In addition, you now have a bunch of methods and products that you can use for removing paint from your locks.
How to Get Paint Out of Hair: 8 Easy Solutions
It’s an age-old story. You get all suited up in your worst clothes, the ones you don’t mind if they get covered in paint! Then, you lay out the tarp to protect the floor. Finally, thinking you’ve got all the bases covered, you finally open up the can of paint to begin your project. But you forgot about your hair, which promptly gets a nice swath of clearly not natural coloration from the paintbrush in your hand as you attempt to begin painting the ceiling.
Of course, you don’t want to walk around with this wild stripe in your hair, making it seem like you’re still going through your rebel phase. So, how do you remove paint from hair?
Don’t worry, you’re far from the first to experience this issue. Luckily, I’ve found eight effective methods for how to get paint out of hair. Make your way down the list one item at a time. One of these solutions is sure to strip the paint from your hair.
How to Get Paint Out of Hair
1. Scrape it Off With Your Fingernails
This might seem overly simple, but it’s first on the list because it is simple. Even better, you don’t need anything to attempt this. As long as you’ve got hands and fingers (and haven’t chewed your nails off too far!), then you can try this method.
Grasp your hair with one hand and pull it tight. Use the fingernails of your other hand to scrape the paint off your hair by pinching them together and dragging them down your hair.
For this to be effective, you may have to repeat it many times to hit each little area where the paint is sticking. It can be a bit time consuming, but if it works, you won’t mind the time investment!
This method works best for small patches of paint in your hair, not giant swaths that cover half your head. It would just take too long to try to scrape all that off with your fingernails.
2. Comb it Out
If using your fingernails just didn’t quite do it, then you can step up the effort a notch and start incorporating tools. Of course, the tools of the hair trade, in this case, will be combs.
This works best if there isn’t too much paint to remove. It can be done with the hair wet or dry, and you may benefit from trying it both ways.
Simply drag the comb through your hair vigorously. You can take a handful of hair and hold it tight, dragging the comb up and down along the strands, scraping off the paint.
You’ll likely have to rearrange the hair a few times to scrape it all of since the comb can only scrape paint it can touch.
3. Dish Soap
If combs and fingernails just aren’t cutting it, it’s time to bring in something a bit heavier hitting. Dish soap is made strong enough to cut through stubborn grease stuck to cooking pans, so it can also be a great benefit when trying to remove paint from hair. Plus, most people have dish soap available at home and won’t have to scramble around trying to find some.
Just like you might add some dish soap and water to a pan and let it soak for a while to loosen up the caked-on food, the same method will work on hair. Lather your hair up with some dish soap and water. Let it sit for a while so the dish soap can start working on the paint. Then, scrub the paint hard with a washcloth, a comb, or even just your hands.
Once you’ve scrubbed the paint as much as possible, thoroughly rinse your hair out with water. With luck, this has removed all the paint from your hair. But if not, you might need a second or even a third round with the dish soap.
4. Toothpaste
Trying to remove the paint from your hair is similar to attempting to exfoliate the top layers of your skin. So, a similar method might work for both. For your skin, you’d use some rough-textured material to help rub off the dead skin, such as a loofah or a washcloth. For paint stuck in your hair, instead of a loofa, we’re going to use toothpaste.
Toothpaste is gritty and abrasive, the perfect texture for helping to remove paint that has dried onto your hair. Start by squirting some of the toothpaste onto the paint that’s smeared on your hair. Don’t worry, it won’t make your hair white like your teeth.
Next, use your fingers to massage the toothpaste into the painted area of your hair. Keep massaging as hard as you can until either the paint is gone or your fingers are too tired to continue. Then, rinse your hair out well with water and examine your handiwork.
If you did well, then your hair should be back to its original, paint-free state. But if you only performed a semi-adequate job, then you’ll see some flecks of paint remaining and will need to repeat the process for a second time.
5. Soak Your Hair
Some of these methods will work best with particular types of paint. If you should be lucky enough to only have water-based paint in your hair, you might have an easy time removing it with water alone. Of course, it’s hard to call anyone with paint in their hair, “lucky.”
Fill a tub or bucket up with warm water. Soak your hair in the water until boredom takes over and you can’t handle it any longer.
Start the shower and wash your hair with shampoo. If your luck has returned after your paint accident, then you’ll no longer have any paint in your hair.
Should you find that this process didn’t work for you, check the label on your paint again. It might not be water-based!
6. Use WD-40
If you’re dealing with latex paint in your hair, then you might need something a bit stronger than water. It might sound strange, but WD-40 could be the solution you’re seeking.
Of course, you don’t want to overdo the WD-40 usage. Try your best to only apply the spray to the parts of your hair that have paint on them.
Spray the WD-40 on the paint patches in your hair. Then, rub them in with your fingers to make sure it has a chance to work its magic. Let it sit for a few minutes so it can break down the paint.
After allowing the WD-40 some time to work, rinse it out with hot water.
Remember, the WD-40 can be hard on your hair and skin, so you might want to use this as a last resort if none of the other methods work for you.
7. Olive Oil
When it’s oil-based paint that’s stuck in your hair, you’re going to need another oil to help remove it. In this case, we’re going to use olive oil, which is proven to work well at removing oil-based paints from hair.
For this method, you’ll need olive oil, plastic wrap, and plenty of time.
Start by soaking your hair in the olive oil. Be very liberal here and soak your hair down. Then, wrap your hair in the plastic wrap to trap the oil against your head.
For this to work, the oil needs several hours to soak in and take effect.
After a few hours, you can remove the plastic wrap. With a comb, remove all of the now softened paint. It shouldn’t be hard to remove at this point, just gently pulling off with each stroke of the comb.
As an extra benefit, this is a great way to condition your hair and make it luxuriously soft. In fact, some people perform this ritual without any paint in their hair to remove!
8. Use Chemicals Like Paint Thinner, Turpentine, or Mineral Spirits
If you’ve exhausted all the other methods and still can’t get that blasted paint out of your hair, then it’s time to bring in the big guns. When we’re talking about removing paint from hair, the big guns are chemicals such as paint thinner, turpentine, or mineral spirits.
Any of these will work just fine. But keep in mind, none of these are nice to your hair or your skin, which is why these are the last resort. That said, they’re powerful, heavy-hitters that are almost guaranteed to work. Instead of rubbing off the paint, these harsh chemicals will work to eat away the paint.
Apply some of the chemical of your choice to a rag. Use the rag to wipe down the hair that has the paint on it. You should see the paint starting to come off with each wipe, though the first several wipes may not release much or any paint.
Continue wiping until the paint is removed. You may need to reapply the chemical to the rag once or twice to finish the job.
As soon as you’re done wiping the paint off, you’ll need to wash your hair very thoroughly using shampoo. You may even want to wash twice. The last thing you want is for those chemicals to sit on your head and keep burning through your hair, so wash them out well.
Conclusion
If you find yourself stuck with paint in your hair, don’t fret. You’re certainly not alone. It happens to people all the time! Thankfully, there are many ways for you to attempt to get that paint out of your hair. No matter the type of paint or how long it has been in your hair, there is a solution that should help you to remove it.
If you found this information helpful, please feel free to share it with others who might have paint in their hair as well! I’ll do my best to respond to any questions or comments in the comments box below as quickly as possible.
How to Get Paint Out Of Your Hair?
Getting paint out of your locks must be done immediately, right after it gets onto it.
Of course, we don’t always have a chance to notice some minor paint splatters or dots on us when we are busy with the painting project.
This means that paint tends to dry on our hair if it gets there.
This is why, if you want to know how to get paint out of hair fast, you need to consider some important factors first of all:
- Do you want to remove wet or dry paint?
- What type of paint do you need to remove?
Depending on them, you will want to make use of different methods and paint removing products.
Below, you can find a detailed explanation of how you remove different types of paint if they get on your tresses accidentally.
How to Get Water-Based Paint Out Of Your Hair?
All you have to do is to simply grab your regular shampoo and apply it to the parts of your hair that are covered with water-based paint. The next step is to remove the paint using a fine-tooth hairbrush or comb. It will help you to get rid of the smallest particles of paint that might get stuck in between the hairs and strands. After this, you will just need to rinse your hair, just like you do when you wash it. However, do pay attention to one nuance! If the paint has already dried on your hair, then you should let the shampoo sit on your locks for some time in order to let it work better. This will also allow the paint to soften much better and faster. Once this process is done, simply comb and rinse your mane as described above. This paint-removal method is a great option since almost everyone has shampoo in our home all the time. The only downside is time since you have to wait for the paint to soften in case it is dry. Related: Watercolor vs Acrylic Paint
How to Get Latex Paint Out Of Hair?
The first method for removing latex/acrylic paint from your hair is to soak your tresses in water for several hours. This type of paint is not completely waterproof. This is why soaking your hair in water helps to break down the paint. Once the paint gets weak, begin to separate it from your hair. The only obvious downside to this method is that it might take a few hours to work.
WD-40 For Latex/Acrylic Paint Removal
- You need to apply WD-40 to the parts of your hair that have been covered in latex or acrylic paint.
- Once you have applied the product, gently rub it into your hair.
- After the paint is loose, wash it off with your shampoo and hot water.
The disadvantage of this method is only one but rather serious: WD-40 can be pretty harsh to your hair and your skin!
If you have any skin allergies on your scalp, or if your hair is too sensitive or already damaged, avoid using this method!
How to Get Oil Based Paint Out Of Hair?
If you happen to stain your hair with some oil-based paint, the easiest way to get it from your hair is to make use of a product that you are likely to have in your kitchen cupboard.
Olive oil.
The secret is to apply the olive oil to the parts of your hair covered in paint. Once this is done, take a fine-tooth comb and remove the particles of int from your strands.
What if the paint has already dried into your hair?
Well, then olive oil is still your best friend! Only in this case, please consider applying liberal amounts of it to your hair. Also, make sure that you wrap your hair in plastic wrap, and then wait for a few hours.
This will make the paint way soften, and as a result, you will be able to get rid of it with a fine-tooth comb rather easily.
The good news about this method is that using olive oil has no real downsides!
So you can use it not only as a paint removing product, but also utilize this product as a hair conditioning treatment.
How to Get Spray Paint Out Of Hair?
Spray paint is very easy to get on your hair since it is pulverized all around! If you got some paint on your locks accidentally, and you don’t know how to wash it off, dish soap can be a great benefit.
This is a good option, and this is why:
- Dish soap is strong enough to cut through the oily paint texture and remove it
- All of us have dish soap available at home
The paint removing method will be the same as the one that works on your pans and casseroles.
- Apply some dish soap and water to your hair where it is stained with paint.
- Let the soapy solution sit for a while.
- Scrub the paint off using either a washcloth, a comb, or your fingers.
Once you have scrubbed the paint as much as possible, make sure that you rinse your hair out with water thoroughly. There must be no particles of paint left!
In the majority of cases, this procedure will remove all the paint from your hair.
But even if not, you can always take a second or even a third round with the dish soap!
Removing Dry And Fresh Paint
Now that you know how different types of paint should be removed if they get onto our hair, you might have a reasonable question: what about dry and fresh paint?
Do I have to wash them off differently as well?
Well, basically yes, for removing dried and wet paint, you will also have to make use of distinct approaches. Fortunately, this is quite easy to do.
How to Remove Dry Paint?
If you have some paint on your hair and this paint has already dried, there are two options that can be used in order to deal with the issue.
Just make sure that you act delicately and don’t pull your hair too strong!
Otherwise, you put your mane at risk.
Scrape It Off With Your Fingernails
This method might seem way too simple to you, but it is first on the list that should be tried. And yes, it is also extremely simple.
You don’t need anything to attempt this, just your hands and fingers.
- Take your hair with one hand tight.
- Scrape the paint off your hair using the fingernails of your other hand.
- Do it by pinching them together and dragging them down your hair.
In order for this method to be effective, we would recommend you repeat it several times. It will allow you to process each area where the paint is stuck. Of course, this factor makes this approach a bit time consuming, but if it works, the time investment is worth it!
However, you should note that this method works best for small patches of paint!
If you have large swaths that cover half your head, you’d better look for another, more effective solution instead.
Comb it Out
Combing the paint out is another alternative, especially if using your fingernails didn’t quite succeed and you still have paint stuck between your tresses.
You should take into consideration though that this approach works best if there isn’t too much paint you need to remove.
Also, combing the paint out can be done with the hair that is either wet or dry, and you may benefit from trying it both ways.
Simply pull the comb through your hair vigorously.
You can take a handful of hair and hold it tight, dragging the comb up and down along the strands, scraping off the paint.
You will most likely have to rearrange the hair a few times so that you could scrape it all off since the comb can only scrape paint it can touch.
How to Get Rid Of Fresh Paint?
Do you have some wet paint on your hair? This is not a problem at all if you noticed those paint marks instantly! In this case, regular dish soap is all that you need.
- Apply some dish soap and water to your hair.
- Leave it there for some period of time so the product can start working on the paint.
- Then, scrub the paint with a washcloth or a comb.
After you scrub the paint off, rinse your hair out to remove any paint leftovers and particles that might get stuck deep between the tresses.
This method will allow you to remove all the paint from your chevelure easily.
What If I Don’t Know What Type Of Paint I Have In My Hair?
It happens sometimes that we don’t know what type of paint ends up on our hair during the painting project.
The reason why it happens is usually that we find some paint that we stock in our garage and we decide to make use of it!
Luckily, even if you have no idea of the type of paint on your hair, there are a few methods of how to get that paint out of hair.
- Try removing the paint by picking it off your hair using your fingernails. This can be an effective and chemical-free method, but be prepared to test your patience!
- The second option to try involves dish soap and toothpaste. Dish soap can be applied to your hair along with water, and with some rubbing, it can remove paint from your hair.
- If this fails, however, then opt for regular toothpaste. Its abrasive properties can help to break down the paint, allowing it to be washed away with shampoo.
As you surely know, getting paint in your hair is a messy business.
However, with all the life hacks and recommendations that we gave you here, you can always make use of one of the methods listed in this article!
With all that, you should be able to remove any paint without too much effort or stress.
