Tips for Removing Gum from Hair

My daughter is young and fairly new to chewing gum. Today at a party she wasn't paying attention to her actions and got it stuck in her hair. The last time she got gum in her hair, she cut it out without telling me. Since talking about that incident, she knows to tell me first because there are ways to get gum out of your hair without having to cut it off. I have heard of many home remedies for removing gum from hair but I had never tried them until today.

I pulled what gum I could out of her hair at the party. I got an ice cube and tried to freeze the gum and pull more of it out of her hair as I could. We then left it in her hair until we could deal with it later that evening. It was the strangest feeling to leave gum sit in my daughter's hair for a few hours but that is what we did and we were able to get it out at home.

I rubbed a chunk of peanut butter into her hair with my fingers. Pulling out what gum I could. It was more of a massage action to get the oils in the peanut butter into the gum to break it down rather than pulling at the gum. After removing as much freed hair from the gum as I could, I then ran a comb through her hair gently to remove the rest of the gum using a slow motion and short strokes. It actually did come out rather easily with a few pulls and tugs and a few ouches on her part, but no tears. It all came out. Now her hair was pretty sticky or rather matted from the peanut butter. So, into the bathtub and a bit more shampoo than usual, and the peanut butter washed away.

Brushing her hair after the bath, her hair reacted as if nothing was different and her hair smelled of shampoo rather than gum or peanut butter. We got the gum removed and saved her hair from being cut. I wasn't sure it would work and when I started the process, I really wasn't sure how to apply the peanut butter. With a little patience and time, I must say we both were very happy with the results and would recommend it to others stuck in the same predicament.