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View Full Version : Minimizing the drying damage from using chalk pastels on hair?



FallynLeaf
July 30th, 2012, 12:33 AM
Someone told me about a method of temporarily dying part of your hair by wetting it, putting chalk pastel on it, then letting it dry, which keeps the color mostly on until it gets wet again.

I tried it out with a group of people, and it worked out beautifully. The color did, in fact, come out easily as soon as I washed my hair, which was later that day.

However, I did a couple of searches because I was curious to see what the community here thought of it, and I've seen several posts about it being very drying for your hair, which makes sense.

My question is: if I chalk my hair a day or two before my twice-a-week washing day, when the roots are fairly oily, would that minimize the drying damage done by the chalk?

What about if I do an oil treatment before or after the chalking?

I would really like to chalk my hair again, because I love the effect, but not if it will be damaging to my hair.

FallynLeaf
July 30th, 2012, 04:45 PM
Also, how does oil in your hair work with chalk pastel? Does the pastel "stick" better in oily (or oiled) hair? Does it stick worse?

I'll probably end up just experimenting with it, but if anyone has any prior experience or knowledge of how the chalk works with oil, that'd be really helpful.

earthnut
July 30th, 2012, 04:54 PM
Oil works like the water - making the chalk into a paint-like substance. However, I'd think the oil would work better because it wouldn't evaporate away and would allow for more hair movement without flaking. I'm going to have to try this!

Another temp color option is to mix food coloring in a hair gel and apply that to the hair. You could probably use chalk too. The gel base lets you wash the color right out.

FallynLeaf
July 30th, 2012, 07:00 PM
The only problem with oil wetting the chalk is that the chalk will come off much easier when it's wet, which means it will get on your clothes and such.

Maybe it'd work best on hair that's slightly oily, perhaps a couple of days unwashed, or hair that had had a coconut oil (or another oil) treatment done on it, as long as it's not excessively oily.

The chalk does wash right out, though! As soon as you wet it again (like in the shower), it will come out.

chaos_aroura
July 30th, 2012, 07:49 PM
I'm very curious about this trend and want to try it out! If it causes dryness to my ends (where I plan on trying it first) I'll apply some Jojoba to them and if the dryness is very bad I likely won't do it again.

But I'm glad I'm not the only member here interested in this! I also read somewhere (here? another site? I don't recall) where they used shavings from the stick instead of rubbing the stick directly on the hair to minimize damage. Another person has said to mix those shavings with water to make a 'paste' to make it easier to apply (rather than wetting the hair and having it drip).

How did you do yours Fallyn? From what I've read online you wet the hair, apply the chalk and wait for it to dry? Does it cause a problem when you comb your hair out? I've not found very good instructions, so I'm curious of your methods.

(sorry of any typos or craziness... I have a terrible headache at the moment)

FallynLeaf
July 30th, 2012, 08:51 PM
Yeah, that's what I did: wet the hair, applied the chalk, and waited for it to dry. It was a little difficult to comb out afterwards, but I combed it while it was dry, and I think if you had a lot of trouble, getting it a little wet would help.

However, I only chalked the very ends and a small strip of hair, so there may be more problems if you chalk more of your hair. I've only did it once, though, and I didn't attempt any updos with it (though it was already in a simple braid), so it wasn't terribly tangly.

Eirelin
October 1st, 2012, 11:31 PM
Sorry it's so big, but here is the result from my attempt at chalking.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/603601_504369809575408_474993400_n.jpg

I put plenty of oil and diluted conditioner in the hair (my spray bottle always has a tiny bit of conditioner in it, anyway). Then I sprayed the pastel piece, rubbed it all over the glove (still spraying) and then gently rubbed downward on the strand of hair (not putting any pressure on it). Then the strand went into a Curlformer.

I slept in the Curlformers and then in the morning, took them out. I used a LOT of olive oil sheen spray on the curls, put it up in a claw, and then sprayed on more sheen spray several times throughout the day. No heat!

The top row of hair was alternating blues and greens, while the bottom half was alternating pinks and purples. The pinks were okay, the greens turned out VERY well, and the blues and purples pretty much just disappeared.

I actually had it in for a few days because I had no chance to wash my hair before that, so by the third day, when I really needed a more conservative look, I very, very carefully combed it out and put it up in a bun with the colors hidden. I was finally able to wash it out the following day, after loading a big mix of honey & conditioner into it for an hour or two.

You know, I actually forgot about the colors until I went to rinse the honey & conditioner out and got the shock of my life when all this dark water poured out of my hair!

That was last week, and my hair has had no ill effects from it.

Here's another picture, taken before I put it up:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/6228_504344116244644_976731743_n.jpg

This should be fun for Halloween!