I use these to apply the release (99% alcohol in my case):



I buy them at Sally's. The tip allows you to get right down through the hair so you
are right against the lace. Works great.
Alcohol still gets on the hair of course, but I rinse the unit as soon as I remove it anyway.
I've mentioned this many times before, but I rarely, if ever (after the 1st initial shampoo),
shampoo the unit. I do rinse it and use a little leave in conditioner.
Washing the unit (shampoo) is one of the biggest and fastest cause of color fade.

I normally get 9 ~ 10 months out of a unit with very little color fade (sometimes I do have to color it
once during that time) and virtually no shedding.



Fred