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[lilylighting]

I have a question about dying a wig. I heard of a way you dye it with sharpies but I'm not sure how that works. Can anyone give me more information about it?

[ButterflyPanic]

It works like a charm, here's how you do it! (My Michiru / Sailor Neptune wig in my gallery was dyed with Sharpies)

What you need:
1. 32oz bottle of %70 rubbing alchol
2. 5+ sharpies (the more sharpies, the darker the color)
3. A Spray Bottle
4. An Old Soda Bottle or Container to mix the dye

Sharpie Preparation:
1. Break the sharpie to get the ink filler.
2. Cut the ink filler down the side with an exacto knife (reccommended, I've tried scrissors and you can sometimes lose a lot of dye)

Instructions:
1. Pour half the alchohol in the soda bottle and keep the rest of it in the original alchohol bottle.
2. Place the split ink fillers into the alchohol bottle, secure the cap, and shake a lot!
3. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, shake again, and then let it sit again.
4. Pour the dye into a storage container and then put the still clear alchohol into the bottle you used to mix the dye. If any ink fillers fall
out while you are emptying the dye, pick them up and put them into
the still clear alchohol.
5. Repeat the whole setting and shaking process.
6. Put the dye into a common container and shake it up to mix everything.

Applying to wig:
1. Make sure the wig is clean and ready to be dyed.
2. Make sure you are able to dye the wig you bought, some won't. If you
do not know I reccommend asking the person who sold it to you.
3. Use a fine tooth comb and a spray bottle.
4. Spray the dye and comb it through the wig.

Once you have the dye in the wig, let it settle and then rinse it until all of
the excess color runs out of it. If you wish you can repeat the process.
Do not forget to do a test patch before dying the entire wig. To get the dye
out of the wig you can use %91 alchohol. However, only use %70 alchohol
for the dye because anything more powerful may just dissolve the color. PM me if you have any questions.

[Jaina Solo]

I just dyed a wig yesterday with sharpies! I think there are two ways you can do it:

1) Take a sharpie, grab some hair, and start coloring. This is a very long and tedious process and takes a lot of sharpies depending on how long the wig is, but the results look very nice. Once you are done sharpieing the whole wig, rinse it in cold water until the water is clear, then let the wig dry completely. If you see any spots that you missed, go back and sharpie it and then rinse the wig again.

2) Harvest the sharpie ink well and mix it with alcohol so you can dunk or spray the wig with it. This can be a messy process, and the alcohol can cause the ink to streak if you're not careful, but it's much faster than having to hand-color an entire wig, especially if it's a long one. This is the process I used, and what I did was I cracked open a sharpie, took out the ink well and placed it into a jar of alcohol. At first, I just shook the bottle of alchohol every once in a while to get the ink out of the well and into the alchohol, but I noticed that this was taking a long time and wasn't getting all the ink out, so instead I grabbed the ink well and squeezed out as much ink as I could into the alcohol. It was messy but it worked great. Since I was dying a long wig very dark, I used an entire liter of 70% alcohol mixed with 10 sharpies. I then dunked the wig into the mixture (by this time I was using a bowl), and I let the wig dry. However, when letting the wig dry, do NOT hang it on a wig head or by its scalp--the alcohol dripping off with strip the ink off, leaving a very irregular dye job. Lay the wig on a drop cloth on the ground somewhere flat, so that the alcohol can't drip off the wig and take ink with it!

I hope that helps! Good luck!

[R1KKu]

Originally Posted by ButterflyPanic

To get the dye
out of the wig you can use %91 alchohol. However, only use %70 alchohol
for the dye because anything more powerful may just dissolve the color. PM me if you have any questions.

[/color]

I remember a while back someone mentioned using 91% with the markers to color a wig. Just recently I started with this method and Im getting some color into the wigs with the 91%. Do you know for sure if the different alcohols have a different effect on the color?

[ButterflyPanic]

Yes, %91 percent is usually too high to use with sharpie dye. It takes away a lot of the color because it is too strong. I have had very good luck with %71 though. So yea, the different types do have an effect on the sharpie dye. I usually use %91 to get sharpie dye out.

[starcat]

What about the starting color of a wig? Will, for example, a light/platinum blonde wig dye like a white wig? I need a light purple wig, but I have a Tina 950 wig I'm not using. It's really light blonde (but I can't remember the actual color shade ><), so could I just dye it? Or would it be better to spring for another wig?

Also, does using any sort of styling product affect the dye?

[Killer_Tofu]

This thread is really helpfull, it should be sticky (mods: hint hint)

[Seventh_Sin]

You can do a color test with a wig by cutting off a little bit of hair, wrapping the top in tape, and then coloring it with the sharpie. I don't think a light blonde wig will dye to light purple very well, but it depends on how light the wig is now and exactly what color you want it.

[Chas]

For the brightest, most vibrant results - coloring the wig directly by hand is best. It takes a while, but it enables you to be up close and it will be easier to catch mistakes. For a shoulder length wig I reccomend up to twelve markers. When you're finished you can rinse the wig in cold water to get rid of any possible residue.

A platinum blonde wig dyes just as well as a white wig.

The problem with alcohol-based homemade dye is that it always rubs off. By coloring the wig directly I've found the color sticks better to the fibers and is less likely to stain fingers and/or costumes.

[Gogglegirl]

A blonde wig will dye to dark blue well won't it? I foudn a really good wig for my friend but it needs to be blue (and the wig doesn't come in dark blue) so I was going to dye it. and i odn't know how well blond dyes

[sweet_magic]

Hi everyone, I have a question. I'm cosplaying as the Yokan version of Toshiya from dir en grey and I wanted to know if I could dye the top of a black wig I have with some sort of blue sharpie. I'm not sure if a blue sharpie will show up on a black wig, or do I need to use a light blue sharpie or a dark blue one? It doesn't have to stand out nessesary but I want to see at least a little blue at the top. Thanks in advance for anyone that can help. ^^

[ilikeyaoi]

sweet_magic_1: No, you cannot make the a wig a lighter color; if you have a black wig, you'll stay with a black wig. For Yokan Totchi I'd recommend starting with the blue wig and then either adding in some black extensions in the back, or coloring that little mullet-part black with some sharpies.

[sweet_magic]

Oh, okay. I'd never occured to me to just do that instead. Silly me. XD

Thanks for the help by the way. ^^

[yamibakura03]

Originally Posted by Gogglegirl

A blonde wig will dye to dark blue well won't it? I foudn a really good wig for my friend but it needs to be blue (and the wig doesn't come in dark blue) so I was going to dye it. and i odn't know how well blond dyes

why dont you try mixing black and blue sharpies. hmm get like 3 blue sharpies and one black. then test it on a small strand of the wig to see if you got the right color.

what i do is mix abit black on the blue and i continue until i get the right color for the wig. ^^ different results on color.

[TheFontBandit]

Thanks everyone! This thread was amazingly helpful... I'd heard about people using Sharpies to dye wigs before but had no clue how it was done. and I agree with Killer Tofu, it should definitely be a sticky thread. This gives me all sorts of ideas now... There are a lot of costumes I wanted to do but just couldn't find the right shade of wig. Thanks again!