Synthetic Hair Dye Options

Tyler Kraft

Hello people!

I have a synthetic fiber hair costume that I need to dye a darker black and brown color for a bigfoot costume. What would you use to dye fake hair? I tried using a thinned some acrylic paint, but that didn't work so well. I was hoping for something I can spray on without having to wash the hair afterward.

Thanks in advance, Tyler

Darrell Green

I know BJ Guyer covers this extensively in his puppet course. Let me check for an exact link...

Darrell Green

https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/hand-puppet-detail-and-finishing-techniques-part-1-color-hair-work?watch=1&chapter=7

Darrell Green

Chapter 7 is specifically spray paint. Many dye methods are covered in earlier chapters.

sheltatha_lore

Dyeing textiles and wigs is something of a specialty of mine, so I might be able to help you here! If you're dyeing a heat resistant wig or synthetic fiber, a disperse dye will work.  Works great on polyester and most wig fibers; it's difficult to get deep colors on acrylic, but some of it will still stick.

These dyes require immersion in hot water, so if your material won't hold up to that, unfortunately disperse dyes won't help :-/

All of these are disperse dyes, and are intermixable:

• Rit Dyemore (NOT regular Rit) - can be bought on Amazon etc
  
• iDye Poly - can be bought on Amazon
  
• ProSperse - buy from Pro Chemical and Dye
  
• Miyacozome - this line has the best black disperse dye available. You'll have to either order from Japan, or CosCraft in the UK (shipping is astonishingly fast and cheap from to the US, so don't worry too much about overseas shipping if you're located in the US).
  

In order to get really deep colors, you'll need to add a carrier chemical; this is the part of disperse dyes that is stinky and requires ventilation The carrier chemical is pre-mixed into Rit Dyemore, included as a separate capsule in the iDye Poly packet, and needs to be purchased separately for ProSperse (carrier is also sold on their site). I haven't used Miyacozome so I'm not entirely certain about that one.