My First Re-Rooting Experience

Here are my basic re-rooting tools. A "hank" of synthetic hair, a needle that has had the tip of its eye snipped off, and a doll's naked head.

(okay......I'd been working on her already, so it isn't exactly naked)

The modified needle is probably the most wonderful tool idea for this purpose ever! This idea came from an article I have linked in my sidebar. I tried re-rooting with a needle and thread, but I couldn't find a needle long enough with an eye big enough that was slim enough to fit through the already existing hair holes.
So I took a regular sized needle with a large eye and snipped the very tip off with wire cutters. Be careful doing this because you don't want the tiny piece of metal to fly off into YOUR eye! It's also wise to wrap the sharp end of the needle with masking tape, like I did.
You will end up with this tool that looks like a tiny tuning fork!

Next, you'll need to wrap some strands of new hair over your finger quite tightly, then slip the tiny fork over them, so that they're caught between the prongs.
I apologize for the poor quality of these images....but I had to take the photos myself while doing this.

When you have the strands firmly held between the prongs,(use your fingers to keep tension on them) stick the little fork right into one of the old doll-hair holes.

Push it in, then pull it out. Voila! The hairs will stay inside the head! (This is for OOAK dolls that won't be played with by children by the way)

This is as far as I have gotten today. Stay tuned for more!

Another Thrift Store Find!

As if I didn't already have enough Barbies to work on! Today I found this batch.

Starting from the left we have "Baby Spice", most likely from the second release of Spice Girls dolls. Then this one with weird arms and pale skin...(which I have OOAK plans for), and the brunette next to her that looks like Tura Satana, and a honey-blonde with subtle auburn tones.

Oops, I repeated the honey-blonde, then a two-tone haired belly-button bodied great find, a version of "Skipper" and a platinum blonde. I'll be making most of these into One Of A Kind dolls......and good hair is definitely an asset. But I've been getting very curious about re-rooting.

The batch I bought were bagged in 2 groups of 4. In the one bag was a cheap Barbie knock-off made in China. I decided to sacrifice her first, (head on the left) learning how to remove the head properly and take all her hair out. I read to run the head under very hot water first BEFORE attempting to pull it off. The body on the right belongs to the "good" doll.

I used hemostats to get inside the heads and get the hair plugs out. I fully expected little rubber "plugs" to be on the ends, but there weren't. Just U shaped hair. I became a little impatient on the Chinese one and found you can still successfully get them out from the outside, but the vinyl on the Mattel doll was softer and I didn't want to risk tearing the hair-holes. Here she is holding her precious head which will sport black hair in the very near future. (And new face paint) Stay tuned to see who she will become.

My Latest Purchase and Why

I was at a big toy store downtown last week and I saw this Barbie, part of the Birthstone Beauties Collection ON SALE! That wasn't really the reason I bought her, it was because her face reminded me of Sarah Brightman!

Here's a better image to help make the comparison. I know with the right hairstyle and costume, I'm going to have my very own One-of-a-kind Sarah Brightman doll. Just wait until she's done....you'll see.


Now this image here has NOTHING to do with Sarah Brightman. It has to do with my understanding of the "Model Muse" body-type of Barbies. The hips are SO slim, that the "Belly-button" Barbies can't wear the "Model Muse" clothing. I know because that's what I tried to do with "Miss Garnet's" clothes. I'm just going to have to make some adjustments. This one is going to get an entirely new costume and hairstyle anyway.

A New Halloween Barbie!

I just received this 2005 Halloween Barbie in the mail today.

The first thing I did was set her free! Also, she was dying to show off her knee high black boots.


I ended up switching her boots for regular shoes and gave the boots to one of my many barefoot Barbies. I also thought this one should pose with a cute Japanese cat! I'm going to change her outfit a bit, but she's keeping the hat!