By Dawn Omboy
Cold weather blues can sure get you down, but not if you live with a Bichon clown to make you laugh and bring you a smile. Harry has decided to become the rare Blue Parti Bichon for this particular demo.
I learned many years ago that a solid blue Bichon definitely does not look good. So to go blue – but not so blue that it is overpowering – we are going to use two alternating shades of blue and just swirl the colors into this cute little Bichon head, and I’m going to tell you an easy way to accomplish this yourself.
As with most color work, you’ll want to make sure you start with a clean dog. For this job, I am going to need two shades of blue pet-safe dyes, cholesterol, three tint brushes and paper towels.
Fig 1) I used a clean tint brush and applied a thick layer of cholesterol along one edge of the paper towel. You can also use foil for this if you like. I just use the paper towel because it doesn’t make as much noise as the foil going on the dog’s head.
Fig 2) Next I parted the hair where I was going to start the hair color and then placed the paper towel along that line so the cholesterol would hold it in place.
Fig 3) Then using a clean tint brush, I lined the edge of the hair from the root out. When I finished this, I used the pointed end of the brush to make a line down to part the hair and then folded it over onto the paper towel.
Fig 4) Next I colored the back section of the hair. I used the same procedure on the entire head of the dog, alternating colors as I parted and painted the sections of the hair so I would have kind of a swirly effect and not a solid color.
Fig 5) Because they are blues and they are complementary of each other, I wasn’t worried about the colors mixing as I applied the dye or waited for them to set. So as I applied the dye I saturated both sides, just laying it over on top of the layer before it.
If I were worried about the colors mixing or did not think they should touch each other, I could simply lay a piece of tin foil or paper towel between them to keep the colors from touching each other.
Fig 6) Carefully, I applied the color to the rest of the face, being careful around the eye area. I usually keep the dye about 3mm away from the eyes. Once the hair is dry the white eye ring is hardly noticeable.
Fig 7) Next, to give him a little balance, I added a touch of blue dye to his feet. I then covered them with the glove on my hand and used the fingers of the glove to tie around the leg to keep his feet from getting color transfer while waiting for the dye to set. It also will protect you from getting dye on your clothes when you carry the dog to the tub for rinsing.
After a period of about twenty minutes from the last of the dye application, thoroughly rinse the hair. I always shampoo after the rinse on a client’s dog to make sure there will not be any color bleeding when the dog is at home.
The end result is a cute Blueberry Parti Bichon! 
Making the World more Colorful, one dog at a time… Queen of Color. Go to www.queenofcolor.com or visit me on Facebook.