Great Crazy Hairstyles for "Wacky Hair Day" at School (2024)

Spirit Week at school is a fun chance for kids to show their creative side. It’s also a great opportunity for crafty parents to have a little bit of fun! DIY skills, however, come in handy for more spirit days than just the ones involving costumes. You’re great at working with your hands, so why not put your craftiness to work on “wacky hair day”?

Lots of kids participate in wacky hair day. It’s easy just to roll your child out of bed and let them go to school with whatever “bird’s nest” hair-do they woke up with that morning. For DIY enthusiasts, however, there are so many easy ways to have a little more fun with it! Check out these jaw-dropping wacky hair day styles and think about how much fun your child might have looking so crazy in class for a day!

The Unicorn

Any child with long enough hair and a love for all things fantasy will adore being transformed into a rainbow unicorn for the day! A sheet of card rolled into a cone shaped and pinned in, some cleverly wrapped hair, and some coloured hairspray are the key to this whimsical look.(Photo source: Lou Lou Girls)

The Surfer Dude

Spiky hair makes the perfect wave, dude! As long as you can find blue hair spray (and maybe a little white for some rip-curl detail at the top!) and a surfing action figure, your child will be ready to hit the waves on wacky hair day!(Photo source: Ashleigh30)

The Cupcakes

This hairstyle is as sweet looking as an actual cupcake and perfect for kids whose hair is long enough for two high pigtails. Cut holes in the bottom of two cupcake papers, thread each pigtail through one and make a bun, and then pin a pom pom in each like a cherry on top!(Photo source: Bored Bug)

The Creepy Crawlies

Short hair sprayed green makes the perfect grass for caterpillars and ants to crawl through! Pick up some plastic bugs at the dollar store and glue them to bobby pins. For bugs crawling down the face, consider eyelash glue because it’s skin-friendly. Kids with longer hair can do this look too if you’ve got enough gel and hairspray! Their creepy crawlies will just be skittering through taller “grass”.(Photo source: Bee in Our Bonnet)

The Mermaid Tail

A simple fishtail brad is taken quite literally in this fun style! Spray the braid green and carefully cut out a mermaid body from paper or card. Glue her onto a bobby pin and pin her at the top of the braid, hiding the bottom edge of her torso in the hair so it looks like she’s wearing the “tail”!(Photo source: Bored Bug)

The Spider’s Web

Whether wacky hair day falls near Halloween, or whether your little one just has a taste for spooky things, classmates will be impressed by how realistic this one looks! All you need is some hair gel to spike the hair, a pack of fake cobwebs to catch on the spikes, and a few plastic spiders to call the hairstyle their new home.(Photo Source: Lou Lou Girls)

The Octopus

If your child’s hair is long enough to make a top-knot on top and ponytails all over, then it’s perfect for this deep-sea octopus look! Spray it the style purple (or whatever colour your kid prefers) and pin two googly eyes on the “head” on top. For extra detail, pin fishes throughout the style as though the octopus is really swimming through the sea!(Photo source: Mom Repeating)

The Lizard

Especially for kids with a “mohawk” hairstyle, creating a lizard from spikes is fun and easy! Spike the hair from front to back, spray it green down the middle, and add some red on the ends as though the lizard has ridges on its back. Pin some googly eyes to the front and some green pipe cleaners where the lizard’s legs should be and voila!(Photo source: Dare to be Used)

The Monkey Sweater

This style would work with any stuffed animal, but the monkey looks pretty cute! Start with a ponytail and separate the hair around the elastic so you can see the centre of the ponytail. Sit the monkey on that centre and have your child hold it in place. Pull thin sections of hair upwards from different angles and meet them across the monkey’s body, fastening them together with small elastics. Keep building your way up and around until the ponytail has been woven into a a sweater that keeps the monkey in place!(Photo source: Iconosquare)

The Zipper

This style looks like a space galaxy has been unzipped to reveal a constellation of stars! Use coloured hair gel or hairspray for the stars and details and pin a small zipper open along the size. The hair wax and gel that you use to spike your child’s hair will help to keep the zipper in place along with bobby pins.(Photo source: Janayna Brockner)

The Long Monster

If you’ve master the sock bun and your child’s hair is very long, this creepy style is perfect for you! Three smaller sock buns along the top hold plastic eyeballs and a larger sock bun on the back of the head features a set of vampire teeth. Pin them well so nothing pops out during throughout the day!(Photo source: Hair by Lori)

The Short Monster

Kids with short hair can be little monsters too! Spike the hair with some wax or gel and pin two google eyes to the front. The crazier the spikes and the googlier the eyes, the better! Using face paint, draw the monster a mouth on your child’s forehead. Make it as cheerful or snarly as you want!(Photo source: Christa Ortiz)

The Bird’s Nest

This style takes the term “hair like a bird’s nest” literally! If your child’s hair is already messy in the morning, use that texture and gather it into a messy bun on top. Pin it in place and add some leaves, branches, and decorative birds to really make it resemble a nest!(Photo source: Those Northern Skies)

The Baseball

Play ball! Comb your child’s hair back as smoothly as possible and get to spraying! White hairspray will make the body of the ball and red lines with V’s down either side will make the stitching. Don’t forget to cover the eyes before you spray!(Photo source: Crystal Ellis)

The Rainbow

This hairstyle isn’t just rainbow colours… it’s an actual rainbow! Give your child’s hair the highest pigtails you can and twist each one tight, then arch them towards each other and twist them together. Pin them carefully in place at the base and throughout the twist to keep that arching shape. If your child’s hair is very thin and won’t stay arched, trying wrapping it around a bundle of pipe cleaners twisted together to give it some structure! Pin some cotton fluff or cotton balls around each hair elastic and add colours to the rainbow using hair chalk!(Photo source: The Vintage Country Girl)

The Checkerboard

If your child is very daring, shaving the hair into a checkerboard pattern and pinning black and red circles onto the squares with hair will certainly impress their friends! For kids who aren’t so keen to get an actual haircut just for wacky hair day, try slicking their hair back and using black hair spray or coloured hair gel to paint the checkerboard pattern on instead.(Photo source: Goddess Kids)

Have you tried other crazy hair styles for wacky hair day at school? Tell us about them in the comments!