* Repainting a facial detail on a doll
* Sealing with MSC
* List of hard headed Bratz and very hard to reroot doll types.
* How to remove plastic tags from your doll’s head
* Saran hair colour swatches
* How to give a doll a fringe (bangs)
* How to fix snapped neckpegs on Barbie and Bratz dolls
* Glittering a doll’s lips
* Why it’s a bad idea to use sharpie or ink on a vinyl doll
This is how big a Lil Bratz is compared to a normal 10 inch size Bratz. The mini pocket bratz are even smaller!
Here’s my workaround to make a pin vise (or “pin vice”) work with medium to hard heads.
I placed a small screw into the barrel then a long nail (the needle rests on the head of the nail). The needle is a size 7-10 with a slanted cut eye.
The barrel was wrapped with fabric scraps then plumbers tape then masking tape so that it doesn’t hurt my hand.
* Pin Vise/Pin Vice – $3 (this is called “porte foret” ou “étau à goupille” in french)
* Nail, screw and tapes – nicked from the tool kit
* Fabric scraps
* Size 7 crewel/embroidery needles for bratz heads, size 8 for barbie.
An important part of the rerooting process is head preparation: removing the old hair and preparing the scalp for new hair.
Here are the tools I use:
* Hair Scissors and Nail scissors to remove the bulk of the hair then cut down to the lowest possible.
I use the big scissors to scrape the inside of the head to remove plugs afterwards.
* Big tweezers to remove the hair from the inside of the head, little ones to remove lone plugs from the ouside of the head.
* Alcohol for cleaning and washing my hands from glue residue.
* Acetone to remove the scalp paint (cotton pad for large amounts, cotton bud for details)
* Super glue in gel form to fill in big holes in the scalp (it dries after 12h into a flexible but solid state unlike other glues that just go rock hard and snap off)
* Fabric scrap to protect the face during the work.
Not shown: soap and water used twice. big glass of water to wipe hands to remove all chemical residues when handling the doll.
You’ll need jewelery pliers, eye pins and jump rings for the basics then you can add any beads or findings that you’d like.
Note: I’m not certain that this is the exact original hair style because my Tiana arrived with her hair messed up but it’s what i’ve been able to piece together from people’s photos.
You’ll need lots of elastics and clips, a brush and something fine to tease out hair strands.
Step 1:
Seperate the parting hair from the rest (look at how it’s rooted and tease out all the strands that don’t belong) then seperate the left hair from the right and attach an elastic around each bunch.
Step 2:
Seperate the jet black hair from the rest (you can tell what belongs and what doesn’t because it won’t be the same length)
Tie elastics or clips around the left and right bits of hair
Take the all black hair and make a tight pony tail.
You should now have 5 seperate pieces of hair:
Left and Right parting hair
Left and Right normal hair
and all Black hair ponytail
Step 3:
Tease out 4 strands of jet black hair right at the bottom of the neck and re-tie the black hair ponytail. Keep those 4 strands clipped aside.
Step 4:
Pull the left and right bits of normal hair into a pony tail above the black pony tail and tie with an elastic.
Clip the 2 (black and normal) ponytails together, out of the way, so you can work clearly.
Step 5:
Take 2 of those 4 little strands of black hair from the neck and wrap them around the left bunch of parting hair, pull tight and then attach it with an elastic close to the bottom of the neck.
Do the same for the other side.
You’re done!
Monster high head size comparison with Barbie and Bratz.
You can also see the neck hole size and the big annoying neck anchor:
For a mid calf length reroot of Draculaura, I used 75% of 1 RD hank of Wild Lavender and less than 2 RD hanks of Sherbert Pink but she’s rooted very thickly.
I think you could probably reroot a monster high doll with 2 RD hanks.
Use a cotton wipe with acetone or nail polish remover then tidy up with q-tips/cotton buds.
I’ve done this several times but never thought to take photos!
Wild Lavender is a shade lighter match to her eyeshadow, Cupcake pink is a shade darker match to her skin, Red Wine is a match to the outside of her heart tattoo, Sherbert pink is the inside of the heart, Mauvelous pink is a match to her lips.
