Fear of Dyeing

Posted July 19th, 2013

Our duvet cover had reached the end of its useful life. It was brown and we were tired of it. Our bedroom was in for a makeover but our budget was tight. So instead of buying an expensive new duvet or comforter set, we decided to try dyeing. We’d dye it a grayish black to match the new black, white and gray color palette we had in mind for the room. But we never dyed before and we were skittish, so we hit the rit.com site to learn as much as we could about dyeing from the leading manufacturer of powdered and liquid dyes. Rit dyes are available at supermarkets and discount stores. Buying them proved to be the easiest part of the process. Using them is another story. In fact, we were so scared of dyeing we decided not to and returned the bottles to the store. Rit offers lots of tips throughout its site but we were never comfortable that we would have success. We feared we’d add the wrong amount of dye for the weight of bedding we had. We feared we wouldn’t add the right amount of water to our washing machine, causing the color to end up either too black or too weak. We feared that the washing machine itself would be irrevocably dyed a black color that would continue to seep into future washes of our clothing. We were scared we’d forget to add the salt or the vinegar or some other additive they suggested on that other web page that wasn’t mentioned on the web page with most of the critical instructions. Every step of the learning curve was fraught with issues that ultimately led us to decide not to dye. As a brand strategist and creative director at Alianda, I’m certain I’m not the only one with this fear of dyeing. My guess is that the Rit Corporation could reap huge increases in revenue by addressing these fears. I’d love to work on this brand. What fun it would be. I think most people get the benefits of dyeing. It’s just that many of us have an irrational fear of it.

Tags: , Fear of dyeing, Rit corporation, Rit dye