Fiber Friday Oi! Plus: Bonus Beauty Tips from the Queen of Weirdness

Just in case you didn’t already think I was a freak, this Fiber Friday post is sure to convince you.

For anyone who runs in the same internet crowds I do, like wool soaker groups, yarn buying co-ops, craft swaps, and 80’s throw back hippie punks (wait a minute – I haven’t started that Facebook group yet), you probably know about lanolizing and yarn dyeing with acid dyes.

Lanolizing is putting the lanolin back into woolens, making them even better diaper covers.  The lanolin neutralizes urine, and so eliminates odor.  You do this by soaking them in a kind of melted lanolin mixed with a tiny bit of soap, and you swish the wool around in it, then let them dry.  I love this process, because the lanolin wash makes my hands very soft.

Well, I figured, if it’s good for my hands, why not for my whole body?  Why not lanolize myself? So I did.

I did the usual melting of the lanolin in hot water, swished it around with a squirt of Burt’s Bees baby wash, and poured it into my bath.  Heaven!  A nice warm soak, and when I got out my skin no longer had that papery, dead-of-winter look.  In fact, next time, I made it even easier by scooping up a glop of lanolin, squirting some soap in my hand, and just rubbing it on my legs and arms (still in the bath, of course).  It works great!  If you don’t mind the sort of sticky-ish ness of the lanolin, this is a fabulous solution for extremely dry skin like mine.  And by extremely, I mean David-Bowie-at-the-end-of-the-movie-The-Hunger-dry.

The second brainstorm I had recently has to do with acid dyes.  These are the powdered dyes one uses to dye animal fibers – wool, silk, alpaca.  You mix them with vinegar and water, heat the fiber and dye mix, then allow to cool.  Simple and fun!

See, I was waiting for my daughter to be ready to go to work, which she said she had to leave for by 3:30 and it’s now 4:00 and where-in-the-hell-is-she?  So I entertained myself by daydreaming of crafting stuff.  I don’t remember the exact train of thought that got me here, but I ended up at animal fibers=hair=my hair.  Why not try to dye my own hair with these amazing colored acid dyes?

So again – I did.  Just now.

I’m posting pics, however, I think my hair is just too dark for it to work well.  I picked blue, because I’ve always wanted to try blue hair.  Not like old lady blue, but turquoise or cobalt blue.  I’m kind of sad it didn’t work.  Next time, I’ll probably bleach it first.  Hmmm…I wonder if Clorox would do the trick…

Before, with regular colored hair.

After, with kinda sorta bluish hair.

Tags: acid dyes, anticraft, dry skin, dyeing hair, lanolinizing, lanolizing, punk craft, yarn dyeing