She’s Blue
Anyone with a pre-teen knows that they can be moody beings… the changing hormones and social challenges of this age group really adds up and can wear a kid down. Add a little generalized anxiety disorder to the mix and our girl can be really blue. Few things in the past year have elicited a response from her like the ones that follow… Pure Joy. Just looking back through the photos makes my heart smile, and all it took was a quick, spur of the moment, crafty hair change.
Quick flashback to the beginning of the year… Bella had been asking for months to change her hair. She wanted a different style where the underneath was shaved but we could never coordinate a trip to the salon and I was nervous about her not liking it. Her hair was still fairly short all over from growing out a pixie cut, which she ended up not liking because of the styling requirements.
Finally, she got to me… one morning as she was getting ready for school she asked again about the haircut and I hesitated. She quickly snapped under her breath that it would never happen *hello pre-teen snark*. So I looked at the clock to see how much time she had before the bus came – 10 minutes – and said “Do you want ME to just do it right now?” Both of us surprised, I sprang into action. By the time we reviewed a picture of what she wanted and got out the clippers, we had 6 minutes until bus time. I separated out the top part of her hair that she was keeping and tied it up in a bun and quickly buzzed around the rest of her head with a size 2 guard on the clippers. Dusted her off, pulled out the bun, and she made it to the bus on time… absolutely beaming with joy!
Flash forward to this Fall, we have been talking about dying the tips of her hair for ages. Two of her grandmothers are hair stylists, but we never seem to get around to finalizing plans for her hair when we are back home to visit. She came up to me the other day and said “I saw a video that said you could dye hair with Kool Aid, and it would be a lot cheaper than getting real hair dye.” I just laughed and laughed and reminisced about my own childhood, lightening my hair with Sun-in or lemon juice and dying it with Kool Aid… “Yes, sweetheart, I know all about dying hair with Kool Aid, its been around for a LOOONG time!”
Methods have been updated, however. When I was a kid, we just used hot water, made a big mess and stained everything! While watching a few videos on the topic to remind myself how it is done, I came across a method using conditioner instead of water that seemed promising. I’m not sure how the two methods compare in terms of end result, I feel like the water method may soak into the hair better, but the longer soaking time of the conditioner method may make up for that. In any case, Bella’s hair turned out great with only 2 packs of Kool Aid, making it less messy and very affordable.
Here’s how we did it:
Put a little bit of conditioner in a microwave safe dish – about 1/8 to 1/4 cup. Warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds and add the two packs of your chosen Kool Aid. Stir until fully dissolved. If you are doing a larger portion of hair, you will likely want to separate it into sections and tie each section up into a pony tail. Since Bella only has hair on the top of her head, I can do it in one section. Prepare a plastic baggy and second hair tie for each section – I used a zip-top sandwich bag and cut off the zipper part. If you have plastic gloves, use them for this next part! You can use paint brush, silicone basting brush, or gloved fingers to apply the colored conditioner to the hair, I happened to have a silicone facial mask applicator so I used that. You want it REALLY coated so if you have a lot of hair to dye you may need to double or even triple the amount of conditioner/Kool Aid mixture. Once each section of hair is fully coated, place it inside a plastic baggy and use the hair tie to secure the bag onto the section of hair. Make sure the bag is fully covering the hair dye. You will want to keep it on for 8 hours or overnight, so be careful that all the baggies are secure before you go to bed – I used another hair tie to secure the baggie closer to her head so it wouldn’t flop around. For good measure, you can put an old towel over your pillow just in case of leakage (we didn’t have any).
The next morning, or after about 8 hours, carefully remove the hair ties and plastic bag(s). Rinse hair in cool water to remove the excess conditioner/dye but do not use soap or shampoo. If rinsed thoroughly, there should not be any color transfer onto a drying towel. Comb it out, let it dry, and enjoy the new color! Be prepared to touch up as it fades, Kool Aid dye will not last as long as professional hair color. Just look at that JOY!
