Do You Have Protection?

Gloves? Meh... I often forget until it's too late and I am walking around for 3 days looking like I did something unforgiveable to a smurf. Eventually the color washes off with the help of a couple of hot showers/shampoos. Washing my hair always seems to do the trick. Why that works so well, I don't know. The abrasiveness of the hair maybe? Really, I should be wearing gloves and avoiding the situation altogether. Having to wash my hands umpteen times really dries them out, cracks them, and causes some mild skin pain and tightness, but washing is a must because soda ash is awful for your skin! Heck, it is caustic to aluminum and will eat a hole right through it!

You know what I never forget, though? Lung protection! You guys- the dye that is used for tie dyeing comes in an extremely fine powder, kind of flour consistency, and try as you might to not "poof" the powder into a giant mess, there are still teeny tiny dye particles floating all around you as you work. Don't believe me? Try blowing your nose after an unprotected dye session. Do you want rainbow boogers? Because that's how you get rainbow boogers! And if it's that colorful up in your nose, you have to assume that some of that powder has also made it into your lungs. As someone with chronic persistent moderate asthma, this is just a risk I cannot take! And please, if you are tie dyeing with young children, please protect their little lungs too! When you buy a tulip kit at the store, once you add water to it- those dye particles are no longer flying around. Make sure an adult handles that part of the process before handing the dye off to the kiddos. I've seen some people use Tulip kits to ice dye with their children and grandkids. If this is the method you are using, please mask up! As you sprinkle that dye powder onto the ice, trust me, those particles are escaping into the air around you. You'll want to use at least an N95 or fine-particulate respirator. It is also a good idea to wear some eye protection and I'll tell you why. So I use a magnetic mixer on occasion to mix my liquid dyes. A magnetic mixer comes with little magnetic "pills" that you place in the water/dye mixture to mix it up. Once the dye is mixed, you pull that little pill out of the mixture. Oftentimes when I go to wash that little pill off, there are tiny little chunks stuck to it. Metal?? Yeah, I don't want that floating into my eyeball! Honestly I don't want the little dye particles flying in there either. One little speck of dye can cause a whole lot of color! LOL!

Be sure to clean up thoroughly after each dye session also. Those little particles can land on surfaces and then when you go to disturb said surface, the particles are floating in the air again. Just be safe my friends. You only get one set of lungs and two eyeballs in this lifetime. Take care of them. And wear gloves! I have gotten better about this, but I still forget from time to time!