How to Dye your Hair with Kool-aid and How to Remove it

Is your daughter just begging you to dye her hair? Here is a simple way to dye your hair with Kool-aid, the pros and cons, whether or not you should, and some mistakes that we’ve made along the way. There is also an easy way to remove kool-aid from hair.

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Dying Your Hair

My daughter has been begging me to dye her hair for like the past year. I’m not really ready to start dying her hair, plus her beautiful blonde natural innocent hair is so pretty. She has these awesome curls, that I absolutely love. If I knew anything about curls, they’d probably look better. But…I don’t. (If you have any tips, please leave them in the comments.)

A couple of her friends have dyed their hair, so she was really bugging me. She kept saying she wants to be like Mal from Descendants. Then, the pandemic hit, and we’re all stuck at home, so I caved, and I thought, why not? I started looking up cheap and minimal damaging options for dying kids hair, and I found the option to dye your hair with Kool-aid.

We tried a few different ways, and I went through a lot of “hemming and hawing”. I included all that here for you, so you can have all the information and learn from our experience. 

Is it safe to dye your hair with Kool-aid?

Disclaimer: I am not a hair stylist in any way, so don’t take this as professional advice, just an experimental mother. 

I did some research before dying my daughter’s hair. As a “Nervous Nellie” and anxious mother, I have to do my research. Here are some pros and cons to dying your hair with Kool-aid, so you can decide for yourself if it’s right for you.

Pros to dying your hair with Kool-aid

• It’s Cheap: Kool-aid packets cost like 25 cents.
• It’s Easy: You don’t need any skills.
• It’s temporary: It eventually comes out with washes. If you want it out sooner, I explain more below.
• It doesn’t contain any chemicals

Cons to dying your hair with Kool-aid

• It can dry out your hair: I have read that it can dry out your hair. I don’t feel like this has happened with us. People also say that the removal process can make it dry (I’ll explain more below).
• It might take longer than you want for it to come out: A lot of people said it took longer to wash out than they had anticipated.

Update: It is 08/06/2020 and my daughter still has a small tint of pink on the very tips of her hair. It doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I will probably give her a trim right before school starts and take them out. I HIGHLY recommend only doing the tips. I haven’t done the baking soda again like I thought I would. I might do it before I trim it just so I can let you know if we got even more out.

From all the readings I found, it seemed like the worst thing that could happen is it could dry out your hair. The Kool-aid doesn’t penetrate the hair shaft so it stays on top of your hair like a stain. When you try to remove the stain, that is when it can dry out your hair, which can damage it. If you need a good devil’s advocate, here is the article I read. 

My final thoughts on deciding to dye my daughter’s hair or not (however you value my opinion): 

• I was only doing her tips: I was only going to dye the tips, so if it turned out horrible, I could cut it off.
• Hair grows back: I felt like it wasn’t a big deal because hair grows back. It just does.
• Harmful Chemicals: I wasn’t putting harmful chemicals in her hair that I knew nothing about. I don’t have to worry about burning her hair or damaging her roots.
• I got opinions from friends: Most of the friends I talked to said they had done it before and it turned out fine. Some of them said it lasted longer than they wanted, but it wasn’t a big deal.
• Drying out: I wasn’t worried about it drying out because I could use some leave-in conditioner, and she is going to be swimming in the pool all Summer, which dries out her hair.
• I was doing it during the Summer: I feel like my kids hair goes to crap during the Summer because of the chlorine and sun. Plus, I rarely do their hair during the Summer.
• Cut if off: If worse came to worse, I could cut off the ends. Not a big deal, and she usually likes to cut it in the Summer anyway.
• It’s fun: This was THE COOLEST thing for my daughter. She LOVED it. So, if it’s really not that big of a deal, why not?

I’m sure there is a hair stylist reading this just cringing, but I assure you, everything turned out okay. 🙂

Do whatever you feel comfortable with. I was worried at first, and then realized it wasn’t a big deal.

That being said, I have read about some temporary hair dye for kids that you can buy. It’s like a wax that you apply. It comes out in one wash, and several people say they love it.

If you still want to proceed, here is how we dyed my daughter’s hair with Kool-aid. So, technically, we tried 2 different ways. I read about different ways, and I wanted to try them both. The first one below is the only one that actually worked. 

How to Dye Your Hair with Kool-aid

Supplies

Hair
2 Kool-Aid packets
Hair Conditioner
2 cups of Hot Water
Container that can hold hot Water

Directions:

Boil 2 cups of hot water in a saucepan.

Pour in 2 packets of Kool-aid. Stir to combined. My daughter wanted purple, so we did red and blue.

Remove from heat and pour into a container that isn’t going to melt. 

Add in about 2 squirts of conditioner. They say that this helps keep the hair moistened and doesn’t dry it out.

Dip the hair into the container with the Kool-aid concoction. I would make sure your child is aware that the liquid is very hot. I would also put down a towel and make sure they are wearing an old shirt. It will stain whatever it touches. (including your hands)

Let it sit for 10 minutes in the Kool-aid. 

Let it dry. You could also blow dry it. 

After it dried we rinsed it out. I didn’t want to rinse it out right away. The hair will be really sticky, so you’ll want to rinse it or wash it that night.

Wash like normal. The first wash is going to be the dirtiest. The first time we washed it, the bath water was purple.

Before:

After:

My daughter LOVED it!

Another way to Dye your Hair with Kool-aid or NOT to dye your Hair

There is another way to dye your hair with Kool-aid that does NOT work. We tried. You combined the Kool-aid packets with about a tablespoon of water and hair conditioner. You mix those together until the dye looks like colored conditioner. Then you apply it with a dye brush or your fingers.

You’re supposed to rinse it after letting it sit for 30 minutes. We did, and it rinsed right out. It didn’t hold to the hair at all.

We also learned that you can not use an off brand juice mix. It doesn’t work. I don’t think it’s concentrated enough.

How to Remove Kool-aid from Your Hair

There is a way to remove Kool-aid from your hair if it’s not coming out as soon as you’d like it to. It’s been about 3 weeks since we dyed my daughter’s hair and it’s barely faded. However, we only wash her hair about 2 times a week. It’s super easy, and it does work. A lot of people say it can dry out your hair, so beware, but I honestly haven’t felt that with my daughter.

Supplies

1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 Cup of Water
Container

Directions:

Boil a cup of water in a saucepan. 

Once water is to a boil, remove from heat and place it in a container. 

Pour in 1 tsp of baking soda and stir until combined. 

Place the Kool-aid hair into the container. The color starts to come out instantly. It took a lot out. However, she does still have a shade of pink in her hair. When we washed it that night, we made sure to let some conditioner sit on it for several minutes.

I plan to do the baking soda again to see if I can get the last of it out, but I’m not super worried about it. Maybe it will come out in the pool and chlorine. haha.

I haven’t really noticed that her hair is super dry. We’ve been using conditioner at every wash.

If there is anything else you’d like to know about dying your hair with Kool-aid just ask! I’ve probably experienced it over the past couple weeks.

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