How to remove chewing gum from hair: life hacks to help avoid an unplanned haircut

Chewing gum in the hair of a child is a common thing. Both kindergarten children and teenagers often sculpt it on each other's hair, considering it a harmless prank. But after such pampering, the girl has to cut a long braid. With a boy it’s still more difficult: the hair is short, the clipped tuft can not be masked. Of course, the hair will grow back, but a lot of tears will be shed. Do not rush to resort to radical measures. You can get out of the situation without nerves and without cutting the strands.

Thermal rescue of a long braid

Chewing gum under the influence of low temperatures becomes hard, crumbles easily. From heating, on the contrary, it softens, stretches well. Knowledge of the properties of "rubber" will play a good service. Try to get the chewing gum out of your hair in one of the thermal ways.

“Cold” and “hot” methods are more suitable for removing gum from the ends of hair or from the middle of a curl. It is inconvenient to clean the root zone so independently: helpers are needed. In addition, sudden changes in temperature are unsafe for the roots: this weakens them.

Freezing

1. Apply ice to the sticky gum.
2. Wait until the gum has completely hardened: it will become brittle, it will lose its stickiness.
3. Break chewing gum, separate pieces from curls. Try to be careful to do without pulling hairs.

Drops

1. Type cold water in a basin. Drizzle salt over the eyes.
2. Dip the curl with Velcro into the basin. Salt helps lower the temperature, making the gum hard. Separate those pieces that lend themselves easily.
3. Change the water to hot. Dip curls with the remains of chewing gum in it: the substance will become sticky, malleable.
4. Try to get rid of traces of gum by combing. Roll up what remains.
5. Repeat dipping in cold water. When the ball hardens, try to crush it to the maximum.

The heating

1. Turn on the iron you use for styling to the maximum.
2. Wrap the strands where the chewing gum “flaunts” in cotton fabric.
3. Walk over the fabric several times with a leveling iron. From high temperature the gum will become soft. She lags behind the hair, "moves" onto the fabric.

Short-haired Oil Rescue

Oily substances will help to remove chewing gum from short hair. An oil-soaked gum loses its stickiness and easily leaves. Using oily substances, you can not be afraid that the roots will deteriorate, as is the case with thermal exposure. It is necessary to smear the gum itself and the curls around with oil: this will facilitate combing, and the Velcro will not “migrate” to another strand. After manipulation, the hair should be washed well with shampoo, rinse thoroughly.

• Peanut butter. Apply it to the sticky gum and the hair around it. Wait until the chewing gum becomes soft, loses stickiness.It will take a little time - a maximum of ten minutes. Remove the chewing gum with a sponge, but take care.
• Vegetable oil. Any one that is in the kitchen - sunflower, olive. The principle of operation is similar to the "peanut" method.
• Essential oils. For example, orange, eucalyptus. Soak a cotton pad with oil, keep it on a dirty curl until the chewing gum softens. After - a comb to help. You can first freeze the gum with an ice cube, and then soak in eucalyptus oil.

4 more tools

There are probably four more tools in the house that will help in a “sticky” situation.

1. Hair styling products. If there is hair spray, spray it on an elastic band. It will harden, become fragile. It remains only to break and gently pull out small particles from the hair. An alternative to varnish is mousse. The styling agent is applied to the gum and to the strands around, wait five minutes and comb out.
2. Soda. Make slurry out of soda and water. Put it on the sticky chewing gum, wait until the mixture dries, and scratch.
3. Lemon juice. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon in half a glass of water. Add some hair conditioner. Pour the resulting liquid into a spray bottle. Spray soiled strands, then use a thick comb. For a greater effect, moisten a cotton pad in a lemon product and hold for three minutes on a “problem” curl: the adhesion between the elastic and hair will decrease, the smoothness that the conditioner will provide will make it easy to comb out the chewing gum.
4. Toothpaste. Apply the paste to the Velcro stuck in your hair. From the toothpaste, the chewing gum will begin to move away along the edges. We remove the loose parts, apply a small amount of paste again - and so on until completely removed.

Extreme Ways

If chewing gum is tangled in hair before an important meeting and you need a quick and 100% way to remove it, you can use:

• alcohol solvent;
• strong alcohol;
• acetone;
• technical spray WD-40.

Any of the above substances effectively copes with Velcro: two minutes after processing, the gum will fall off by itself. But the chic result has a downside: alcohol-containing liquids, alcohol, nail polish removers dry hairs. Such substances can not be used on the roots. When working with technical aerosol, safety rules must be observed: use a respiratory mask, protect the eyes. Refer to such methods only in extreme cases. Better reschedule the meeting for a couple of hours and solve the problem in a safe, popular way.

After you managed to remove the gum, take care of restoring the hair. Even if gentle methods were used, the curls survived stress. Pamper your hair with a nourishing mask, apply special oil on the ends, refuse this time a hairdryer. After removing chewing gum, children's curls will also need restoration: there are children's lines of balms and conditioners, they will help the locks “come to life”.