting that from? becuase I use pastels on a daily basis in school
Hi
gr8 tutorial dear, thanks a lot 🙂 mind if i borrow ur instructions
yes, i too have dark brown, blackish hairs and it worked gr8 on my hairs too
although it wont last a wash :p
It doesn’t work on my hair. I guess because my hair is black
How do you get it out?
Will sidewalk chalk have the same effect, or will it damage my hair?
the color won’t be as vibrant
Will this ruin my hair? Cus i have light hair so i really want to do it.
It might not come out as quickly as you wish if you have really light hair! I suggest you don’t do more than the tips, ie, what you’d willingly cut off.
Looks great & I’d love to try it but you should NEVER use a flat iron on wet hair. It will permanently damage it. Look up bubble hair.
Does it work on brown hair?
yes but not as dramatically!
I love this idea! I just have one question, how do you get it out of your hair?
it washes right out!
Hi I’m Ellen I will be 10 in December your tutorial is a real help thank you will you help me come up with more ideas thanks ellen
I’m going to do this for my daughters sleep over!
good luck!
But what if your hair is naturally curly and you would like to remain with your natural curls??? O.o
Could you use pastels
no, you should not.
Instead of using a iron you can also use a curling iron it works to
will it leave any color on your iron?!?!?!
any color it left came right off with a wipe for us, like chalk
Thanks so much for the tip! Your written instructions and tutorial are wonderful.
Will the color stain your sheets?
It might at first!
This looks so fun! I will be trying it very soon!