By Dawn Omboy
I love the look of soft cotton candy. I also love temporary hair colors as much as permanent ones; each has a place in my salon. I would like to share with you a trick I use on my own dogs when I want a bit of the sweet stuff without the calories. The ingredients for this delicious nonfattening recipe are as follows: one clean and fluff dried poodle, two different colors of pet hair color, my trusty airbrush machine, water, a great brush, a stand dryer, and finally, Cotton Candy Cologne.
Begin by assembling your ingredients so they will all be easily accessible as you are working. Use only about 1/4 of the hair color and fill the rest of the bottle with water. Replace the product cap back on the bottle and hold your finger over the end as you shake the bottle to thoroughly mix product and water together. Adding water to this product will give it a more temporary effect and the color will be much more subtle, like cotton candy.
Next, using the handy pour cap on the bottle, fill the cup on the airbrush gun and begin by spraying a light layer of the color mixture into the hair. I usually start at the bottom, holding up the top layers so that I get a more even saturation of the color. The more you apply, the wetter it will be, so start light; you can always add more later.
I was going for a mixture of pink and blue so I separated the topknot. Just keep refilling the cup on your airbrush gun as often as needed and continue until the first color section is complete (Fig. 1).
When I am switching colors like these I will usually just add a tiny bit of my next color to the empty cup and spray it through until the blended color becomes the next complimentary color I am going to be using on my dog; in this case it is pink.
Using the same method, I added the pink color to the front of her topknot that was pulled up (Fig. 2). With this all done, I then used the stand dryer on a low setting to re-dry the hair that may be slightly damp. I can at this time also see if I missed spots and can airbrush the color in those areas as I am fluff drying the coat (Fig. 3).
In the end, I have a beautiful cotton candy look that I can then top off with my favorite Cotton Candy cologne. All the soft sweet smelling fluff with none of the calories! And when I want the color out, I only have to take her to the tub and bathe with my favorite shampoo and all of this sweet pastel color will wash right out. The added water breaks down the dye and causes it to act more as a temporary product so it will wash right out. If I wanted it to last, I would need to use a dilution cream, which is a product made for that. But cotton candy isn’t supposed to last! So Enjoy.
