craftgrrl | Dying Nylon or other Non-cotton fibers? (Reply)

I make "Kitty Kits" - Cat ears and a tail for people to wear - and sell them at anime conventions. One of the biggest problems I have is having enough BLACK headbands to put them on. I've TRIED elastic, thin and thick, and the headbands are the most convenient for everyone. I will not deny that I am kind of cheap, so when I find the 6-packs at the dollar store (which are technically "Kids" headbands, making them more durable than the ones that are for adults and $3-5 a pack at Target or Wal-Mart), I snatch them up. Only problem is that they are nylon or poly or SOMETHING that melts together when I put a match to it, and they are in horrendous bright colors like pink and purple, yellow, bright neon blue, etc. I get maybe one black headband out of 12 that I buy. I tried taking a sharpie to them, but the undertone of the color still comes through a bit. I've got a convention coming up at the beginning of August and I'm trying to start a little earlier than a week before the con. I've tried RIT dye and stuff but it doesn't work at all, so I'm out of ideas, short of cutting all the fabric covers off and replacing them with handsewn ones... which will take a ton of time, and defeat the purpose of getting them inexpensively!

Thanks in advance for any advice that can be given... and so this isn't completely text-only, here's a couple of "Custom Kits" I did a couple years ago. The customer requested the ears sit very low on the bands, as their roleplay characters' ears sat the same way. The tails were wired, and each tail had a belt loop instead of the regular safety-pin attachment.

Edit: I have to remember that not everyone understands the way my mind works, so I will clarify. I LOVE the headbands that I use because they are cheap and really really durable. I do not want to change the type of heaband that I get because I don't want to have people coming back 10 minutes after they buy them because of a broken headband. I stitch the ears onto the nylon covering of the band, and that's what keeps them on. I do make many different colors of Kits, but for some reason everyone wants black or more 'normal' looking headbands for their ears x_x;;.