Donut Hair DIY

National Donut Day is just around the corner (it's tomorrow Friday June 3rd) so I thought it was the perfect time to share a fun, crazy hair DIY with you!

About a month back Ava and Lola had Wacky Hair Day at school. If you're following Little Hiccups on Instagram you've probably already seen Ava and Lola in all their crazy hair glory. Lola had bright pink hair, colored with hair chalk (which, surprisingly, is still yet to wash out completely in places!) and Ava's hair was transformed into a plated donut, complete with pink icing and sprinkles!

Ava's hair donut looked so realistic the kids at school couldn't believe it was really her hair. In fact, a few even picked off sprinkles and ate them! But it was really her hair, and it's actually really easy to create. Just follow the simple steps below and you too can rock a donut on your head!

What you'll need:
Hair donut bun maker (you can find them at beauty stores or here on Amazon)
Paper plate
Elastic hair band
Bobby pins
Pink tempera paint
Sprinkles
Hairspray

Start by cutting a circle out of the middle of the paper plate. The hole should be large enough to pull a ponytail through, but not so large that the plate wobbles around on your head too much. I cut the hole with my Olfa Rotary Circle Cutter (which you can buy here) on the smallest setting which makes a 1.5" hole. You can use scissors or a craft knife if you don't have a circle cutter.

Tie your hair into a high ponytail, slightly off center. I think it looks best if the donut plate sits jauntily to the side but you could make it sit right on top of your head if you prefer. The base of your ponytail will be the center of the donut so keep this in mind when choosing where to tie your ponytail.

Pull your ponytail through the hole in the middle of the plate.

Now, get the hair donut bun maker and pull your ponytail through it. The hair donut will help hold the plate in place, so if the plate was a little wobbly before this it should sit fine now.

Let the end of your ponytail go and let your hair fall over the donut. Spread hair over the donut evenly so that it's completely covered.

Grab the long ends of your hair and wrap them around the base of the donut bun. Tuck the loose ends underneath the bun.

Secure the ends with bobby pins and make sure to tuck under any loose strands.

Now for the fun part! Paint that hair! Using a water based acrylic paint apply a thick coating of paint on the top part of the donut. The thicker the paint, the more it will look like real icing. Make sure to leave about an inch of unpainted hair at the bottom of the donut.

It can be a little tricky, but try to keep the edge of the paint as smooth as possible so it looks more realistic. It already looks like a donut, but there's one last touch to make it sweeter...

...Sprinkles! While the paint is still wet sprinkle a handful of sprinkles over the top of the donut. They'll stick to the paint and will stay in place when it dries. 

Just to make sure it all stays in place, give the finished donut a good spray with your favorite hairspray. 

And you're done! Hair transformed into a tasty baked treat!

Ava's donut hair held up really well over a day at school. I had half expected to see a tangled mess of pink paint and sprinkles when I picked her up at the end of the day, but it actually looked exactly the same as it had in the morning - minus a few sprinkles eaten by curious classmates, of course!

Now you're probably wondering how to transform your donut hair back into regular hair. By the time we washed Ava's hair out before swim class in the afternoon she had been wearing it as a donut for about nine hours. The paint was dried pretty hard and I was a little worried that maybe it would be hard to remove, but I'm happy to say that it came out easily with shampoo. Sure, it took a little longer than just a regular wash, but as the paint was water based it washed out pretty easily. I thought about combing through her dry hair before washing to separate the painted strands a little but in all honesty it wasn't needed. Plus I worried it might hurt and she wouldn't let me do crazy things to her hair again!

After just one shower the paint was all gone. I was worried at first that it might stain Ava's blonde hair, but (unlike the hair chalk I used on Lola!) it didn't stain at all.

This is such a fun crazy hair style and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. How about painting a chocolate donut with brown paint and crushed nuts sprinkled on top? Or lightly paint the whole hair donut in a light tan color and cover with sugar and cinnamon? Or go all out Voodoo Doughnut style with colorful paint frosting and froot loops, M&Ms or shredded coconut?

Ok, now I'm making myself hungry! Where are the donuts?