Dying feathers and Furs using Womens Hair Dyes

[benlikestofish]

I was wondering if anyone has tried using women's hair dyes to colour capes?
I know you can buy permanent colours and I wondered if they would be any good for colouring capes.

[madjoni]

I did but they lie about permanent colors...Every of that colors changes during time.....they become lighter

[silversedge]

I used a Dylon years ago to dye a grizzle,and it worked fine,some baistirt half inched the cape though

[wobbly face]

Hope it doesn't cost as much as it costs the wife when she has her done at the hairdressers.
Dylon cold water dye, just soak and rinse afterwards in salt water.

[darwin]

2oz of Jaquard's Acid dye $3.55. Enough to dye all the chickens in the neighborhood. Dylon does make a nice Bordeaux & Purple but have not used it.

[fishaholic]

Hi, Im well accustomed to dying with veniards dye's and have always got the desired result with them. However, a few months back I attempted to use a womens hair dye as I was informed that it worked perfectly.
Long story short, I managed to ruin a perfectly good cream Bronze Grade Hebert Miner rooster half saddle. I bought a colour which was a kind of fiery red on the pack but, the saddle turned a colour which looked more like a dull pink lol. Even if the colour had come out the shade I'd hoped it still would have been useless as the back face of all the feathers stayed cream.........ive actually made some crazyass flies out of this cape

ive also used dylon dyes and in my opinion they're ok for cheap capes and saddles but if you're dying genetics just go for the acid dye every time, they penetrate much better and dont really cost much more than womens hair dye's anyway

[benlikestofish]

Thanks for all the help, I'll stick to the acid dyes as I have a few already. Don't want to risk expensive genetics just thought it might have been an easy way of getting a lovely auburn brown.

Cheers
Ben

[benlikestofish]

Currently overdying a horrid magenta'ry' claret cape with fiery brown and it's starting to look close to what I'm after.....back to the lab!

[mancfly]

Originally Posted by benlikestofish

Currently overdying a horrid magenta'ry' claret cape with fiery brown and it's starting to look close to what I'm after.....back to the lab!

That sounds like a good idea! The Veniard "claret" shade is awful, far too magenta'ry'. It needs warming up with something more towards the orangey side!

[mancfly]

Hair dyes are not exclusive to women BTW!

The blonde tint dyes are great for extracting colour from natural materials, e.g. hair, fur and herl. I have not tried it on hackles, but it should work ok going from my tests with other hair dyes, (girlfriend's red shades!). The colour extracted materials, often misleadingly labelled as "bleached" by some sources, can then be dyed with your chosen colour dye.

Real bleach is great for stripping the fibre off peacock herl, so don't try it on anything you want to keep intact!