I recently had a long conversation with a haridresser that installs feather extensions in her customers hair.

I learned quite a bit from her.

She dyes her feathers one at a time, with hair dye, using brush on a paper towel. She told me it takes her just few strokes to dye each feather and they dry in minutes. This lets her custom dye the feathers to the colors her customers want. She finishes them off with a 'clear sealer' that's also avaialble for hair at any beauty supply shop. She told me that feathers thus treated can be washed with the hair indefinitely without losing their color. She's had many customers that get her to reuse the feathers several times (they only lose about 1/8 inch when clipped from the extension crimp). She's seen no fading after over a year of use.

The 'extension tool' is a heating device that gently heats and crimps a plastic crimp tube. A strand of hair is pulled through the crimp tube, the feathers are inserted, and the tool crimps them to the hair and holds them in place. Once 'crimped' you can't pull them out without breaking the feathers. The reason they do this is so that the feathers can 'grow' with the hair. An extension tool costs about $20 at Sally Beauty, and the crimp tubes are cheap and come in several shades.

Maybe some of you can see the possibilities here for us as fly tyers, both in the dyes they are using and in uses for this tool.

I'm waiting for the tools to be 'restocked' at my local Sally Beauty. Seems they are popular, but they should have another couple of hundred in the next few days.

And, yes, I did share with her how to buy the feathers in bulk 'on the skin', which will save her lots of money and made me a new friend. I even gave her a pheasant skin to play with and a grizzly saddle I had laying around gathering dust...she brought me back fifty feathers from it dyed in bright, beautiful, reds, blues, greens, and yellows, and a couple of bottles of dye and one of finish.

I'm really happy that the hair dressers are getting into using feathers. I can happily learn from anyone, and we can always use some new blood with new innovations and concepts.

For those that are upset, oh well...

Good Luck!

Buddy