Gotz new hair!!!

I would like to show you the results of some 'dolly recycling'!  In August 2013 I adopted my first Gotz Slate Eyes Sasha, a sweet little blond who came with a 'come over' because the seller said her hair had been cut at the front by a budding young hairdresser!  Unfortunately though, her hair was worse than that, it was actually all snapping off at the roots so in the end, when her hair was completely gone on top, I decided she should lose the rest of her thin, dry, brittle hair, and be wigged.  However I could never quite find a wig that suited her.  Here is how she looked when she came here, before her hair came off.

Time moved on and another Gotz girl came to live here, this time it was a more modern Gotz Happy Kidz Emily from 2015.  In contrast with the girl above, she had beautiful blond locks and plenty of them.  But for some strange reason I decided I'd like Emily to have a fringe so I cut her hair into one......but it was an awful cut and I was disappointed in my hairdressing skills,

so much so that in the end I cut off all her hair and wigged her.

I decided to keep her hair though, I thought it might come in handy, I'm sure you crafters out there will know what I mean by that!!!  And lo and behold at the weekend I got the idea that this hair might well come in handy to reroot Lyric!!!!

The hair, having been cut from the head of another doll, was a lot shorter than I'd usually use for a reroot but I was determined to make it work.  I started working on her on Easter Sunday and finished her reroot last night.  I worked with the existing holes and then added extra ones around the crown and the hairline at the front. 

I'm really happy with her, she looks just how I'd hoped!  I love how the hair, being shorter, hangs in great layers, like as if it's been professionally cut that way! 

I haven't used any hot water on it, I actually like the way it's lying now, all I've done is just trim a few stray hairs at the back.  My friend said she looks like a little 'surfer girl' and I know just what she means!  

I love how the sides 'flick' back.....

And how the back hangs down in nice layers.....

And how, when the wind blows it about, like it has done today.....

......it falls nicely back into shape again without the use of a comb..... 

Well I hope you've enjoyed seeing my doll hair recycling job!

Thank you for visiting, I hope you all have a great weekend ahead and that the weather is good for you :)

Big hugs, Sharon x

Bailey is back as a brunette!

Finally I have got around to finishing Bailey's hair 'do'!  You'll recall last week we saw her with plaits and rollers....I was hoping for a particular look....erm, that didn't happen! When I took the plaits out the back was really quite nice, except for the ends which were still straight as I couldn't plait right to the ends.  But the curls at the front were too big and full.  I'd obviously put far too much hair into each roller.

I didn't photograph her like that, the girl had suffered enough, but I decided to pour more boiling water over her head and start with straight hair again.  And that is where we've stayed!  I have cut the front into a straight blunt cut fringe and then I cut the length straight all the way around.   I did wonder if I should trim the fringe a little shorter, but for now I'm going to leave it as it is.

Here she is all ready to go to the Chat n Snap!

Nuria wanders by..."Hey Bailey, have you done something to yourself? You look different!"

"Have you got a new beret?"

"New blouse?"

"It's your hair, isn't it?  You've dyed your hair! It's lovely!"

The humilliation!!!

Poor Bailey, could it get any worse!!!!

Yesterday she got the hot water treatment and a pop sock over her head......it dried very quickly in the sunshine, but it looked very flat.....it was lovely, soft and shiny though...thanks to the addition of a tiny drop of argan oil rubbed in before it was dry:

No peeking Bailey, I'm not done yet!!

So this morning I spent ages plaiting small strands of hair and having separated the part that I wanted as a fringe, I decided to add some curlers in the hope that she'll have some soft curls at the front once it's dry:

She's now back in the sunshine again, so hopefully soon I will be able to see the results of all that plaiting!!!

A feeling of deja vu!

This week I decided I'd take a short break from sewing, having just finished a string of commission outfits, and start rerooting Bailey again.  You'll remember that we've been down this 'root' before (yes, pun intended) and Bailey went from being a brunette with badly falling hair, to a rerooted mixed mid blond, but not liking that and feeling that she had waaaay too much hair, I cut it all off to just stubble and wigged her.  However, I was never quite happy with my wig choices, so decided to reroot her again.

The changing faces of Bailey:

Poor girl!  Really been through it since coming to live here in Spain with me!

The hardest part was removing all the tufts from her previously reroot.....I really had knotted the hair in tightly, I obviously wasn't planning on doing her all over again when I first did it!!!  However, I eventually got all the plugs out, and two hours later and one very saw right hand, she was bald and ready to go. 

I'm afraid she wouldn't let me take a photo of her this time round (she's got quite bossy since she's settled in here!) so this photo is from last time!!

She doesn't look too happy back then and she looked even more annoyed this time!

Anyway, to cut a long story short.....she is now finished and waiting for her hair to be washed, cut and styled.  I've told her that if she doesn't behave herself then her hair will remain like this until after Hallowe'en, when she can be dressed as a witch!

This is her "I'm not AMUSED!" face I think! 

Although Bailey has a double (sometimes treble) row of plug holes making a parting in her hair, it's not actually centre part, it's slightly over to one side, (as can be seen in the 'baldy' photo above) although unfortunately, not a side part either......sort of an 'in-between' part....so I haven't made her into a full centre part at the back, although I did think about it.  It wouldn't have been straight and would have to have been placed at an angle to the part on top of her head.....I do still want her to have a fringe though and have also been thinking of adding some little curls using the boiling water method that Jackie R told me about......but all that will have to be decided!

I will take more photos tomorrow, hopefully Bailey will look happier by then!

Searching for hair....and not just any old hair!

The last couple of weeks I've been thinking about poor Lyrics hair which, as you will remember, is breaking badly at the front.  Well it's breaking all over to be honest, but it's not quite so bad at the back.  This is the colour of her hair in daylight, it's what I would call a 'dirty' blond, or maybe it's 'ash' blond?  If anyone can help me with the name of this colour, I'd be really grateful.

Her hair actually doesn't look so bad in these photos but it's very thin in real life and there are several rows of empty plugs going backwards from the forehead.  Jackie R suggested taking some from the back to reroot at the front, but there's just not enough at the back despite how thick her plaits look.

I bought some blond hair but when I got it home I realised that it is just not the right shade of blond.  I then bought a hair dye in a darker blond, tried that, it made not one iota of difference!! Well except to make the hair harder to comb through!  I wonder if I should have used a fabric dye seeing as the hair is synthetic!

A very pale blond....I think this is too light for her:

This is a darker shade of blond but it's very 'yellowy':

Here are both blonds mixed together: I don't think this photo is a good representation of the colour though as her own hair looks almost 'green' ...

I have searched for other shades of blond  on the internet and not found any that appear similar to her existing hair colour.  I am not planning on partially rerooting, I will probably have to do her whole head, so it's not so much getting a match but a shade that suits her skin colour.

I really don't want to waste any more money on blond hair if it's not going to work.  I even took her to a wig and hair extension shop in Malaga, only to find that the store had closed down...doh!

Therefore I have been thinking, shall I go for another colour entirely?  I was thinking about auburn.  I don't want to change her to brunette as I already have my brunette Lindt.  She would be entirely different and I'd not have to worry about the shade of blond.  But do I really want to change Lyric that drastically?  I really don't know.  :(

I think in all honesty that I'd prefer her to remain blond.  Keeping her own hair isn't really an option as it is so badly damaged, fragile and brittle and I feel that before long she will have an even bigger 'comb over' than she has already!!!!

I would welcome any suggestions. 

Bailey....

As most of my Sasha friends will know, I've been struggling with Bailey, my former brunette with the wider face.  I really love her little face but I'm still not happy with her hair.  So today I finally decided that I'm going to remove the hair that I recently rerooted her with and I'm going to either wig her again, or I'm going to reroot her once more.  I've already half made the decision because I've bought some more hair but this time it is closer in colour to her original hair, I've chosen Chocolate Brown, I just hope it's dark enough because this little girls hair was pretty dark before it all fell out.

This is the sweet little girlie that I want back!!!