Superhero Crazy Hair DIY

I purchased some colored hairspray last year after Halloween on clearance. I thought it might be fun for the boys to try for Spirit Week "Crazy Hair Days."

Well, lo and behold, Jaxon decided that he wanted to also use them this summer at his soccer games. No big deal to me - it certainly made him a lot easier to pick out on the soccer field when the players are all dressed alike, they're all the same height, and they're all running around like crazies. ;-)

Our conversation started like this approximately five minutes before we were scheduled to leave for a game:

Me: So, what do you want, Jaxon? 

Jaxon: I want Captain America!

Me: Ok, so some red, blue, and silver?

Jaxon: No, I want the shield!

Me: [silence] [silence] Hmmm. That's going to take some doing. Can we do that next week?

Jaxon: OK!

I had bought myself a week to figure this out. But you can create this look with this handy tutorial:

Materials:

Sturdy paper

Scissors

Marker

Craft punches (3.5 inch, 2.5 inch)

Colored hairspray (red, silver, blue)
Hair gel

First, you'll need some sturdy paper. I dug around in the recycle bin until I found a direct mail piece that looked pretty sturdy. I think a cereal box would work nicely too.

Next, you'll need to practice drawing your pattern. Whatever you're drawing will be the part that you cut out and will form the hole that you spray the colored hairspray through. Because this should be a fun and quick project, I recommend picking symmetrical objects. Thankfully, Captain America's shield is made of circles and a star (all symmetrical). I will give directions for how to recreate this look, but these directions can be used to create other looks, as you'll see in my Spiderman example below.

I started by drawing a star that was about the size that I wanted to use on the paper.

Because a star is symmetrical, I then folded the paper vertically on its axis.

And cut around the half that was showing. After unfolding the paper, you'll see how unsymmetrical your original drawing was, BUT the star that you cut out will be symmetrical, and that's what matters!

Now, Captain America's shield is made of a few concentric circles with a star in the middle. So, I actually used this first star as a practice star to make sure I could cut a straight one (it was too big for my circle punch holes). I also left off the last two circles to simplify the design. 

To cut the circles, I used two craft punches: a 2.5 inch and a 3.5 inch. You'll need to cut one, 3.5 inch circle and save the "hole" (labeled red in the photo below).

You'll need to cut two, 2.5 inch circles. The pieces you'll need to save from these are one "hole" (labeled blue in the photo below), one intact circle (shown below inside the 3.5 inch hole), and the other circle, which you will need to draw and cut a star out of the center of using the directions above (shown below sprayed silver). Remember when cutting a star out of the center of the circle to not cut all the way to the edges, or you will cut away the part that you actually need! 

Directions for Using the Templates to Create the Captain America Shield

1. Use your non-dominant hand to hold both the 3.5 inch hole and the intact 2.5 inch circle as shown above against your child's head. Make sure to center the 2.5 inch circle inside the 3.5 inch hole. Spray with red hairspray, remove the templates, and allow to dry. (You may need to reposition your non-dominant hand while spraying so as not to cover your hand in red hairspray. If so, make sure to realign your templates before spraying again.) This will leave a red ring with a blank space of hair for you to spray blue in the step below.
2. Then place the 2.5 inch hole template (labeled blue above) over the blank space of hair. Spray with blue hairspray, remove the template and allow to dry thoroughly. You will have a red ring with a blue circle inside.
3. Finally place the circle with star template over the blue circle you just sprayed. Carefully spray with silver hairspray. (Make sure not to overspray the edge of the template.)
4. Finish by creating a faux hawk with hair gel and spraying it with coordinating colors. 

Here's what the shield looked like after a half of soccer play:

And here's Aidyn at that same game. He opted for just a few simple stars from our practice template:

And remember our talk about symmetry and Spiderman? Here's Jaxon sporting a hand drawn Spiderman logo (which also happens to be symmetrical, so simple enough to draw and cut using our method described above):

And since these colors happen to be patriotic, we also added some red, white, and blue to the boys' hair for the Fourth of July. We topped the designs off with a star on the backs of their heads. When we ate lunch at the local Jason's Deli, the manager was so impressed with their schmancy hairdos, that he paraded the boys around to the staff and gave them free cookies!

So, these templated hair designs clearly have their benefits! Let us know if you give this method a try. It has certainly been a hit for us this summer!

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