Heart Shaped Side Shave

To celebrate Valentine's Day this year, I wanted to try doing something fun with my hair. I've had a side shave for a few years now and I love experimenting with different colors and designs-if it turns out bad, I can just shave it off! I decided to try something new and dye a little red heart in my hair in honor of the holiday.

Here's what I used:

• Manic Panic Flash Lightning kit
• Manic Panic hair dye in Wildfire
• a hair dye brush
• a shower cap
• sticker paper or sticky vinyl
• scissors
• a pen
• some hair (this works better with short hair) (please excuse the purple in my hair!)

I sketched out a rough shape of where the design would be on my hair and sketched a few different designs. I eventually settled on just one heart since I thought it would stand out well against my hair.

One you have your design worked out, trace it onto the sticker paper or vinyl you're using. I used sticker paper, but I would actually recommend vinyl since the hair lightener I used soaked through the edges a little bit and since vinyl is waterproof, I think vinyl would create more crisp edges of the design. Next time I will deffinitely use vinyl!

Anyways, cut out your pattern in sticker paper or vinyl.

Take the backing off the sticky paper and stick it on your hair where you want your design to be. Since your head is round and the paper is flat, you might need to cut, fold, and bobby pin the pattern in place.

Yes, it will hurt a bit when it's time to take the sticky paper off your hair, but it's not too bad!

Mix up the lightener according to the instructions on the box, then use the brush to apply it to the hair through the stencil. Leave it on for the amount of time specified on the box, then remove the stencil and rinse out the lightener.

If you have dark black hair, you might need to do two rounds of lightener, depending on what kind you get.

Next, use the dye brush to apply the hair dye to the light shape. If you have a more complicated design, you might need to apply another stencil, but it wasn't too hard to free hand this heart on my own head.

Cover with a plastic shower cap and leave it in for an hour or so, or however long specified on the dye package.

Rinse out the dye with cool water until it the water runs clear (or almost clear) and you're done!

I definitely want to try more designs like this, I think very simple designs show up the best, and I will definitely use vinyl next time instead of sticker paper. Also, this design works best on short hair, but if you have really straight hair, it might work on longer hair.

If you decide to try this, please post a picture with the "I Made It!" button!