How to Get J'ouvert Paint Off: Skin, Hair, Nails and the Clothes You're Not Saving

The paint and Abir powder used on the road wash off with soap, water and a bit of patience. What determines whether that takes one shower or three is almost entirely what you did the night before and how quickly you get under water afterwards.

The Night Before Is 80% of It

Coat your hairline, ears, neck, the backs of your hands and any tattoos in petroleum jelly or baby oil before you leave. Pigment grips dry skin and hair. On an oiled surface it sits on top and rinses away. This one step is the difference between scrubbing and rinsing, and it costs nothing.

Shower Before You Sleep — Not After

This is the mistake everybody makes once. You get home at 10AM, you're exhausted, you lie down 'for a minute' and wake up at 3PM with dried pigment set into your skin, your hair and your bedsheets. Fresh paint comes off easily. Six-hour-old baked-on paint does not. Get in the shower first, sleep second.

The Shower Routine

• Rinse in cool or lukewarm water first, with no soap, to carry off the loose powder and paint
• Then oil — baby oil, coconut oil or an oil-based cleanser — massaged into anything still coloured
• Then soap and warm water over the oil to lift it away
• Repeat on stubborn patches instead of scrubbing harder — the skin gives up before the pigment does

Hot water straight away sets some pigments and opens your pores, which is the opposite of what you want. Start cool, finish warm.

Hair

Shampoo twice, condition heavily. If your hair is light-coloured, chemically treated, or you have braids or locs, apply oil generously beforehand and consider a bandana or old cap on the road — it isn't about avoiding the tradition, it's about not spending Carnival Tuesday in a salon. A clarifying shampoo handles most of what a normal one leaves behind.

Nails, Ears and the Places You'll Forget

Under fingernails and toenails, behind the ears, inside the ears, in the creases of your elbows and knees, and at the hairline behind your neck. Check all of them in a mirror before you decide you're clean. A soft nail brush handles nails; a cotton bud handles ears.

Eyes and Sensitive Skin

If paint gets in your eyes, rinse with clean water — that's what the rag in your waistband is for. Anyone with sensitive skin or an existing condition should do a small patch test with any paint before the morning, and oil up more thoroughly than everyone else. The paint and Abir used on our road are skin-safe, but every skin is different.

Clothes

Don't try. This is why the first rule of J'ouvert is to wear only what you're ready to lose. Have a rubbish bag ready by the door and put everything straight into it, including the shoes. Anything you carry through the house wet will mark floors, towels and furniture on the way to the bathroom, so strip at the door if you can.

The Car and the Hotel Room

Lay old towels or a plastic sheet on your seats before you leave for the road — you will be getting back into that car covered. Same with hotels: put your own towels on the floor between the door and the bathroom. Housekeeping in Trinidad knows exactly what Carnival Monday looks like, but that's not a reason to hand them a paint-covered room.