My four old daughter pulled candle a candle off the desk today and now her hair is a complete mess! She is fine aside from the hair issue(no burns). My problem now is that I dont know how to get wax out. She starts school in a week and I do not want her to be bald! Any advice would be great. Thank you in advance.
Hmmmm. You might try putting ice on it to make it brittle, and then breaking off as much as you can. The remainder might wash out.
Glad she’s okay. Sounds scary.
Maybe (big maybe) Goo gone, Nail polish remover etc… Some sort of a solvent. Otherwise, the trick for getting it out of a carpet is to (pick out as much as possible first) put a brown paper bag over it and iron it. The wax melts and the paper bag absorbs it. In hair, you might try wrapping a paper bag over the waxed hair and using a flat or curling iron over it to heat the wax. Other then that, perhaps heating it with a blow dryer and then either combing through it or wiping it off with a paper towel or a bath towel (not sure if it would be better if the towel was wet or dry). Oh and whatever you use to try to absorb it, make sure it’s something you don’t mind throwing out.
Peanut butter and/or vaseline should do the trick. You can probably just break off the big chunks too.
Do you have a hair iron? The usual techique for getting wax out of a rug is to iron the wax spot through a paper towel. A regular clothes iron is far too damaging to use on hair but if you have a hair iron it might work, with a paper towel between hair and iron to absorb the wax (keep moving to a new spot on the paper towel to keep soaking up the wax). Good luck!
Wax is hydrophobic (water hating) stuff, so an oil based solution like DA mentions is your best bet. There are less exotoc solutions than peanut butter. A rinse and scrub with warm oil (any of mineral, hair treatment, or vegetable) should help, as would any of the orange oil based cleaners. Heat is your friend on this, as is repeated application. Getting the hair wet before starting will make the job harder.
Can I point out that human hair and carpeting are two different things?
As a mom of three, I personally would not recommend that you try ironing the hair of a child who is active enough to have pulled a lit candle over on herself. Ironing hair is problematic enough for a teen who merely wants to straighten her hair–to do it without scorching it is the trick–but my mind personally boggles at trying to iron the hair of a wiggly four-year-old–whose hair is full of flammable paraffin. Hair is already incredibly flammable all by itself. And all this is taking place on top of a wobbly ironing board, too? And, you’re putting a hot iron next to this child’s face? I mean, hello???
I wouldn’t.
Really.
Typically the melting point of candle paraffin is from 120 to 160 degrees F.
I found a list of iron temperatures.
In order to melt the paraffin, depending on what kind of candle wax it was made out of, you’re potentially going to have to have that iron set on at least the lowest setting, and if it’s the “other” kind of candle wax, you’ll need to have it set on “Wool”. Even my lowest setting on my iron, which presumably is for “Nylon” (it only says “Lowest”) which is the setting I use to do those melted-crayon-and-waxed-paper pictures with kids, is hot enough to make the kid who touches it reflexively jerk his hand back with an “ow!”
Even with a curling iron, I wouldn’t muck around with flammable melted paraffin on a child’s head. Also, melted paraffin itself is hot. You’re going to persuade this kid to lie still somewhere while you try to sop up melted paraffin and keep it from running down her scalp, plus maneuver a hot curling iron around her head without poking her in the face?
And look, there’s no need: Googling “how to remove candle wax from hair” turns up http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01794.htm
So use GooGone or baby oil. Or, geez, just cut her hair. It’s not the end of the world, and in a month it’ll have grown enough to be evened out. And maybe she’ll have learned a valuable lesson about being more careful around candles. I’m amazed in retrospect she didn’t burn herself when it went over.
If you really want to soften the wax, use a hair dryer, and see if you can just slide it off the hair.
And I belatedly realized those are centigrade temps.
http://www.earthguild.com/products/riff/rcandle.htm
Lowest setting, 135C = 275F.
Wool, 148C = 298F.
Cotton, 204C = 399F.
Hello, both posters who suggested ironing specifically indicated a hair iron – a hand held flat or curved iron intended for hair. So what’s all this outrage about an iron board?
Thank you all for your help. I have given baby oil a try, it may take a while but it might work. I agree cutting her hair would be the eaiset solution but it would have to be very close to her scalp. I might be a softie but I don’t think sending a little girl to her first day of pre-k bald is a valid option. 
Thank You again for your help all!
My post is what’s known as a pre-emptive strike, in GQ terms. There are two posts in the thread that mention using an electric iron to remove wax from carpeting, and whether or not they go on to mention that it should be a curling iron if you’re removing wax from human hair is moot: the posts still say, basically, “You can use an iron to remove wax.” And the place you use an iron is on an ironing board. Not everyone who comes into GQ reads comprehensively enough to grasp the nuances here. Can’t you visualize someone reading the thread and going away saying, “Cool! You can remove wax from a kid’s hair by ironing it on the ironing board! I dint know that!” So I thought I’d jump in and say, “Don’t”.
I compleatly understand your point, but I did say to use a “flat or curling iron” and Hello Again didn’t ‘go on’ to mention that it should be an iron for hair, but started out the post with ‘Do you have a hair iron.’ And not to be nit picky, but you were the first person to mention an ironing board.
::Mr Non-Confrontational makes point and runs away in shame::
Seems like a hair dryer-blower thing and a comb would work.
But I’m a guy.
WAG – GASOLINE would work. NO NO NO Just in jest. Far too dangerous.
A hair dryer and paper towels to absorb the melted wax should work just fine.
Maonaise could be used as a prewash hair conditioner to remove any residue. It is the oil component that will remove the last traces. Should be left on overnight to 24 hours if possible prior to a good shampoo.
Don’t want to preach here but I must say that she’s only 4, fer cryin’ out loud. I think it’s the parents who have learned a valuable lesson about candle safety. (There was a tragic case in this area last year where an unattended candle caused a house fire with multiple fatalities.)
Wasn’t that something from a Simpson’s episode?
Egad. Got that right. :smack:
(Joey, I mentioned “ironing boards” for the reasons outlined. If we can’t be Ignorance-Proactive in GQ, then where can we be Ignorance-Proactive?)
“The Aristocrats!”
d&r
Goo Gone makes a candle wax remover - I’ve used it on my floor many a time. It softens the wax, which you then rub off with a cloth. You could put it on her hair and massage it out. I’d approach this with caution, though - it doesn’t say it’s safe for use on little girl’s heads.