How to Dye Your Hair With Kool Aid, Beetroot, Pastels or Chalk

See how to dye your hair with kool aid. Achieve any colour using soda, natural foods and artist products to get an ombre effect. If you get stuck or bored, we’ll show you how to dye the tips of your hair at home using standard hair dye, too.

Having dyed hair tips can be enormously satisfying, and if you tire of them they’re easy to grow out and snip away. You can dye your hair tips as a solid block of colour, or dye thin clumps and strands separately for a more rainbow, tye-dyed effect. Either way, the process is very similar.

You will need: Hair bleach (almost certainly), developer, gloves, brush, foil, dye

Not sure which hairdye to use? Manic Panic do a good range of semi-permanent rainbow colours, but they do fade quite fast so you might want to look into Punky Colors or Special FX. You can also go with standard dyes to offer a shade of hair tip subtly different to the rest of your hair, or experiment with white blonde hair tips.

How to dye just the tips of your hair

If you have dark hair or mid-brown hair, bleach the tips first. For anyone who isn’t blonde, it’s easier to get the colour of the dye rich and long-lasting if the area you want to dye has been pre-bleached.

Part your hair into four sections – two in the front and two in the back. Hold the four sections in place with an elastic band.

It’s a little easier if you then stick a hair grip where you want the dyed tips to end. This flattens out the hair and makes sure those tips will all get an even coating.

If you don’t need to bleach the tips first, or if you’ve already done that, dip the ends of the hair into the hairdye. Or, even better, use a hair colouring brush or highlighting wand to ensure even results.

Wrapped the dyed areas in tin foil and pin it in place so your dyed hair doesn’t touch the rest of your hair while it’s developing. This will help to stop hairdye getting where you don’t want it to go.

Follow the hairdye instructions for how long to let the hairdye remain, how to wash it out and how to maintain it.

Ta-dah! You’ve now dyed the tips of your hair!

Now you know how to dye your hair tips the proper way at home, you can experiment with other cheeky, cheating methods which will work semi-permanently or until the next wash.

Dyeing your hair tips with chalk and oil pastels

Just run them through your hair. Voila! Job done. The effect will last until your next wash, unless you don’t wash your hair very often, in which case it’ll last for a few days.

How to get dip dye hair with beetroot juice

Beetroot makes for a very weak dye which has to be topped up every few washes. The advantages are that it’s totally natural and is a fun option for those who are worried about using hairdye during pregnancy or want to avoid mainstream dyes for allergy reasons or for environmental ones.

Use the juice from a tin of beetroot and mix it with a half-cup of sugar and ideally some carrot juice to help activate it.

Then stick your hair ends in it. Then wrap them in tin foil and leave them for at least half an hour, then rinse under cool water, using conditioner if you like, but steering clear of shampoo.

If you want to do a full head of hair, dip the whole length of your hair in the beetroot juice then work from the roots. Be warned: Beetroot is the number two messiest thing on this planet. The number one messiest thing is people. So, if you put people and beetroot together…

How to dye your hair tips with kool aid

You’ll need about 1 packet of kool aid for just dyeing the tips of your hair, and about 3-6 packets depending on the length of your hair if you want to dye the whole thing.

Make sure you’re prepared for a mess. Like mainstream hair dyes, kool aid can stain fabrics so have an old towel or bin liner handy to protect yourself and the world at large from stains.

Mix the kool aid up with a little bit of water to form a paste, and add a drop or two of conditioner to help it permeate the hair.

Work the paste into your hair, starting with the roots. When you’re done, wrap your head in clingfilm (or just your hair tips in tin foil) and leave the mixture in overnight, or for about 8-10 hours.

Rinse your hair (yes to conditioner, no to shampoo) and dry.

The end result is quite unnatural, but quite soft and pleasing in hue. It doesn’t last forever, though.

You can experiment with different colours – mixing grape and raspberry can give you a purpley-red.

Dyeing your hair tips with kool aid is a bit cheaper than doing it by other means – but it takes a lot longer. It’s up to you!

Photo: Danielle Blue via CC 2.0 licence