I am glad to say that I am back to blogging! Been kind of crazy. I got a new PC and I had to figure out how to use it (Windows 8 is kind of difficult at first!) and then after being sick for 4 days, i'm back! *finally!*
I know last time I posted I said I would have some new dollies to show you all. I'm going to postpone that till the next post. I'm going to share with you a project that I tried today.
Dying Barbie's hair.
Barbielea over at Barbie Beauties was talking about making a dolls hair brown. However a reroot would be problematic with the particular doll. She thought about dying the hair instead and I thought it would be fun to try with real hair color. So before you run out and buy a box of color, read this.
I started with a cheap box of hair color. Since it was an experiment this particular color cost a whole $2.95. It did not contain ammonia so that also factored in.
Deep Rich Brown. Perfect!
I picked a doll I really didn't care much for. The one arm bent/one arm straight new body type. She will be our subject.
To protect her face. I am SO sorry Barbie but it's for your own good! I also gave her hair a good brushing before the project started.
Then I had to BEG the hubby to take pictures for me. He wasn't happy about photographing this project but I gave him "the look". HA!
The dye begins.
Brown color showing up. The liquid coming out of the bottle isn't brown but it doesn't take long for the color to show through.
What a beautiful color!
Can't wait to see what it looks like finished. If it looks like this, I'm going to be happy.
I started at the top roots and then added more product here and there to turn every strand brown. It was a little difficult to get all the roots but it's not like I had a shortage of hair color. :) I went sparingly though and the entire dye process took about 30 minutes.
I let Barbie sit in the sink only 10-12 minutes. The box said to leave color on 25 minutes. I felt with synthetic it didn't really matter but didn't want to leave it on too long. So total with the color process, dye was left on about 40 minutes.
Next it said to add a little warm water to mix in the color.
Then rinse till the water runs clear.
And how did that work out? Beautiful rich brown color?
NOT. A. THING.
Color washed right out. Not even a little streak of brown color. Boo! However I did not have any trouble with the hair dye staining the vinyl of the doll. Everything washed right off with ease. Barbie does have some nice soft hair from the conditioner from the box!
So human hair dye does not work on synthetic. I'm not sure if letting it sit for hours would help but the house was starting to smell so I figured just throwing the bottle out would be a good idea.
Barbielea read that RIT dye or even acrylic paint works with doll hair. I do have tan acrylic paint but not sure how that would work! Wouldn't it make the hair hard when it dries?
So friends, anyone try the dye experience? Let me know in the comments!
And I promise, the next post will be my newcomers!
Until then!