How to Create a Custom Made Salt and Paper Helmet

Creating a solid salt-and-paper helmet which fits your skull perfectly.

1. Tear strips with a width of an inch and five inches long from two pages of a broadsheet newspaper.
   
   
2. Fill a small bowl or tub with enough water to submerge the strips of newspaper. Submerge the strips in the water until it becomes soggy, but not too long till it disintegrates.
   
   
3. Drain the water from the bowl or tub. The newspaper strips should now be stuck onto the bottom of the bowl or tub. Add enough salt to cover the newspaper strips.
   
   
4. Unless you want to be seriously uncomfortable for the next two hours or so, place a bath cap (preferably the thin plastic kind) onto your head.
   
   
5. Peel off a newspaper strip and place it lengthwise on top of your scalp. Do the same for the next few strips until your entire scalp is covered. The salted side of the strips should be facing up.
   
   
6. Pour a generous amount of glue onto the salt. If the glue is too watery and drips off the salt, add some salt to absorb the moisture.
   
   
7. While the glue is still wet, continue placing the strips on your scalp, this time 90 degrees to the first layer of strips. Continue the newspaper strip and glue layer, and remember to alternate the directions the newspaper strips are facing.
   
   
8. Once you run out of newspaper strip, liberally coat the top layer with glue again. If desired, pepper the top with salt purely for aesthetics.
   
   
9. Leave the helmet on your head for two to three hours, till the glue on the top dries. By now, the helmet should be solid enough to remove without losing its shape. Lift it off gently and place it in a cool dry place to dry.
   
   
10. After it becomes light and hard, it is done! Place it on your head and wow your friends with this uncommon DIY helmet.
    
    

• To make the helmet waterproof, varnish it. Alternatively, you could dip it in wax, though this method is not lasting.
• Trim the ends of the shower cap which sticks out from the helmet for a more finished look.
• The salt on the top can be painted with undiluted poster or acrylic paint.
• If you do not have a shower cap on hand, an opened up plastic bag would do. Just make sure to trim off the exposed ends when you are done.
• Other than using newspapers, experiment with using tissue papers, card boards etc.

• When carrying out this project, remember to wear old and unwanted clothes as the glue and salt mixture stains are difficult to wash off.

• Paper (Newspapers, tissue papers etc)
• Glue
• Salt
• Water
• A small bowl/tub
• A bathing cap/plastic bag
• Scissors (Optional)
• Acrylic/Poster Paint (Optional)