For those who don't know "Hair Chalking" is a method of coloring your hair temporarily using soft pastels you buy from the art supply store. I'm not going to bother explaining the traditional method. There is a great video on YouTube if you click HERE. In my experience I have found some things that work a bit better for me, so I will explain how I do it.
First I want to say be mindful of your hair color. I'm a natural redhead. Any funky color in my hair is always a pain to keep unless it's a red tone. The worst is blue, because as it fades in my hair it turns green.....I can't rock green hair at all. For my red hair I stay in the pinks, purples, and reds, because they all fade to various shades of pink in my hair and look far better on me. I haven't tried orange because I grew up with orange hair and have no desire to repeat that look, however I'm sure orange would work for red heads as well. If you are blond or have highlights keep in mind the blond will stain longer and be more noticeable as it fades.
If you use soft pastels like Candy Johnson suggests, unless you are blond, most or all the color should come out on the first wash. That being said it also comes off on your clothes, you hands, and depending on hair color is not that bright at all after just a few hours.
I don't wear gloves because I'm too lazy to buy them. The chalk comes of with soapy warm water and if you get some stubborn spots, some baby wipes will get it right off.
I start by wetting a section of my hair. I do not twist the hair. I find that twisting it makes it harder to coat the hair evenly. I have two methods for applying the color. The first is to hold the chalk on the top of the section of hair with my index finger, and hold the underpart of the hair with my thumb and simply slide the chalk down from root to tip. The chalk frequently breaks in to small pieces when using the hard pastels. The soft just disintegrates in water completely. When I have small pieces of chalk I take the small piece in my thumb and index finger and quickly run it under water. Remove it from the water and rub the chalk until my fingers are coated with a paint like mix of chalk and water. Then I simply take the section of hair with my index finger on top and thumb on the bottom, and paint the chalk on from my fingers root to tip. I find this works really well when layering colors. I decided to do purple at the root and put white at the tips so it would be a lighter purple creating a sort of hombre color effect. I forgot to mention. I put the color on straight. I do not use white first like Candy Johnson does because if you use hard pastels, you don't have to.
Once you have all your sections done, dry it with a hair dryer to seal in the color. Candy says to use hair spray too, but I skip that step. Next you want to flat iron or use a curling iron to seal the color in a bit more. Here's another warning. If you have big poofy dry hair like I do, the chalk makes it REALLY dry and if you brush it, you will brush the chalk out. I suggest less is more. I got carried away with mine but I really liked how it looked after it faded a bit on the second day.
One of the things I love about hair chalking is that I can let my 4 year old daughter have crazy colors in her hair when she wants them without having to worry about toxic stuff or ruining her hair. Also it doesn't last more than a day in her hair for some reason even though she is poo free also.
The hard pastels will still come off a bit on your hands if you are touching your hair, but not as badly as the soft pastels do, also your pillow case will look like you tried to asphyxiate a drag queen but it washes right out so fear not.
Happy chalking!
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