Things you can do while waiting for your at home hair color to cure: Making rats.

Happy Easter! To those of you that celebrate it that is. I was raised baptist, but have fallen off the church pew in the more recent years of my life.
I wanted to put together a quick project to share with you, my.. three... readers. Maybe more? Maybe some just dont comment? LOVE ME! *ahem*
So! moving on.
The following information is courtesy of Pin Curl Mag http://pincurlmag.com/hair-rats

What is a hair rat? They are extra padding that were used back in the day to add volume and make those classic hairstyles easier to achieve.

Historically, hair rats were made from the hair of the wearier. Women would simply gather the stray hairs caught in their brushes, when they had a pretty significant amount, they roll them with their hands until a tight sausage shape was achieved and viola- a hair rat! These were then used to roll their natural hair over (like rollers) and secured with hairpins to achieve everything from liberty rolls to Betty Page bangs, and because it was made from their own hair- the color and texture matched perfectly, making the rat extremely hard to spot.

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Probably one of the worst things I ever spent money on was those bump-its. I could never get them to look right, and they always had a bumpy effect, not in a good way. Is it any surprise how quickly they ended up at the dollar store/savers/goodwill?

Now, back to rats. Being incredibly germaphobic, the idea of saving my hair gave me the creeps. There is no way in hell I could save enough hair to make a rat without having a nervous breakdown, so I achieved the same end result with a synthetic costume wig. I got mine for a dollar after halloween.

You will need:

A wig, or a bunch of your old hair. I vote wig.

A teasing comb

Needle and thread in complimentary color

Hairnets that match the color of hair youre using. Note the wig I'm using is blonde. I'm slowly transitioning back to blonde from brunette. Goody sells nets in a package of three for around $1.50 to $2.00

Take a section of hair about the size of rat youd like to make and just start back combing and teasing the hell out of it. The more knotted and puffed the better. It gives you more shaping flexibility.

Next you want to tuck it in to the hair net and get a basic shape going on. This is a larger one that will be used to give some oomph to beehives and 60's styles

a few quick whip stitches with the needle and thread to keep everything in check, and youre good to go.

Here is a smaller one for betty bangs and victory rolls. Its twin is in progress. (See? Buy the goody nets in threes!)

This project literally took me less than the 30 mins I had to wait for my hair dye. 

Care is simple, just like a natural hair rat, a swish and splash in some warm water and shampoo, a quick blot (dont squeeze too hard!) and air dry. The synthetic hair I believe is less likely to get germy and oily.