A question submitted by Connor:

I recently started dying heads and I've found that when I try to put blue over another color, for example, red, in order to get a splatter effect, the blue mixes with the red and I end up with a very dark purplish color. Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated.

Connor,

That’s one of the tougher stick dying dilemmas. Of course we always use lighter colors before we use darker colors as cover, which you’ve done. But often a third color is inadvertently created when using two colors trying to do something cool. I love yellow and blue, but you always end up with some green in that dye and that stinks. Orange always emerges in a yellow and red dye and you got Tequila Sunrise every time! It makes any good red, white and blue head tricky. I have seen many a patriotic red, white and purple head.

A logo dye for Calvert Hall was a previous winner in E-Lacrosse's annual stick dying contest.

For those new to lacrosse or who’ve just seen the game played, the customization of sticks is very popular. Kids will re-shape the plastic heads using heat or other methods. Changing the color of the plastic lacrosse stick "head" has been popular for years with many players. Using RIT dye, the same stuff used to tie dye T-shirts, we mix the hot water and dye in a soup pot on the stove or in a disposable aluminum turkey tray and dip the unstrung white plastic heads in there in all kinds of creative combinations. That’s what we are talking about here – head dying.

A splatter, for our audience’s sake, is a dye involving two colors, where one color, the lighter is applied to the plastic, then partially covered with hot glue, usually, before applying a second darker color. Once you remove the hot glue, you get a splatter effect in the first color and the original white plastic color once you remove the dried glue.

I always say the answer is another dip in HOT dye water. If the dye is just under boiling, each dip should make the blue richer. Working with blues is always tough and purple is the most common mistaken result. It usually means that you need more dips in the hot blue dye. Unfortunately, you will always be cutting the purple in half with each blue dip. It will always be half blue and half the last purple you ended up with after the last dip. Eventually, you’ll pull it from a dip and it will be rich blue. Have fun and always remember that dye is permanent and will ruin anything it touches so always ask your parents for permission and a place to work safely.

RIT dye is available at hardware and most drug and grocery stores. Other dyes are available but do not work as well on plastic.

Much more on stick dying and customization can be found in the Stick Tech section of E-Lacrosse.com. In fact, E-Lacrosse is just starting its 11th Annual Dye-Off Contest where you can show off your new talents.