Hello!
I'm having great trouble with dyeing a fake beard for a hippie puppet. Since this character is not old (he's somewhere between 30-35) I want his beard to be brown like his hair (bought a wig which matches perfect with the puppet), but the thing is that I've searched on all kind of sites (including Buttericks which is a chain of practical jokes and masquerade costumes here in Sweden, I got some props and wigs from that place) and couldn't find a fake beard that matches a hippie and have the same color, so I bought a gray beard that really looks like hippie's beard. I hoped to recolor it in some fashion but the other day when I was trying to dye it with textile coloring dyes, it failed miserably.
What should I do? I really don't want to make any character changes (neither looks nor story/facts, that's a big no-no), so please help me! I don't know what to do.
By the way, I'm not 100 % sure but I strongly think the beard is made of synthetic or some other oil-based material.

I've never tried any of these methods myself, but this might be a good place to start. http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=207169

The Doctor pretty much covered it but here is a few more.

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?topic=4402.msg39908

http://www.ehow.com/how_8528739_dye-faux-fur.html

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyeblog/C557981556/E20090127083845/index.html

http://fursuit.livejournal.com/2826105.html

Dr Megan those are great links!

Stiqpuppets

I really enjoyed reading about dyeing synthetic fibers. I actually Googled and found even more in detail explanations of the different processes.  They all seemed pretty complicated in the long run.  You know what I would do? Buy a second wig and cut it up to make the beard.   That way you have an exact match on color.  I really is not that hard to do. A wig is made up of lines of wefting in the back that you can cut apart and then sew or glue to the face of the puppet how you want them.