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"Orange Is the New Black": The Weirdest Place You'll Find Rad DIY Beauty Tips

You won't believe these MacGyver-meets-Maybelline beauty tricks from behind bars
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Beverages = Hair Dye
DeAngelis says the monotony of prison life is a major catalyst for inmates to get radical ... with their hair. "Everybody enjoys the change. I just read an interview about a woman who said 'Well, hell, I'm just going to cut my hair off, because why not? It grows back and I want to look different. Guys like long hair, but I'm in a female prison now. Might as well do something different!'"

But inmates don't always have the funds to make it to the prison beauty salon for a new cut. The next logical option? Switching up hair color. DeAngelis says the old-fashioned "Sun-In" technique is popular: streaking hair with lemon juice and soaking up the sun for highlights or concentrating the juice on the ends for a more ambitious ombre look. For all-over color, blondes darken their shade with black tea, and brunettes can enrich their color's tone with the same strong brew.

For temporary color, DeAngelis says prisoners use cherry juice, Kool-Aid -- even erasers. "Any kind of waxy product that you can melt down will stain," she notes. In this case, that stain will be of the pink variety and won't leave your hair feeling the smoothest, but it is a great alternative for women with darker hair.

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Pencil = Curling Iron
If they haven't saved up enough to earn a trip to the prison beauty salon, DeAngelis says inmates use pencils to bring out their natural curls, winding small sections of damp hair around the writing utensil. For prisoners with stick-straight hair, beachy waves can be achieved behind bars by simply braiding damp hair and letting it dry overnight. Remove the braid and voila!

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Coffee Grounds = Eyeshadow
Considering how terrible prison coffee allegedly is, kudos to the inmates who discovered this hack. Instead of soaking various colored pencils and scribbling all over their eyelids, some inmates turn to coffee grounds to create their own version of a smoky eye. Simply moisten one teaspoon of coffee grounds with a little water and apply to lids to add some dimension to the eyes. For more staying power, dip your finger or a Q-Tip in petroleum jelly before you apply the coffee grounds.

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Strawberry Jelly and Cocoa Butter = Hair Gel
"Gel", "Jelly" ... basically the same, right? The next time you have a flyaway that just needs to be tamed, take a cue from inmates and head to the kitchen. According to Bigger, inmates often multitask pantry items because they're easier to get to (or barter for) than spending a fortune on pricey products in the commissary. To wit: Prisoners will use whatever jelly is on hand, mixed with a bit of cocoa butter to counteract the stickiness, to make an impromptu hair gel. Slick away and try not to crave peanut butter.

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Hot Peppers and Cocoa Butter = Skin Tightening Pain Reliever
When it comes to moisturizing, you can't go wrong with shea butter served straight up. But when you add in chewed-up hot peppers (as demonstrated in one of the show's more painful scenes), this mixture offers a whole host of benefits along with quenched skin. "It's an old, old holistic remedy that actually works!" says Bigger, referring to the pain-killing and skin-tigthening powers of the active ingredient capsaicin, which hot peppers are full of. Don't worry about scorching your skin with capsaicin. "The peppers are hot in your mouth, but once you put them on the skin, they're not," says Bigger. "The chemicals are tricking your brain into thinking it's hot, but you'll never get a blister or a burn. It's a very clever herbal remedy."

BY ERICA SMITH | JUN 16, 2016 | SHARES
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