Hair Chalk for Little Kid

May 26, 2020 11:53 AM

My little one (3yrs old) wants to put a little color in their hair. Streaks of color. Silly fun. I'm looking for something that's safe for kids of that age, easy to apply, and washes out easily without creating a painful situation or an horrific mess. My googlin' has led me to something called Hair Chalk. Is this the direction to go? Any recommendations? Pitfalls? Is this just an awful idea? Thx!
posted by chasing to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (15 answers total)

Hair Chalk yes. It's a great product, easy to use, washes out quickly, a bit waxy. I recommend using a piece of cardboard under the hair you want to streak, which makes application easier as you can press down harder.
posted by nkknkk at 11:55 AM on May 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: @nkknkk Thanks! Do you have a brand recommendation?
posted by chasing at 11:56 AM on May 26, 2020

This is the one we used (link is Amazon but may also be available at local toy stores): https://www.amazon.com/ALEX-Spa-Hair-Chalk-Salon/dp/B00E24BM2U but the beads etc are a waste of space so you may be able to find another kit with just the chalk.
posted by nkknkk at 11:58 AM on May 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

IMO hair chalk was messy and came off on stuff. We had better luck using a semi permanent color from Sally Beauty. We did purple streaks and they faded out pretty quickly, ~2 weeks and didn’t look terrible during fading process. I think we used this Artic Fox stuff, although perhaps in a smaller bottle since I recall it costing less than $10.
posted by MadMadam at 12:15 PM on May 26, 2020

If you have washable markers, they work, though your child learning this may have consequences.
posted by theora55 at 12:16 PM on May 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

I've been using temporary hair wax. It comes off in the shower pretty easily.
posted by answergrape at 12:31 PM on May 26, 2020

We use this brand of hair chalk on our 4 year old all the time (we give it as a reward/prize for things). Note: it won't work if your child has really dark brown or black hair - ours has very light brown/dark blonde and it works really well.
posted by brainmouse at 12:38 PM on May 26, 2020

I’ve used hair chalk once and absolutely did not feel like it was reasonable to put my hair on a pillow without washing it (the hair) first. That said it was very easy to put in and came out with just a regular shampooing
posted by aubilenon at 1:15 PM on May 26, 2020

You can put a tiny bit of hairspray over the chalked hair to make it not rub off quite as easily too! (still shampoos out the same).

Also my niece LOVED sparkle hairspray at that age, another fun option for playing with hair at that age (have an adult apply, obviously).
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 1:21 PM on May 26, 2020

There's hair chalk that comes in sticks like what has been linked, and there's hair chalk that comes in clamshells. The clamshells bite onto your strip of hair and you pull it through--MUCH easier to work with than trying to color directly on your hair.
posted by phunniemee at 1:29 PM on May 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

My experience with hair chalk was that it wasn't bright nor was it colorfast and it would come off on things where I didn't want it, but it's been years since I tried it so perhaps there's been innovation in the field.

I've had a lot of fun with Overtone products for either refreshing fantasy colored hair or even changing the color once the salon dye has faded. Overtone is just conditioner with semi-permanent color mixed in. It's as messy to use as conditioning your hair, doesn't stain skin or surfaces, and is colorfast and doesn't rub off on things once it's on. Here's their site: https://overtone.co/ For me it takes a few weeks to fade.

They even have formulas specifically for brown hair and have a lot of hair swatches of what you can potentially expect your color to look like with and without bleaching.
posted by Colonel_Chappy at 1:47 PM on May 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

As someone with brown-black hair, hair chalk is AWESOME. Have a picture of me and Mr. Kouti as Joy and Anger from Inside Out, featuring me using Splat hair chalk in "Impulsive Indigo."

I know kids' hair tends to be more fine as a general rule, so I'm not sure whether that means the chalk will wash out more easily in your child's case, or stick around for longer because it's a bit tacky to the touch after application. My experience with hair chalk was that it went on fine on freshly-washed-and-dried hair for Saturday night Halloween, and took 2-3 washes to fully rinse out. I did also use a dark pillow case for sleeping because I was curious how long the hair chalk would last on me (historically, Manic Panic washed out of my hair after <48 hours, but hair chalk is cheaper and significantly less messy to apply).
posted by Pandora Kouti at 2:29 PM on May 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

My daughter did her own hair color for a couple of years using Kool Aid (lots of youTube tutorials available) before graduating to Hair Chalk.
posted by IndigoOnTheGo at 2:40 PM on May 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

When I was a kid, we used to take coloured pencils, rub them against sandpaper to achieve a coloured dust, and then rub that into a strand of hair. It worked brilliantly, and I expect coloured pencils are pretty kid-safe. However one time I put a LOT of it (mainly red) into my entire head of hair, rather than just one strand, and then I tried to rinse it out, and somehow the water just distributed it better and I ended up with a head of bright pink hair for a few days. It did wash out after about six or eight washes, over those two days, though. And I had very blonde hair, so YMMV.
posted by lollusc at 7:11 PM on May 26, 2020

Hair chalk is totally fine. Just go buy some. You are overthinking.
posted by kestrel251 at 10:07 AM on May 27, 2020