# Temporary blonde? (Halloween costume) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 30, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919 "2008-09-30T20:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/1 "2008-09-30T20:44:16Z")
My son is planning to go as Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes this year. Easy costume: red shirt with stripes, carry a stuffed tiger, pee on things. The only problem is his hair. It’s dark brown. I don’t think that spray-on type of hair color will look too good…anyone have other ideas? I might even let him dye or highlight his hair for real, he wouldn’t mind. I don’t know how well that would go over with the kids at school, though, and it might literally kill his grandma, so that’s plan B. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/2 "2008-09-30T20:58:00Z")
A wig? They are $5-$15 at any Halloween store. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/3 "2008-09-30T20:58:30Z")
Cheap wig, scissors, and Aquanet to get it to stick up like Calvin’s does. Wig cap, bobby pins to make sure it doesn’t fall off. Dye would involve bleach which, given that he’s dark brown, I’d direct to someone with extensive home bleach and dye experience or to a professional. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/4 "2008-09-30T20:59:35Z")
I’ll have to look. I just figured they wouldn’t fit well over his mop top. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/5 "2008-09-30T20:59:51Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > My son is planning to go as Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes this year. Easy costume: red shirt with stripes, carry a stuffed tiger, pee on things. Heh. But you forgot kneeling at the foot of the cross. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/6 "2008-10-01T00:03:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I’ll have to look. I just figured they wouldn’t fit well over his mop top. 🙂 Another vote for a cheap wig. Cut off a length of nylon hose (as in stockings, not garden) – about a foot. Tie a knot in one end. Put the resulting “stocking cap” on his head to smush his hair down, and put the wig on over that. The stocking cap also gives you something to anchor the bobby pins to. ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/7 "2008-10-01T00:30:35Z")
I think your best bet is a cheap wig. If you decide to go the haircolor route, you could try Jerome Russell’s B-Blonde Temporary Highlight Spray. It’s available at Walgreens for about $5. It doesn’t completely cover dark hair, but a heavy spray should be sufficient for a costume. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/8 "2008-10-01T01:48:24Z")
Another vote for a wig. Any temporary dye usually goes light to dark, not dark to light, and any dying of dark brown hair has to be heavily bleached. It goes through a red stage before it gets to blonde, and I’ve heard that going bleach blond is incredibly painful… ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/9 "2008-10-01T11:53:30Z")
Thanks guys! I guess there isn’t any such thing as temporary hair color. After I’d gone “temporarily” darker, I was told that I was stuck with it “because the color stains the hair”. And it just stands to reason that _bleaching_ hair can’t be temporary. If I don’t find a wig or that highlight spray, I’ll have to rub the boy’s head with yellow paint! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/10 "2008-10-01T18:13:02Z")
A word of warning about halloween wigs - they are hot, and they are ITCHY! You could use this as an experiment in hair - bleach his hair blonde enough for Calvin, then give him a brushcut to cut all the yellow off if it looks too silly afterwards. This is a lot easier to do with a boy child than a girl child, I’d guess, since girls are usually more attached to their long hair than boys are. Just an idea. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ladybug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@ladybug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladybug)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-blonde-halloween-costume/465919/11 "2008-10-01T23:30:20Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > If I don’t find a wig or that highlight spray, I’ll have to rub the boy’s head with yellow paint! Be careful if you go with the spray. I tried it on my medium brown hair after I posted last night (I bought a can last year for a costume that never got finished). It takes awhile to dry, and it rubs off on _everything_. Oh, and it seems to be more metallic gold than blond. I’m thinking that yellow hairspray might work better for a Calvin costume.