So when I first wanted to try coloring my hair with Hair Chalk, I purchased and tried out Bundle Monster Non-Toxic Temporary Hair Pastel Chalk Beauty Kit – Mix Color Variety Beauty Design, 24pc which I bought off Amazon.  There are so many different brands and types of hair chalk, so I wanted to see how this brand of Hair Chalk would compare to store bought pastels since they looked pretty much identical.

So what I  decided to do was go to Michael’s Arts & Craft store and purchase a pack of Soft Pastels.  Keep in mind that when talking about Soft Pastels and Hair Chalk, it does not mean that they are Pastel in terms of color (which usually refers to a lighter shade of color), but rather the type of medium is referred to as a Soft Pastel.

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So there are 2 types of ‘chalk’ that look very similar that can be found in the art section of craft stores -Soft Pastels and Oil Pastels – if you are looking to use them to color your hair, be sure to get the SOFT Pastels, NOT Oil Pastels as they can stain and damage your hair(and can be tricky to get out).  They can usually be found in the “artist” section where you would find artist supplies such as paint brushes and drawing pads.

Here is a photo showing the Bundle Monster Non-Toxic Temporary Hair Pastel Chalk Beauty Kit – Mix Color Variety Beauty Design, 24pc ($14.99) versus the store bought soft pastels that I bought at Michaels Craft Store for $9.99.  As you can see they are the same exact size and look identical to the eye.  The two pieces of chalk I chose to show (one from each pack) are even almost the same color.  It’s an optical illusion with the sizes, because the Hair Chalk has so many more pieces they look smaller than the Soft Pastels, when in fact they are actually the identical size as seen in this photo:

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Price wise, the Bundle Monster Non-Toxic Temporary Hair Pastel Chalk Beauty Kit – Mix Color Variety Beauty Design, 24pc was $14.99 but it has double the amount of chalk(24 pieces total) as the craft store pack for $9.99(12 pieces total).  Depending on where you live, it might or might not be quicker to order the chalk online versus heading out to a craft store.  If you have a craft store close then you could head out today and grab a pack, I chose to use Amazon Prime (I have a year membership so it ships for free and arrives in 2 days), as I wouldn’t be going by a craft store before then and I wanted to have the pack that offered more colors.  Even if you do not have Amazon Prime, if you order over $25 of merchandise on Amazon you get free shipping as well.

To test them what I did was take 2 different strands of hair and I prepared them to be colored, I tried the “Hair Chalk” on the left strand, and the Soft Pastels on the right strand.

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Both went on pretty much the same, but the Hair Chalk covered the strand of hair easier than the store bought Soft Pastels did. Also, when flat ironing the hair, the Soft Pastels left a residue much more notably versus the Hair Chalk.

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Once the color dried and was sealed in with the flat iron, the Hair Chalk was visibly brighter and more saturated than the Soft Pastels, but they both did definitely work and colored my hair.

So if I had to suggest one over the other, I would recommend the Bundle Monster Non-Toxic Temporary Hair Pastel Chalk Beauty Kit – Mix Color Variety Beauty Design, 24pc over the store bought Soft Pastels for a few reasons.

1) Value: For $5 more you get twice the number of Hair Chalk
2) Quality: The Hair Chalk stayed on better and brighter
3) Comfort: The fact it said “Hair Chalk” made me feel better that it wouldn’t permanently damage my hair versus experimenting with an art supply.

Either the Hair Chalk or Soft Pastels would work fine and achieve their purpose, but for an overall better experience, especially for first time Hair Chalkers, I’d go with the Hair Chalk.