Re-Root: Ideal Giggles
Recently, I re-rooted another Ideal Giggles doll for my mother. Even though these large dolls take a lot of hair, I love re-rooting them. The end results of these re-roots are always fantastic and make for quite a sense of accomplishment!
Giggles started life looking like this:
Ready for the unveiling? Da Da Da DAAAAAAAA.
Giggles was re-rooted with Old Bubblegum Nylon hair from Dollyhair. I purchased a total of six hanks of hair to root this Giggles. The owner of Dollyhair probably thought I was crazy, always coming back to order the same color I had ordered just weeks before. Let’s just say, I’m not very good at estimating how much hair I’ll need for a re-root… :p
I love this bubblegum pink color on Giggles. It makes her look like a young Jem (from Jem and the Holograms). Her outfit was purchased from a vender at the Kane County Doll and Toy Show. It was originally made for American Girl dolls, but fits Giggles well enough.
The color looks great on Giggles. It definitely sets her apart from the pack, not to mention my earlier re-root! Overall, I’m very pleased with how this re-root turned out!
Re-Root: Susie Sad Eyes
I purchased a Susie Sad Eyes/Little Miss No Name lot online earlier this month. I’ve wanted to try my hand at re-rooting both dolls and the price was great. The first doll to be re-rooted? Susie Sad Eyes. Susie Sad Eyes dolls (of which there were many off shoots by different companies) were made in the sixties and seventies and were inspired by popular artist Margaret Keane’s big eyed portraits.
Susie started with rooted black hair. The hair plugs were few and far between. I’m still amazed the sporadic hair plugs actually work well on the head! Also interesting to note is that Susie has quite a cone shaped head!
Susie received some left over hair I purchased from Dollyhair. (I’ll edit in the exact name of the color when I go through my supply box!)
I think Susie looks much happier with this brighter shade of hair. It suits her pale face much better than the black she arrived with.
Susie is currently decked out in part of a vintage Skipper outfit. I look forward to finding another Susie to re-root and experimenting on adding hair plugs to give her hair a fuller look. She’s not the most well made of dolls, but I like how this re-root turned out!
New Re-root: Skooter
Recently, I re-rooted a Skooter with left-over Cherry Pie hair I had from my Midge re-root. I wouldn’t have thought it from her factory set, but Skooter really doesn’t have a whole lot of hair plugs! Next time, I think I’ll add some in (which will be a first for me!) to give her hair a fuller look.
As always, the hair was purchased from Dollyhair and total Skooter only took a few hours.
Re-Root: Giggles by Ideal
Recently, I set out to start re-rooting larger dolls. You’ve seen my work on Chatty Cathy already and now I’m ready to unveil my newest re-root (finished yesterday) done on the adorable Giggles doll by Ideal.
Giggles is a pain in the neck to take apart. Anyone who is thinking of re-rooting a Giggles, be warned that it takes a bit of work to unscrew the body and ‘un-cork’ the head. For Giggles eyes to move, her head is on a track of sorts (referred to in this post as a joint) that goes up and down. To re-root Giggles, you have to pry the joint off her head very carefully and then pray that you’ll be able to get it back on when the time comes.
Here’s a shot of the body. They definitely don’t make dolls like this now a days!
See that black circle connected to the off white border around her neck opening? That is what you have to pry off. My mom used a cake icer to get this done.
After getting all her hair off of her head, I went to work. I re-root with a re-rooting tool purchased via Dollyhair. It cuts down on time and is easier on the fingers. It only took four days start to finish on this re-root. I’m sure it would have taken much longer with the needle method. Remember, you’ll need to get crafting glue to secure the hair after you’re all done re-rooting with the tool. Otherwise, you won’t be able to style it well.
Ta-da! Here’s the finished product. This Giggles now has a head of ‘Chocolate Pudding’ nylon hair. It took a total of four large hanks. To get it to crimp a bit, we braided the hair and then hot boiled it down. Getting her back together was a pain in the neck, but I love the end result of this re-root!
New Re-Root: Chatty Cathy
Check out pictures of my newest re-root– Mattel’s Chatty Cathy! The re-rooting process of this doll was pretty similar to the smaller fashion dolls I’ve done in the past. The main difference was the number of hanks it took to finish this girl! I kid you not, it had to have taken a good ten hanks to re-root this Chatty Cathy and five orders to Dollyhair! Both my mom (owner of the doll) and I love how this turned out!!!
After my mom styled this girl, she noticed an odd similarity between Chatty Cathy’s face sculpt and another 18″ doll line’s face… Can you guess? Okay, I’ll let you in on it. We think that Chatty Cathy looks a lot like Pleasant Companies/Mattel’s American Girl line. Same beddy bye eyes, same chubby cheeks, same mouth with two front teeth showing… Odd, huh?
Here are some pictures of my newest re-root!
Thanks for peeking! So what do you think? Have any questions? Do *you* think she looks like an American Girl with this hair style? Comment and share your thoughts!!! Subscribe via e-mail for more of my re-roots and other dolly news!
New Re-Root: Midge
Just thought I’d hop on the blog to post a few pictures of my newest re-root! This doll belongs to my cousin. She came in with some pretty abused hair. To keep in character, I decided I would stick with the red tones, but amped them up a bit to give her a little more edge. (How boring would it be to re-root with the same exact color?!)
I think she turned out quite well! Hopefully my cousin thinks the same!!!
My Newest Re-Root
Here’s some pictures of my newest Skipper re-root! She originally came to me via Ebay with pretty blonde hair. She looked like every other Skipper from the 80′s. So, I decided, why not cut her hair off and give her a fun new color— like florescent pink?
The pink color is actually *very* similar to the color Kimber (Jem and the Holograms) is rooted with. Because I was running pretty low on pink toward the end, I gave her some blue and glow in the dark highlights.
Overall, I really like this color on Skipper. This Skipper is wearing the outfit I puchased her in, which actually goes fantastically with her new look.
Have you re-rooted something recently? Share it in the comment area! Have any questions about this Skipper? Ask away!
New Reroots on Flickr
I posted two ponies and a Buffy reroot on Flickr. Check the sidebar on the right!
How Ya Doin?
Just checking in. I re-rooted Mattel’s Buffy doll the other day with a deep brown/purple hair color. She’s still in the hair salon. :p Also completed was a MLP G3 re-root. She is, also, still in the hair salon. Pictures will be posted when they’re ready for their debut.
Recently, I’ve been having trouble with Captain Jacks stand. Looks like I’ll need to find another one that is a little less flimsy. He seems to like to tilt forward, which on his high shelf and the fact that he shares it with Gene dolls is NOT a good thing. I guess he couldn’t be perfect. *sigh*
New Re-Root: Twist and Turn Mod Era Barbie
My most recent re-root is ready to post. She’s my mothers childhood T/T Mod Era Barbie. Her sandy blonde hair was getting a bit dry and was in dire need of restyling. The hair color chosen for her turned out to be ‘Evil Enchantress’ Nylon. That seems to be my moms favorite hair color to put on her dolls– a Kiddle I did before has the same hair color!
Overall, she turned out fantastic! She has a more updated hair-do, complements of my mothers styling, and the color looks great on her Mod face. Now if only I had had the courage to do the eye-lashes. : p
More pictures can be found on my flickr!
