Move aside nail stenciling, hello hair stenciling!

Move aside nail stenciling, hello hair stenciling! Looking up hair stenciling on Pinterest reveals everything from American flag hair to geometric designs to polka dots to leopard prints. On hair. While you might not need the Coca-Cola logo stenciled into your hair, like one model, it might be a fun DIY statement look for a party. Below are several ideas for stenciling your own hair.

DIY hair stencils

Stenciling hair is basically like stenciling anything else. First you’ll need to get a stencil pattern of your choice from the craft store. Then find the color or colors you’d like in spray-on, temporary hair color that is. Look for quality sprays that will give a rich color, like Rita Hazan Pop Color or Bumble and Bumble Spraychalk. Both wash out.

Style your hair the way you’d like it, and then hairspray it in place with a strong hold hairspray. Since your hair is literally your canvas here, you’ll need a solid base so the pattern won’t budge as your hair moves. Then hold the stencil to your hair and spray on the pattern with the spray color.

Hairstyles for stenciling

Since you need your hair kept well in place, there are certain ways to wear hair that work best with this look. One popular option is down and very straight, but sprayed so the hair won’t move. Another popular look is stenciling the hair leading to a ponytail. A different idea is to stencil hair that is straight down under a half-up bun.

A statement look involves shaving a part of your hair shorter, say one side while the other is long (a hot look right now). Then the shaved part of the hair is stenciled, since it won’t budge.

If you really want a statement look, a popular idea is to dye hair a certain shade so it acts as a background to whatever your stencil pattern is. As an example, one popular look from Instagram shows a woman with blue and teal hair. She then stenciled white clouds on her hair to give it a look like clouds against the sky.

If you’d like to keep hair more natural, a general rule is to use brighter neon shades on dark hair so it shows well. Another look is to have light blonde hair with dark contrasting patterns. Geometric designs look nice with this color scheme. Pastel patterns like polka dots also look nice on light hair.