Hair Chalking

Colour streaked or tip-dyed hair is definitely a fun way to express your ‘colourful’ personality, however this is not always appropriate for work, especially when you are involved in the more ‘corporate’ type meetings as this look may not be viewed as appropriate in the workplace and that’s why hair chalking is such a great option – it’s not permanent! Here’s a step by tutorial on how to achieve the look seen in the above pic.

Now before I get started I would like to state that I absolutely do not claim to have invented hair chalking, in fact, it has been around for quite some time, but lately seems to have had somewhat of a resurgence.  This is simply a ‘share the love’ tutorial on how I created my rainbow dipped hair.

Items you will need:

• Soft pastel chalk (this is fairly inexpensive and personally the best priced soft pastel chalk that I’ve come across is at Jeff’s Emporium)
• An old shirt (one you don’t mind getting messy)
• Rubber gloves
• A spray bottle (also very inexpensive at Jeff’s emporium) filled with water
• Straighteners or curling iron

Steps

1. Make sure you are wearing an old shirt as it is inevitable it will end up with some chalk on it
2. Take a small section of hair and spray with water (if you have blonde hair, you probably shouldn’t wet your hair as the water is there to increase the colour pay-out which is something needed for those with brunette hair).  This is the section that you will colour.  Say around 1 inch and this can be fully streaked or just wet the tip if you want the ‘dip-dyed’ look.  Have fun, be creative, this doesn’t have to be perfect.
3. Colour/rub on the hair with the pastel you’ve chosen (those with blonde hair – you are lucky, you can pretty much go with any colour.  Brunettes – for best colour pay-out I would go with red, pink, green and blue). You want to twist the hair as you apply as this will release the colour pigment.
4. Wait for the hair to dry (or if you’re impatient like me, have a hair dryer at the ready).
5. Once the hair is dry, go over the coloured pieces with straighteners or a curling iron (This helps to lock in the colour).

Tips and Tricks

• Do not use oil pastels. Oil pastels will be incredibly hard to remove.
• Note that the colour can rub off on your clothes during the day (rain is not our friend) so it does pay to wear dark clothing or a top that is a similar colour to your chosen chalk.
• When you want to remove the colour, brush your hair before shampooing. This will eradicate most of the chalk.
• I like to use hair spray to further lock in the chalking (this helps it adhere which means less chance of getting any colour on your clothes)
• Choose a deep nourishing or moisturizing shampoo as this will help to replenish the moisture than chalking tends to absorb.

This is all about having fun, don’t stress about making it perfect – just brighten your day by brightening your hair!