August 14 2026 – 5LAX
Dyeing a head is the cheapest way to make your stick yours. Dye is cheap and most of the rest is already in your kitchen. Team colors for the season, a fade because it looks good, a two-tone nobody else on the roster has — all of it comes out of a pot on the stove.
The catch: plastic doesn't forgive. Water too hot, prep skipped, wrong head — each one wrecks the job in its own way, and none of them can be undone after the fact. Here's the full process, including the steps most guides skip.
What you need
- An unstrung head. White takes color best. So does clear.
- RIT dye or similar. One bottle per color.
- A pot deep enough to fully submerge the head. Not one you cook with — dye stains.
- Acetone or a strong degreaser, plus a clean rag.
- Rubber gloves. Dye colors skin faster than it colors plastic.
- Tongs, or a wire hanger bent into a hook.
- Painter's tape or wax if you want a pattern.
- A ventilated space. Acetone fumes and dye steam are not things to hotbox in a dorm kitchen.
Prep: the step everyone skips
Heads come out of the mold with release agents on the plastic. Add the oil from every hand that's touched it since. Dye won't sit evenly on any of that. You get blotches, pale patches, a finish that looks like a rushed spray-paint job.
So degrease first. Wipe the entire head down with acetone on a rag — every edge, every sidewall hole, the whole scoop and throat. Let it air out for a few minutes. Then stop touching it with bare hands. Gloves from here on, because one thumbprint is enough to leave a light spot.
The dip
Heat the water until it's steaming hard but not boiling. Just below a boil is the target — hot enough to open the plastic up to the dye, not hot enough to deform it. Stir the dye in. More dye in the pot means deeper color, faster.
Before you commit the whole head, test the throat. Dip just the bottom inch for thirty seconds and look at the shade. The throat gets covered by tape when you assemble the stick anyway, so a test spot there costs you nothing.
Then dip the head. Time in the bath controls depth of color. Thirty seconds gets you a tint. A few minutes gets you full saturation. Pull it out, rinse it in cold water, check it in decent light. Not dark enough? Back in. You can always add color. You can't take it back out.
Patterns
Anywhere the dye can't touch stays the original color. That's the entire trick, and it gives you three easy options.
- Tape resist. Lay painter's tape where you want the plastic to stay put, and press the edges down hard. Hot water lifts lazy tape, and dye bleeds under it.
- Fades. Dip part of the head, then lower it a little further every minute or so. The section that soaked longest comes out darkest and it grades out from there.
- Two-tone. Dye one end, rinse, flip, dye the other end in a second pot. Let the middle overlap a touch and you get a blend line instead of a hard seam.
Fades work differently on a clear head. The RC1 N2O ($54.99) is translucent clear, so a fade runs from color down to clear plastic instead of down to white.
Mistakes that ruin heads
- Boiling it. Boiling water softens the plastic and warps the head. A face shape you didn't choose is permanent. Keep the water below a boil, and never rest the head on the bottom of a hot pot.
- Skipping the degrease. Covered above, worth repeating: this is the difference between an even coat and a blotchy one, and you can't fix blotches by dipping longer.
- Dyeing it strung. Strings and mesh drink dye, and they shield the plastic underneath, so you get pale shadows where every knot sat. Dye the head bare. RC1 heads ship unstrung, which is the state you want it in anyway.
- Walking away. Dye keeps working the whole time the head is in the pot. Set a timer, check every minute, and pull it early rather than late.
Which head to practice on
Not your gamer. First dye jobs go wrong in small, annoying ways — a tape edge lifts, a fade sits crooked, the shade lands darker than the bottle promised. That's normal. It's also why you don't learn on a $100+ head.
This is most of the argument for the RC1. It's $34.99 and it's white — a cheap canvas that takes color well. If the first attempt comes out ugly, you're out an afternoon, not a head you were counting on. If it comes out clean, you've got a custom head that cost you $34.99.
After the dye
Rinse in cold water until it runs clear. Let the head dry completely before anything touches it. That's it — the color is in the plastic, not on it, so there's nothing to seal.
And dyeing your head doesn't void our warranty.
Dyed it? Now string it: here's the full visual stringing guide.