Why did you store your doll away? Was she dirty and ugly and way past keeping her out. There must have been a reason why you kept her. Was it that you were hoping she would someday be the same as when you were a kid? You should know that she can be put back in some type of order. It really isn't hard. When you last looked at that doll you had when you were a kid, the hair probably was matted, dirty, and even partially cut. It might even be cut clear to the scalp and showing hair plug holes. I've always wondered why so many kids cut the hair on their doll. But I think I remember cutting a few heads of hair too. Another thing a kid always will do is discard the doll's shoes. As a collector, it's a pain to buy a vintage doll with no shoes, because it's very hard to find doll shoes to fit. Currently, there are some manufacturers which make new doll shoes, but it just isn't the same using doll shoes made 50 or 60 years later on a vintage doll. Ebay sellers list some old shoes but they can get really pricey.
Dolls which are very old, usually had wigs which used human hair or caracul lamb's wool . The hair usually was glued to a cheesecloth type material. Dolls like the early Shirley Temple were usually adorned with human hair. Even though this is human hair, the hair on an old Shirley Temple doll should never be washed. Actually these old Shirley dolls were made of wood composition which can never be wet....not even with a damp rag. Wood composition can explode, crack and peel if allowed to get wet. That's why so many of these old dolls didn't survive the years. People stored them in damp basements, humid houses. Even extrememly hot dry attics damaged the dolls. Shirley Temple dolls can definitely benefit from curling the hair on dry hairdresser plastic perm curler rods, using the perm papers. More on this in later posts.
To get us started, I thought I would talk about cleaning the hair on vinyl dolls which have rooted hair (plugs). Dolls such as Barbie, vintage vinyl Ideal dolls, mattel, and many others typically have the rooted saran type hair which can be safely washed with a good shampoo.
Saran or Vinyl Type Hair: If the hair is matted, I usually use a darning needle to pick it out. This can actually be time consuming if it is really matted and dry looking. In fact, sometimes I generously spray the hair with WD-40 (yes, go to the garage and rob the can of WD-40). The petroleum in this WD-40 tends to be absorbed into the vinyl/saran hair and softens the texture. I typically leave this on at least a couple of hours and then wash the hair. If the hair still looks extremely dry and matted, spray it again and leave it on for a longer period. Sometimes I have sprayed and resprayed many times before the hair looks better. After the WD-40, I again try to pick out the matts with my darning needle or a wide bristle dog brush kept only for this reason (a doll wide tooth brush will also work) . NEVER USE A BRUSH YOU HAVE USED ON HUMAN OR ANIMAL HAIR. Remember you really only have to do this step with the WD-40 if the doll hair looks extremely dry.
Now comes the shampooing. I position the doll with her head over the kitchen sink. I like to use baby shampoo on my vinyl/saran doll hair. I usually wash it twice and rinse the soap out. Now comes the conditioning. Some people use fabric conditioner straight from the bottle, but I prefer Dove hair conditioner. I have had much better luck with this than with other hair conditioners. I also like the conditioner that comes in packages of hair color and if I have that, I use it for conditioning doll hair. We are striving to get a deep conditioner on this vinyl hair. I usually let the conditioner stay on the doll hair for 15 or 20 minutes if the hair looks dry. Then I rinse it and carefully comb it out with my wide tooth dog brush. Then while the hair is wet, I roll the hair on perm rods like the picture shows above. Be sure to use perm papers too so the hair ends don't crinkle. I let the curled doll hair set for a couple of days to dry then carefully unroll the perm rods and pick it out. On very small dolls, I sometimes roll the hair on toothpicks or those sticks intended for candy pops (buy them at specialty stores where candy making supplies are sold). Just remember the smaller the perm rod the curlier the hair. After styling you can spray it a very little bit with hair spray but do not use lots of hair spray. Sometimes a clean hair doll looks much better with a small ribbon or a baby type doll looks mighty cute with a baby headband.
If your doll was stored away with hair which has been cut to the very scalp, sometimes it is better to cut all of the hair off and re-wig the doll. I usually use a pair of cheap hair sissors then go over it with a pair of clippers to get the doll scalp pretty smooth and hairless. For a new wig, you can save lots of money by going to the Goodwill, Salvation Army or other thrift shop and find a porcelain doll which still has its glued-on hair. Many times these dolls are only a couple of dollars. The wigs can be removed from the porcelain doll head by using a cotton ball soaked in alcohol and run it along the edge of the wig and continue doing this until the wig is removed. Let the wig dry completely and then glue the wig to your old doll head, using Elmer's Glue or other glue of your choice. Cement type glues don't work well on this project.
After your doll has had her clean hair for a while, the curls may begin to fall out. You can always reset a vinyl doll's hair in perm rods and perm papers and after rolling her hair, hold her head above a boiling pan of water. The steam from the boiling water sets the hair curls. We call this giving your doll a permanent. Be sure to not let her fall in the boiling water or it could be disaterous.
Good luck in cleaning your vinyl doll's hair. Next time we will talk about how to clean up you doll's vinyl body. It's amazing to know that you will actually be able to get those ink marks and even those magic markers off the vinyl. It can be done and it's fun doing it but even more fun to see the result.
Don't hesitate to ask me questions. If I can help you I will surely try. An old doll is a part of history and she/he deserves to live on.
Here's just some pictures I thought you might enjoy.
