Experiments With Hair Color

I saw a mention on The Guild of Master Bearcrafters not so long ago about using hair color to dye mohair.  It has been on my mind ever since.  Shades of browns and blacks are very limited when purchasing mohair, and since that is what I mostly use I thought that just might be the way to go.

So today I dyed my hair, and while I was at it I experimented.  I am using Loreal Preference natural medium brown. When choosing hair color natural has a violet base, cool a blue base, warm a red base, ash a green base, and golden a yellow base.  I know this because I was a hairdresser for many years and worked a lot with hair color. 

I just purchased a yard of cream alpaca.  (I always find alpaca challenging to color) With gloved hands I put the color on dry fabric and mashed it up good.  When I do this for a bear I will have all the pieces cut first.

And while I was at it I tried some natural unfinished string mohair.  I only applied it to the back.  I want to find an easy way to have the back on color and the mohair another. I used a paint brush to brush it on.

 

This is while processing.  I flipped it over on its back to process.

I left them both process for about 35 minutes.

There was not much to wash out.  The fur and the fabric really sucked up the color.  I shampooed and then conditioned.  This is still not as dark as I would think it should have been, (alpaca is tough) so next time I will go with a dark brown.  But it is beautiful.  The fur is so soft and the color would be perfect for a grizzly bear cub. 

Here is the string.  You can see a couple of colored strands of fur where I was not careful, but I am defiantly loving this.  It would be the perfect thing to now use some KoolAid or some other kind of acid dye that won’t color the back.

I guess I am going to start looking for hair color sales at the store.  It will not be the cheapest way to go.  But I think the beautiful results, and the lack of the giant dye pot mess may be well worth the money.