Zith fur dying?

[Aveira]

This is my first character, so I'm a little unsure of how much leeway the racial guide provides me with. I have an idea for a zith girl that was adopted by humans and hates the side of her that's different from them. I want her to regularly dye her fur an off-white color. She'd want to look as human as possible and that means she'd hate her black fur. I also considered her shaving, but I realized that would take too long for her to do regularly and would end up making her look even freakier than normal.

So my question is, can she dye her fur? It would be a white or cream color with gray roots where her fur is growing in.

[Tallis]

Hey there, and welcome!

First off, I understand that it's an easy mistake to make, but "dying" and "dyeing" are two VERY different words.

And I'm not an expert on hair dyeing or anything, but from what I've heard, you can't simply dye dark hair a lighter colour. Aveira would have to bleach first. Dye may be attainable, but I'm not sure if bleach is attainable. If it is, I've heard that bleaching hurts. Perhaps it's tolerable on the scalp, but a full body bleaching? All for the purpose of fitting in? I know I wouldn't.

And I haven't really done any research into ancient hair-dyeing methods, but I do know that modern ones require the application of ammonia. This weakens the bonds in the chemical structure of hair, allowing dyes to be applied. And the only way you're getting ammonia in Mizahar is by fermenting urine. You really don't want to be saving up pee, waiting for it to ferment, and washing in it.

I'm not sure if you have to apply ammonia before you bleach though. I know you really shouldn't apply them together, but I'm thinking of chemical chlorine-based bleach. I'm not quite sure what they use on hair. Either way, it's going to be a caustic substance and it's likely to burn. Especially with the amounts of bleach required to turn black hair to anywhere near white.

Maybe she can sun-bleach? If you've ever seen construction paper left on a sunny window-sill, you'll notice that the colour changes and becomes lighter. This is bleaching. UV radiation breaks apart colour producing bonds.

Anyways, good luck with whatever choice you make, but in my opinion, dyeing really isn't the most viable option.

[Aveira]

Hmm, I never thought about that. You know, she's the type that would go through an amazing amount of pain to fit in. She's...a little messed up. Believe it or not, that actually makes me want her to dye it MORE XD

Sorry for the typo. It was late and I was excited

[Musca]

Hm.. this is pretty interesting. From what I understand from the lore though, I don't think you would need to dye her fur white. "Their bodies are both covered by a very fine layer of silky fur ranging in color from a dull gray to a midnight black." The layer of their furs are already "very fine", so I think it would be safe to presume that the lighter shades of Zith fur (ie. those in the grey scale) would be rather subtle. Since Aveira's fur is grey, it would be fine leaving it as it is, I think. Unless another PC has some scores in observation, it would take them a lot of squinting to figure out that she's not all human (maybe). A cloak or some other drapey clothing would do the trick to hide them furs. A quick note though... wouldn't dyeing her fur white look rather unnatural? If the point is to look as inconspicuous as possible, dyeing it white is a bit... PS. Welcome to Mizahar!

[Massacre]

I don't really know much about hair dye, but just going off of what Musca said, that would also depend on the color of your skin underneath the fur. I don't know if Zith are light or dark skinned, so that would also affect the noticeabiliy of the fur. As for dyeing itself, if its even possible, I imagine it would be rather expensive to get all that dye. Luxury items like that cost a lot in a world like Mizahar. Now.. hiding the wings might be another problem altogether, heh. What does she do about that?

[Eridanus]

Morphing. Problem solved.