BEAUTY: Hair Chalking

As a former hair dye junkie I’m always looking for all natural and non-damaging ways to color my hair. I’ve let my formerly dyed hair grow out for so long without coloring it that I feel like I can’t start up again now. Ok, so I obviously bleach my bangs, but whatever – a girl can have one vice, right?

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a little temporary, no chemical color. Dipping a toe back into the color pool is ok by me so when I started reading about hair chalking recently I was instantly ready to try it out. If you haven’t heard of it, hair chalking is basically like drawing on your hair with pastel crayons - pretty simple stuff. It leaves color that stays until you wash it out and you can make it pretty opaque or more of a dreamy tint. If you love color in your hair but aren’t ready for commitment or just want to switch it up, hair chalking is a great way to do so!

What You Need

> Chalk Pastels (mine are from Michael’s)

> Spray Bottle of Water

> Hair Straightener or Curling Iron

> Rubber Gloves

> Towel or Old T-Shirt

How To Do It

1. Put on your towel or t-shirt and select a section of your hair that you’d like to color. I chose 6 medium sized sections evenly distributed around my head. Spray that section with water wherever you’d like to add color. I chose to color the ends of each section.

2. With your rubber gloves on, color your hair section with a chalk pastel in a downward motion until the desired color intensity is achieved. The color may diminish somewhat in the following steps, so brighter is better.

3. Run your heat tool (I used a curling iron) over the colored area several times until the hair is dry and color seems set.

4. Repeat these steps on as many areas as you’d like to color. I used 3 colors (aqua, purple, blue) and did 2 sections of each. Style as usual.

That’s it! This is a great way to add a few pops of color to my hair in a pretty quick way. Sometime between coloring and curling a little color intensity was lost, but I attribute that mostly to my brushing my hair. I didn’t mind a more subtle color but if I wanted it stronger I’d avoid touching it too much.

This method worked well on my dark blonde/light brown hair so I imagine it would be really intense if I used it on my bleached hair. The color did make it through a night out and sleep, but washed out completely in one shampoo - perfect for a weekend alter ego look if you ask me.

Have you tried this or another temporary/gentle hair color technique? Share your tips in the comments – I’m always game for new hair ideas!

xoxo,

Michelle