Rerooting

"Rerooting" is a term for then you give a doll a whole new hair by attach the hair roots at the scalp.
Ofcourse there is alot of different ways to do this depending on the type of the doll and the hair you use and which hairstyle you want.

At first, you need to remove the head of the doll.
Some older and softer doll heads can easily pop off, but more new, harder heads like Monster High will need heat in some way(hot water is the best) to expand and soften a little in the neck.
Take it slowly, you don't want to destroy anything!
In Monster High's necks there is a little "barb", so you have to turn and twist the head more or less to get it off, but like I said, be careful!


When the head is off, cut of ALL THE HAIR! I mean, if it already has hair...
And be sure to remove as much as possible of the plugs and glue inside the head.
If you are going to insert scupted eyes of soft glass or polymer, it's good to cut the "jigsaw piece" out of the head now before we reroot it.
Otherwise you could destroy the whole rerooting job by cutting off the attachments inside by accident.
If you want to, paint the scalp in the same color as the hair you are going to reroot with. This will make the hair look more thick, because no "visible scalp" will be seen.
If you are unsure about which color you should use, pick the darker or the less colorful choice, because it will look more natural that a bright, strong color(It will almost look like hair on a lightbulb..).
I think I prefer to NOT paint the scalp, because I think  it looks more realistic with some visible skin in some hairstyles, but who knows, maybe I will change my mind later.

Okay, now it's time to choose hair.
Most dolls, including Monster High and Barbie, come with Saran hair, but when you buy loose hair online you should go for nylon.
Nylon is a more mordern alternative for dollhair. I'ts softer and easier to style and dye.
Kanekalon is a third kind of hair and is perfect if you want a character with lots of messy hair(like trolls) because it's supposed to be used for cheap masquerade-wigs in humansize and synthetic dreads and is very easy to tangle and snarl and very hard to straighten, It CAN work fine on a doll if you are lycky to find an extra silky and thin kind of kanekalon, but why take the risk?

When you have your hair i'ts time to reroot!
I had some fun in paint as you see.. :'p

You will need a thick needle to all of these and picture nr. 1 shows how to use it!
Beware of your fingers and use a thimble/"fingerborg"(means finger castle in Swedish, isn't it a cute word? :3) and take alot of pauses, rerooting takes some time.
If you don't have ready holes in your dollhead, or if you want more, you can make some of you own by carefully using a nagger.
For one root of hair, you will need about 8-16 hairs depending of the hairs thickness,, size of the holes, the heads softness, your needle and your strength! (You can use your teeth if it's to hard to pull, but take it easy!) Try small and add a few more hairs if you think it is to thin.
But remeber! A bad rerooting is when you make a few, thick roots, so please, keep the roots somewhat thin and many and your result will be pleasant!

2.
The most common rerooting method, called "knot-rerooting", you just tie a little knot at the end of the hair to keep is stuck.

3.
New dolls has more flexible vinyl and if you keep the roots thin, you don't have to knot'em  in the end, instead, when you are done rerooting, smear some glue in a THIN layer and leave it to dry standing up. Because, if the glue goes through the scalp and dries with the hair falling right down(or right up) it will be difficult to correct and the girl will look exactly like Frankensteins wife...(Or Marge Simpson).
So leave the head on an empty toilet roll standing right up for a day or two before you comp or wash the hair. This is the quickest way to reroot!

4.
If you are going to have a shorthaired style and want to save some hair, this is the method you should use!
You pull in a lock of hair, knot it on the middle and pulls it out through a another hole.
Instead of  have alot of long hair that you need to cut and throw away, you now have saved half of the hair that you used in the first method(picture 2)!


5.
In this method you can use a thin needle and you will need a thin thread too.This method don't suit for the holes close the hairline, but in top of scalp, i'ts perfect. Different from other methods, the hair will be thicker and it's perfekt to cover the "eye-insert-hole" or to make really advanced hairstyles.
You use thicker roots for this one, up to 20 hairs, the hairs shall not go through the scalp, only the thread should.

6.
This is the hardest method, but it's really easy to remove if you want to!
You start like in method number 5, but use less hair and pulls all the hair through the scalp making a little loop of hair and pull the next root-loop through it. Repeat all the way round, knot and glue it in the end. If you loose one loop, it all will be destroyed, and that's why it is so easy to remove :'p

Be sure to comb and boil the hair afterwards to keep it in place and you SHOULD glue the inside of the scalp if you really care about the hair.

Now you can cut and style it and dye it or whatever you want! :D

You know Rochelle, the doll I showed you yesterday?
This is an in-progress rerooting of her and you see her without the facepaint as well!
Isn't she just perfect? :'3

(You see the scalp that has been painted by the artist to)
I DONT OWN THIS PICTURE!