How I straightened my doll's Hair
Curls on dolls are a bit problematic in terms of maintenance. Unlike human hair, you can't brush them, and they become quite tangled over time. They also accumulate dust more quickly (or at least it's more noticeable on curly hair), and washing is very delicate - cold water and a net to avoid damaging the curls.
My wife recently did a successful experiment on straightening her doll's hair (see [this](https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/58648328) post for results), so I decided to try it myself as well. I used my 45th Anniversary Simone (the name sounds fancy, but it's not a rare or pricey doll). [Here](https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/57976565) is my previous post with her original hair.
I used a regular human hair straightener. I think any will do. the only important feature is the ability to set the temperature. The maximum temperature depends on the material. Common materials are saran, nylon, kanekalon, and polypropylene. Sadly, doll manufacturers usually don't say which material was used, and it differs from doll to doll.
So I went with 100°C, which should be safe for any of them. Using high temperatures can easily burn the hair!
The process is simple, just quite time-consuming 🙂
First, separate several strands along the hairline:
Then very gently brush them just a little and keep the hair pulled taut. Now, apply a hair straightener:
This should make the hair much easier to brush. Repeat the process:
It usually becomes straight after ~5 passes.
Repeat for the whole head.
After that, I brushed the whole head and washed the hair:
Finally, I did one more pass with a straightener. This time, I didn't separate the hair into even strands; I just took sections and applied the straightener. Here is the end result:
It's not very visible in the photos, but after the last pass the hair became less fluffy.
And here is a comparison with another Simone (from Look #10), who comes with straight hair from the factory:
Hope you found it useful 🙂
My wife recently did a successful experiment on straightening her doll's hair (see [this](https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/58648328) post for results), so I decided to try it myself as well. I used my 45th Anniversary Simone (the name sounds fancy, but it's not a rare or pricey doll). [Here](https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/57976565) is my previous post with her original hair.
I used a regular human hair straightener. I think any will do. the only important feature is the ability to set the temperature. The maximum temperature depends on the material. Common materials are saran, nylon, kanekalon, and polypropylene. Sadly, doll manufacturers usually don't say which material was used, and it differs from doll to doll.
So I went with 100°C, which should be safe for any of them. Using high temperatures can easily burn the hair!
The process is simple, just quite time-consuming 🙂
First, separate several strands along the hairline:
Then very gently brush them just a little and keep the hair pulled taut. Now, apply a hair straightener:
This should make the hair much easier to brush. Repeat the process:
It usually becomes straight after ~5 passes.
Repeat for the whole head.
After that, I brushed the whole head and washed the hair:
Finally, I did one more pass with a straightener. This time, I didn't separate the hair into even strands; I just took sections and applied the straightener. Here is the end result:
It's not very visible in the photos, but after the last pass the hair became less fluffy.
And here is a comparison with another Simone (from Look #10), who comes with straight hair from the factory:
Hope you found it useful 🙂