Ballroom Tip: Washing out Ballroom Hair

Ballroom hair should not move regardless of the sharpness of your tango, the spinning of your Viennese Waltz, or the number of times you get hit in the head during the first round.  If you've used either of the two previous tips, you probably do have hair that no longer feels like hair on your head.  Restoring it can be tricky, particularly if you've used something like eyelash glue.  The stuff is intended to not dissolve in water and stick to hair, and it does a good job of it.  This is how I wash all the gunk out after a competition.

Shiny.

First, I gently remove any stones, hair pins, hair nets, and ties (the shape of the base ponytail is unchanged by this, which is a little freaky to me even now).  If possible, I will try to scrap off any obvious blobs of glue.  I then soak my hair in warm to hot water and start massaging shampoo onto the sprayed parts.  The hairspray will start to slowly dissolve, at which point I can work the shampoo down to the scalp and out to the tips.  I typically shampoo twice, until all the stiff parts are gone.  I do not try to work through knots at this point.

Shampoo doesn't dissolve the glue, but it will gum up into little balls.  I then put conditioner all over my hair, from root to tip, and start combing out tangles with a big tooth comb.  I work from tip up to root, sliding out the glue bits as I find them.  A good rinse and I have my own hair once again.