Wednesday 10 June 2015

Fixing up pre-loved Monster High dolls - Inital cleaning

Hey Dolly friends,

So a little while ago I bought a large bundle of pre-loved (also known as second hand!) Monster High dolls. The collection belonged to a child so when they got to me they were in a pretty sorry state! Between them they have every problem known to dolly-kind. Dirty, ratty hair, staining, damage, eye wonk, the works. I've been asked by a few people so I thought I'd write some blogs as to how I fixed up these lovelies.
This first blog covers the initial clean up stage. Here's how they looked on arrival...

 
Initial cleaning... So first things first, I washed all dolls with warm water and washing up liquid (dish soap for Americans) I gave all their bodies and faces a good scrub with a tooth brush to get into all those little crevices where dirt can collect. I lathered up their hair with some extra washing up liquid and left them all to sit for half an hour or so with the bubbles in their hair to break down any stubborn grease (this wont remove glue head, but it'll help you figure out if the doll has glue head or is just dirty!) Then rinse the bubbles out of the hair in warm water.

Untangling ratty hair... Some of these dolls came with their hair in one giant frizz ball... poor ghoulia had an actual afro, here's her before and after pics. She still needs more work, but as you can see the initial difference is a big one.
 
I like to use products made for wigs on doll hair, I use Dimples wig conditioner to condition/ de-tangle doll hair...
 
You put a tiny drop of the wig conditioner into a jug of warm water and swoosh the hair around a bit to get the conditioner solution all through it. For very tangled doll hair use a stiff comb and starting at the bottom slowly and carefully work the tangles out. I find it helps to do this with the hair flat on the draining board or worktop. When the comb gets stuck re-dunk the hair in the conditioner solution. You may find you need to use considerable force at points and some breakage is to be expected. This whole mass of grot was what Ghoulia shed during the de-tangle process...

Keep dunking and combing a bit at a time, until all the tangles are removed. Then give her one final dunk and comb through. Dimples is a leave in conditioner solution so leave your doll to drain draped over the sink or sitting up for a while to allow excess conditioner solution to drain away. Here are my bundle of girls 'hanging out' at the salon*
*kitchen sink
 
After your girls have drained for a couple of hours, give their bodies and faces a quick wipe with warm water (to remove any conditioner solution or dish soap residue). I usually then set them out to dry on a towel. It's best at this stage to use a toothbrush to comb their hair approximately into the position you want it to dry into. Be sure to find any partings in the hair and arrange them correctly, same with fringes (bangs)
 
Once your girls are all dried out you'll be able to tell if they need any further fix ups. In future blogs I will cover...
Removing stubborn marks & staining
Repairing 'wounds' scratches and gouges
Re-flocking
Dealing with glue-head
Re-curling and straightening hair

Hope this info is helpful to those that asked for it, and perhaps some of you that didn't!
CF
x

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