Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Restoring doll hair and Face paint

DOLL HAIR


This is a link to an amazing video 
by Robert Tonner,
showing step by step how he styles
Miss Revlon Hair.

He is using these products from Dollspart Supply.
I have ordered these products and 
will try them on my Miss Revlon 
when they arrive!
 
This is my Miss Revlon, Marylou, 
 when I found her at a thrift store. 
she was VERY dirty and her hair
was a MESS!

You can see her restoration here:

These have been my "Go To" products
For a long time. Revlon Synthetic Hair
shampoo and Conditioner spray.
I get it at my local beauty supply.

I have also used this leave-in conditioner
by Paul Mitchell.
I actually only work it into very
dry frizzy ends.

I always try to use a metal tine brush for synthetic doll hair.
But, sometimes on smaller dolls or for
styling bangs and sides, a smaller 
brush or comb is helpful.

This morning I am using the 
conditioning spray alone.

I purposely left Marylou's hair in a more 
natural style. This is how it looked 
when I took her out today.

Using only the Revlon Conditioning Spray, 
you can see there is much more shine.
I warn you, this spray is STICKY!
But if you are patient working with it, 
it does add shine.

This is the ponytail on an Ideal Velvet doll,
from the 1970s.
I am going to work on her ponytail 
using a CERAMIC flat iron.
She has already been washed and 
her hair has air-dried.

I use a ceramic flat iron, set
on the LOWEST setting.
I take about a 1 inch section of hair.

I run the hair through the 
flat iron quickly 3 times. Then I
brush through the warm hair.
I repeat this several times until I 
feel the hair is straightened 
to my satisfaction.

FACE PAINT 

I am going back to Marylou for faces.
As you can see her lips and cheeks needed help.

I always choose a peachy skin tone and 
a watermelon red for dolls.

For lips I use the watermelon color alone.

For cheeks, mix the peachy tone paint and 
the melon tone paint together.
Dip a makeup sponge in the paint.
Pat off the paint from the sponge on a 
paper towel until nearly dry.

Pat paint onto cheeks with the make up sponge.
Keep a wet paper towel nearby to wipe off
first tries and mistakes!
The nearly dry paint on the sponge 
creates a soft matte finish.

I used the same technique to repaint
this Gerber baby's whole face! 
For the paint for skin I mixed
ivory and peach. Then I use the same
make-up sponge technique above.

Here is the Gerber baby all painted.
For the shine on this Gerber Baby's
lips I use this clear varnish.

Acrylic Clear Varnish.

EYEBROWS

All I can say is practice before trying this 
on your doll! As you can see I have a VERY 
tiny brush. I picked out over 2/3 of the 
original hairs from this paint brush!
It literally only has a few strands left.
This is my eyebrow and lash brush.

This is a recent restoration I did.  This baby's lips, eyes,
cheeks, eyebrows and lashes were all repainted.

OK want to see the hair we 
started at the beginning?

And Here They Are!

Marylou's hair in back.

And in front.

Velvet's hair in back

And in front

Marylou Before and After

Velvet Before and After

Guess what these two girls have in common?
They are both Ideal Dolls!
Marylou from the 1950s. 
Velvet from the 1970s.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Linda,
    Thank you! I'm glad you felt what I shared was useful. I too really learned a lot from the Robert Tonner video! I'm going to try and get Marylou's hair into a a more traditional style when my products arrive. You have a great week as well.
    Hugs
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Brenda,
    I tried the ceramic flat iron method on one of my dolls. I was so nervous to start with, but it worked really well. I am so happy with the result. My dolls hair looks so much better. Thanks for the wonderful tips.
    Anna

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Anna,
    I'm so glad you tried the flat iron and it worked. I have made a big difference in several dolls with the flat iron. That is why I decided to crate this post. I get so many questions from other areas about how I restore hair and faces I thought I should just explain it all in one post.
    You are welcome and I am pleased this helped you!
    Hugs
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3:15:00 AM

    Absolutely wonderful post. Have you ever tried to tame the "woolly" Ideal hair that the Crissy dolls sometimes has? I've never used a flat iron, but have been tempted to try. They look great! Thank you, Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Jennifer,
    Thanks! I have worked on some pretty woolly doll hair. Some on Crissy's and some on other dolls. I have found that a good conditioner in combination with a flat iron can do wonders. I always ask myself, "can I make it worse?" If the answer is no I forge ahead!
    Good luck with those woolly heads!
    Hugs
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:12:00 PM

    After you paint the doll cheeks, do you have to put something over it like you did on the lips?

    ReplyDelete
  7. HI Anonymous,
    No, I've been doing this for years and the cheek color and even lips has not faded or rubbed off. The nice thing about using acrylics is that they are water washable. So, if you wanted to change a doll's coloring or just needed a touchup, the color will wash off with a magic eraser!
    I hope this helps
    Hugs'Brenda

    ReplyDelete

Hello all! Please sign your name when you comment as anonymous, so I know who to reply to. Otherwise you are just "Unknown"! Sigh :(