Hair Chalking

So I've been super interested in this whole hair chalking thing going around, so I decided to experiement a bit. I bought a really nice, top of the line brand of oil pastels for Day 1: 

And then I bought a pack of 16 super cheap oil pastels for $2 for Day 2:

I'll go through what I did for each one and explain my results!

OK so Day 1: The 'spensive kind

I bought a Sennelier Soft Pastel Stick in Madder Carmine #386 (about $8 with s/h)

 I washed and blowdried my hair. I left it natural, no curl or anything, because I wanted to try wetting it down as well as curling it.

 I took fairly large sections and tried twisting it and rubbing the chalk on the hair, as well as wetting the section down and rubbing the chalk on.

Neither one made any stinkin difference. The twisty parts were just weird looking, it took me forever to get the color consistency I wanted. The wet pieces were actually the worst. I had to rub a TON of chalk on, and then once the hair dried I rubbed even more on. I also tried curling it while wet but that was terrifying and I wouldn't suggest doing it.

What I ended up doing was just holding a chunk of hair, like above, and rubbing the side of the chalk on the hair. Trying to use the tip caused the chalk to break and I wasted quite a bit of chalk doing so.

I did this all over, starting at the tip and working my way up until I liked how much color I had. The chalk crumbled very easily, but it didn't stain anything but my hair. It was all over my pants, hands, and the towel I laid down, but as soon as I rubbed them with a wet washcloth it came right up.

I curled my hair after putting the color on everywhere I wanted. The chalk tended to fade once I had curled it, so I had to go back and color some pieces over again.

 Day 1:

- wetting the hair down or twisting it makes no difference at all

- be careful where you apply the chalk at, because it tends to break and get everywhere

- curling your hair afterwards causing the color to fade

- by the end of the day, you could barely tell I had any color in at all.

- I used the entire chalk stick for this one application.

I washed my hair the next morning and all of the color came out really easily. I would only use this as a one time application, and not try to make it last more than a day. My hair felt really funky all day, like I had put too much dry shampoo on it. Super dry and kind of stiff.

Day 2: The cheap stuff

This time around, I curled my hair before hand.

I bought this super rinky-dink "Junior Arist" Oil Pastel set from Michaels for about $2.

Like before, I tried twisting the hair and wetting it down. Neither worked a bit. I ended up doing the same thing as before. Hold a chunk and rub the side of the stick onto the hair. I overlapped colors to get a faded look, and worked my way up. I used the turquoise, or light blue, the purple and the pink.

(Please excuse the heinous pictures, I was struggling not to crack up)

 This time, the color was super easy to apply and it stuck much better. The only other place the color stuck to was my hands. The downside though was that my hair was SUPER weird feeling. I didn't even feel comfortable wearing it down this time, I put it in a messy ponytail and hairsprayed it down. The colors were brighter, but they made my hair feel icky and the curls were kind of frizzy.I didn't have a problem with the sticks breaking or crumbling either, but that was because I bought the OIL PASTELS not the SOFT PASTELS.

Day 2:

- The cheap kind worked a lot better, but made my hair feel super sticky and funky. I would only use this if you wore your hair up.

-The colors were more pigmented and stayed on my hair longer.

- the color was a bit more difficult to wash out. I had a few strands of pink left the next day but after I washed my hair again they were gone.

So what would I suggest?

If you're wanting the color to look really nice for just a few hours, buy the Sennelier but in a darker color. The 386 was just TOO pastel, and barely showed up. Curl your hair beforehand and use a bunch of hairspray. If you're going to wear your hair up and want to go for the multi-color look, buy the cheap stuff. It stayed longer and was much easier to apply.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR HAIR! After chalking, my hair felt HORRIBLE, like I had fried it. I washed it twice with a moisturizing shampoo and did a hot oil treatment. I used a ton of CHI oil on the ends and wore it naturally the next day. My hair is fine now, no color or funky feeling ends left!

If you have any questions or would like to see some more pictures, e-mail me and I'd be happy to help!

pish_posh_couture@yahoo.com