Adventures in Rerooting and Rewigging Dolls

Bald dolls. Dolls with hair that is totally fried to a frizz and too short to deal with. Dolls whose wigs overwhelm the doll's face. Dolls who are fine but somebody wants a different hair color.  Dolls whose hair has thinned in the 50 years since they left the factory. None of these are safe from me.

For my first attempt at wig making for dolls, I used instructions from a book on making miniatures. It was a small doll, and she was undemanding. Sew two bits of weft together.  Less than thrilling.

 

For my second attempt, I used instructions from Dolley Wiggs, a contributor to National Doll World back when it was folksy and  accessible. Wiggs' pamphlet told me how to make a wig cap from Pellon, how to paint it in a color close to the hair I'd be using. She advised using wigs for humans, unpicked and sorted into lengths. I sewed it by hand, and my Miss Revlon clone seemed happy.

In a pinch you can use a lace circle to make  wig cap for a small doll. Gather the edges to fit the doll's head. Handstitching the wefts to the lace  helps the shape.

Commercial wigs for 8-inch hard plastic Ginny type dolls have enough hair for 2 dolls or more. Fortunately the wig was useable for an 11-inch Tammy clone.

I tried rerooting Barbie clones because they were only a dollar and there were lots of them at the dollar store. I was not entirely successful with the hook and lock method and a crochet hook, mostly because keeping a reasonable tension is hard.

The following dolls are Little Miss Revlon clones. The platinum haired one is a complete reroot. The doll with yellow highlights is a partial reroot. I added  hair to thicken existing hair.

Curly Hair, that sproingy polypropylene stuff that some people glue to homemade cloth dolls, makes good replacement hair for dolls with bubble cuts or short hair.  I've used it to fill in on 18 inch dolls, too. Because it is precurled, it is easy to style. 8 inch Little Miss dolls, 11 inch Tammy clones, Barbie clones --no doll is safe. The platinum blonde hair seems to work particularly well with Little Miss Revlon clones.

It even works on Tammy clones, that innocent face, that processed looking hair.

A Barbie clone Marx hard plastic doll with vinyl head  is not quite pleased with her new do. Trimming will help a lot.

 Barbie looks good to me, rerooted with curly hair. I poked a very fine crochet hook, US size 12 or 13 through her neck and into the plug holes, yanking thread down into the head. No knots, no glue, just vinyl tension. It works. I can comb the hair. If I want, I can yank it out later. I'm not making art.

 

 

The most important lesson for me was NOT to use all the plug holes for small dolls. Using every existing hole can overwhelm the doll with hair. The above doll is about 8 inches tall, and looked awful the first time I rerooted her.

I use curly hair as fill-ins on larger, shorthaired dolls. The idea is to soften the edges, not to make massive changes.

Those of us who are bonkers enough to try to match the texture of the 1959 ponytail Barbie have bought saran rope and unwound it to poke into doll heads.

I bought ponytail hanks from beauty supply stores. One ponytail can do 6 Barbies, and it is not always the appropriate texture for a small doll. This red is a great color, but definitely coarse.

Restoredoll's  hanks are a better deal if you don't want 6 dolls with the same color hair. And there are WAY more colors. Hobby Lobby has straight strand doll hair hanks that match their version of curly hair. If you are picky about color, go to Restoredoll online.

When using straight hair to reroot a doll, I find a needle threader  essential. There is a tool for threading yarn into tapestry needles over in the plastic canvas section, and that works, too. Anything to haul 6 strands through the large eye of an embroidery needle is good. A dish of water to tame the fly-aways helps, although sometimes I just use gel hairsetting stuff.

There are videos showing how to turn yarn into wefts for gluing onto a doll, and I have yet to try.

That fake fur for making bears and stuffed animals works. You can either make a custom wig cap pattern and trace it onto the back of the fur, or you can cut a rectangle and gather it at the top and nape of the neck. The shaped wig cap pattern worked for an Effanbee 12 incher, the rectangle was good enough for a Barbie clone.

Rerooting links

http://www.wideeyedgirls.com/rerootinstruction.html
Using straight hair. I love this one. Lots of photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA159M7i2U8 rerooting with a reroot tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm3YDwTX7Ug using clumps of wefted hahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvVgxfaWHM Lock and loop method

Wigmaking links

http://eveningdreams8.tumblr.com/post/19199692985/how-to-make-a-wig-that-wont-fall-off-your-oddly
https://www.deviantart.com/rorek/art/Fur-Wig-Tutorial-97333242?moodonly=24

http://www.ginabellousdolls.com/wigging-diagrams/