by JuicyPuffin

Created on: March 29, 2009   Last Updated: May 27, 2009

Hair dye and wig dye are two very different things, and are not interchangeable. The reason why regular hair dye will not work on wigs is because hair dye is designed to work with the oils and substance of human hair. Wigs, on the other hand, are usually made of plastic. Plastic will not absorb hair dye the way human hair will. Instead, the hair dye drips or rolls off the wig because there is nothing to make it stick.

When dyeing wigs, a combination of alcohol and permanent ink is used. When the alcohol and ink are mixed together and put on the wig, the wig is coated in the mixture. Because alcohol evaporates in the air, the only thing left on the wig after it has dried is the ink itself. The fact that the wig is coated with color, instead of it absorbing the color like human hair would with hair dye, is also the reason why wigs cannot be dyed a lighter color than they already are.

When wigs are made, the color is added to the plastic as the hair strands are formed. If this was not true then new wigs would be clear plastic and you would not be able to style new wigs with hairspray because the color from the dyeing process would run. Because you cannot cover ink from a black marker with ink from a white marker and expect the white to show up on top of the black, the same is true for trying to lighten the color of a wig with lighter ink. If you do dye the wig a lighter color, the most that will show up will be a slight tint.

The reason why styling methods that use alcohol-based contents, like hairspray, might rub color off a dyed wig is because alcohol is what was used to put the dyed color on the wig in the first place. Alcohol with a higher concentration or too much alcohol will rub the dyed color off because the alcohol mixes with the ink that is coating the wig, wetting it, which lets the ink and alcohol turn into a liquid that runs the color off the wig in a similar method to how it was put on the wig in the first place.

After the dyeing and washing process, the dyed wig will not leave marks or rub colour onto anything because of the fact that you used permanent ink. If it were water-soluble ink, the ink would come off as soon as the wig got wet, because water-soluble ink is designed to do that. In addition, wearing a wig that has been dyed with ink will be no more harmful to you than touching a paper that has dried ink on it, because the only thing left on the wig will be the dried ink. After the wig has dried it will not smell like either ink or alcohol, so there will be no fumes that would be hazardous to your health.

Learn more about this author, JuicyPuffin.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.