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Worried asked: How do I get plaster out of hair? So, our friend made a dumb mistake of putting plaster (taken from a baby casting kit) into another’s hair for a photo shoot. It looked neat, but now we can’t get it out! We’ve tried using a bit of vinegar (perhaps didn’t let it soak long enough), baby oil and everything else we could think of. But so far, only about 20% of the plaster has been removed, and pieces of her hair are being pulled out with the attempts. Please help!
If you’ve had the unfortunate experience of having plaster stuck in your hair, you may have learned the hard way that it doesn’t give up easily. Here’s a two pronged attack, involving elbow grease and a little water, to solve even the most stubborn situation.
You Will Need:
- Hammer (or another hard, solid object)
- Tweezers
- Warm water
- Shampoo
- Bathtub or shower
- Towel
Steps to Remove the Plaster:
- The first step is to remove as many large chunks as possible. If chunks are in longer pieces of hair, spread the hair across a table and have someone else gently break chunks of plaster off by hitting them with a hammer. (Do NOT use a hammer or similar object directly against or on anyone’s head.) With shorter hair, try to break pieces apart with the tweezers or simply pinch them between fingers.
- The key to removing the rest of the plaster is warm water. Because plaster is water-based, it will break up and dissolve when allowed to soak long enough. To start the process, thoroughly wet the affected hair.
- Wrap the hair in a towel, turban style, and allow it to remain wet for several minutes.
- Re-wet the hair and repeat the towel turban process. Continue to do so, re-wetting every 15 minutes, until the plaster feels soft and any remaining chunks can be pulled from the hair or broken apart with your fingers.
- Once the plaster seems pliable, shampoo as normal in a warm (or hot) bath or shower.
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Additional Tips and Advice
- When working with plaster near hair, including eyebrows, eyelashes, facial hair, and hairlines, apply a generous coat of Vaseline to prevent plaster from sticking.
- If hair stays wet long enough, the plaster will come out. If it seems like it’s not coming out, make sure the hair stays very wet for an extended period of time. This method will only work if the plaster does not begin to dry between soakings.
I really do find this information helpful. Thankfully we were able to finally get all the plaster out of her hair (it’s been about five days straight picking at it). Keeping the plaster wet constantly really did help break it down.
This was the only instruction I found on the internet and I feel the need to tell people how this is NOT working. From my point of view, it is absolutely impossible to dissolve the plaster in any realistic time. I had my hair wet for over 12 hours and nothing happened. The only advantage in keeping your hair wet is that your skin and hair becomes soft and the chunks don’t stick too much. My advice would be to remove EVERYTHING mechanically. Try to grind the big and little chunks with a hammer as suggested AND pliers. When you grind the stuff, you’ll be able to comb everything out. You can even crush small chunks sticking to your scalp with small pliers. So, my first reaction to plastered hair would be to trying to comb the hair as much as possible and applying some oil and then start hammering, trying to avoid ANY felt, because you will not be able to comb it out (because of the chunks of plaster inside) and will have to cut it!
My friend got it stuck in his hair…tried baby oil, pliers, water, a razor…the only thing that worked was vinegar. There is acid in vinegar that makes it dissolve.
Plaster breaks down in water. I found that using the baby oil and water non-stop helped. It doesn’t happen too fast though, so someone needs to invent plaster remover for hair!
Any type of plaster that sets will be very difficult to get out of your hair. I have crushed it after it is completely dry with small pliers. If you need to put plaster in your hair for some reason, use a non-setting drywall mud like the premix buckets; even if it completely dries it will break up and fall out after you wet it for about 15-20 minutes in the shower.