Dying Hair Extensions

As some of you may know, I have pretty short hair.  It used to be almost a pixie cut, but has grown out just about to my shoulders in the last year.  I have always been changing my hair (cutting and growing it out again, as well as colors) and though I loved my short hair for about a year and a half, it's time to be able to throw it into a bun again if it's bothering me.

(If you want some creative ideas for ways I put my short hair up/back let me know!)

 This is the length of my hair now:

I apologize for the way my face looks. Oh boy.

Around my birthday, I purchased some extensions from eBay, which were a super light blonde (way lighter than my hair) and about 24 inches long.  I trimmed them considerably shorter, although the back pieces need to be layered more to be believable, but I HAD to dye them.  Seriously, before I cut them, I called them my Legolas hair.

Things you will need:
-Hair dye (as close as possible to your actual hair color

-Hair extensions (make sure they're real hair, synthetic hair will not dye and you may or may not completely ruin them trying)

-Tin foil

-Glass bowl

-Hair dying brush, or any old paint brush you don't care about anymore.  Make sure it's about an inch wide to save yourself time and frustration.

-Comb

-Makeshift drying area (I used a piece of twine tied between a cabinet and a chair with towels under it.)

The Process

Step 1: Lay out everything you need. Place sheets of tin foil over the table/floor that are about an inch longer than each weft of hair.  You can fit one large piece or two smaller pieces per sheet of tin foil.

Step 2:  Comb out each weft of hair carefully!  Don't pull at snags, you'll just rip the hairs out, and those don't grow back.  After combing out, place lengthwise on sheets of tin foil.

Step 3:  Mix hair color according to directions (I added a little but of the conditioner it came with into the mix) in a glass bowl.

Step 4: Using the paint brush, completely saturate each weft with the hair color.  Seriously, it's painting, and you don't have to be any good at it, I promise.  After each weft is covered, flip it over and cover the back side. THIS IS IMPORTANT.  If you don't cover the back side as well, you're going to get nasty patchy pieces and that's not cute.  Also make sure you get the parts right at the base of the clips.

Step 5:  Once both sides of the hair pieces are covered, fold the tin foil over the hair.  I folded the long sides in the meet in the middle, then folded the top and bottom over and folded the whole thing in half (so the folded-short ends were touching) and let them sit for 25 minutes to an hour.  Depending on the dye you use, it may need a little bit longer to fully absorb the color (semi-permanent dyes can be left for a couple hours if you want) but for permanent colors (box dyes) you may only want to let it sit for half an hour because they're a bit more drying.  Use your best judgement and check the progress of the color often.

Step 6:  After the hair is done absorbing the color, rinse them out with cold water.  The colder the water the better because it smooths the hair shaft, locking in the color.  No shampoo is necessary, but if you feel like you need to condition them as well, rinse thoroughly and then apply conditioner and rinse again.

Step 7:  Set up your make-shift drying area and clip hair wefts to the line.  Air dry, then spray with a leave-in conditioner or heat protection spray before combing the wefts out again.

I know this seems like a lot of work, but honestly it's mostly waiting time between painting and rinsing, then drying and using the extensions.  Over all, from start to finish, it took me about 3 hours (1 hour of prep and painting, 1 hour of waiting, and one hour of rinsing and drying time).