Question about hair swapping

I second Stryker -- very nicely done and thanks for the explanation and photos.

Excellent @MerylAkiba! I'm realizing we have a lot of options, I never would have guessed! I can't wait for my heads to come in!!!

Thanks for that So many heads I liked that I didn't want the hair for, or vice versa.

That's super! Looks great!

The KT005 looks great with green hair. Would be perfect for Top Cow's Aphrodite IV character.
Thanks for the tutorial!

@MerylAkiba that actually looks really good. Thanks for your mini tutorial. Haven't tried re-rooting or swapping wigs with other heads yet. I've only swapped wigs once between 2 different Phicen heads and that's about it.

skywalkersaga wrote:Thank you for asking this question, Peaches, it's something I've been wondering myself. Please let us know how the boiling method turns out for straightening the hair, as it's something I've considered attempting (and likewise, boil-perming).

Fingers crossed, for whatever method you end up using! : )

I tend to straighten doll hair using a flat iron. It's the most effective, but can be very damaging if you are not careful (ie. melting the hair and possibility of ruining the flat iron in the process). But it gets the job done fast and easy if you are careful and very aware of what you are doing.

doodlehobby wrote:
I tend to straighten doll hair using a flat iron. It's the most effective, but can be very damaging if you are not careful (ie. melting the hair and possibility of ruining the flat iron in the process). But it gets the job done fast and easy if you are careful and very aware of what you are doing.

I saw on a youtube video, that misting or making the hair wet, using anti burn stuff for hair, *can* help. But if it's acetate or something easily burned, it probably won't work and it's hard to tell what the rooted hair is made of isn't it?!

I’ve seen folks just dunk the head in hot water (microwave hot; not boiling), and just held it there for a bit, then brought it out and brushed it with a Barbie brush to straighten it.

Stryker2011 wrote:I’ve seen folks just dunk the head in hot water (microwave hot; not boiling), and just held it there for a bit, then brought it out and brushed it with a Barbie brush to straighten it.

This is a good method, thoughI think it likewise is also dependent on the hair -- if I recall correctly, there are certain types of doll hair that hot water can damage and make it go frizzy.

It's all so stressful when you don't know what kind of hair is on these things. Some of the hair feels a bit different as well.... the hair on the Peak Toys feels slightly lighter and thinner than the hair on the Kimi Toys, for instance (though I still don't know what either are made of ).

Yes, I've done that with doll wigs, @Stryker2011 and with really great success.  Long time ago, I had a messed up wig with spiral curls everwhere.  I did the hot water dunk, a few dunks, and combed it, and although it still had waves, it was quite nice and natural looking.  Soaked it in Downey fabric softener and it was like new

So true, @skywalkersaga if only we knew what we were dealing with! I guess we have to get to the point where we say "I hate this, i don't care if I mess it up, lets do something"

Peaches wrote:I saw on a youtube video, that misting or making the hair wet, using anti burn stuff for hair, *can* help.  But if it's acetate or something easily burned, it probably  won't work and it's hard to tell what the rooted hair is made of isn't it?!

Yeah, I agree, it's very hard to distinguish between the hairs used by the manufacturer. No arguments there.

In regards to the flat iron, you need to keep the hair moist at all times when using it. You cannot have it dry or semi-dry as it will burn and melt the hair almost instantly. And you need to do the pass quickly and on low heat or risk melting the hair.

Stryker2011 wrote:I’ve seen folks just dunk the head in hot water (microwave hot; not boiling), and just held it there for a bit, then brought it out and brushed it with a Barbie brush to straighten it.

The real issue I find sometimes is that it doesn't really straighten the hair and can resort back to its original state. Flat ironing the hair (at least for me) seems to be the only solution for cases like this if I want 'permanent' straight hair to work and style with. Generally speaking, I tend to wash the hair first using hair conditioner. Then using a lice comb and very small strokes clean the hair of gunk and whatever may be tangled in it. After that I flat iron it to straighten. Once straightened, I mist the hair and start styling. Or leave alone.

skywalkersaga wrote:This is a good method, thoughI think it likewise is also dependent on the hair -- if I recall correctly, there are certain types of doll hair that hot water can damage and make it go frizzy.

It's all so stressful when you don't know what kind of hair is on these things. Some of the hair feels a bit different as well.... the hair on the Peak Toys feels slightly lighter and thinner than the hair on the Kimi Toys, for instance (though I still don't know what either are made of ).

So true... I'm tempted to restyle some of the heads provided I have enough hair to do it and not expose any bald areas of the head. Another completely different issue altogether. LOL

Ahh, the dreaded bald spot ... many a time it has thwarted me, lol.

For me this is a rather big issue that I do have with a lot of these 1/6 female headsculpts — the faces can be nice but the hair is ... frustrating. :/ Many seem designed to just stay permanently in whatever style they come in, and most of that is just down and loose. And so attempting to style it often ends up leaving the hairline/ scalp exposed. Or, because the hair comes layered or rooted to make it lie a certain way when down, trying to put it up or in an intricate style is difficult if not impossible.

The removeable / swappable scalp is supposed to solve all that, but it’s difficult to do without damaging the head and the scalp line again makes it so one tends to need to leave the hair down regardless just to cover that up.

I know these are not meant to be fashion dolls, but this isn’t just about fashion or hairstyle issues — the quality of the hair on these sculpts is not always to my liking, nor does it seem fine enough or even the right texture to actually be ‘to scale’. I’ve seen people go to great lengths to make their figures look realistic, only for said realism to be spoiled by the coarse, poufy hair on these heads. Though I will say it seems perhaps it is getting better with some of the head sculpts out there. : )

I guess it would just be nice to have more versatility with the (factory) hair, such as perhaps having an option of bald (and / or un-rooted) versions of certain of the factory painted heads, so one could more easily wig them, (re)root them, or just leave them bald , etc.

About the only way to solve the hair/scalp line issue is to have a few different versions of the same bald (full, non-removable-scalp) head sculpt, and then glue the hair on yourself, unfortunately. That way, as you glue the hair on, you’d have to think of the direction you wanted the hair to be (up or down, pony-tail or loose, etc.), and once in that style, it would pretty much have to stay that way. I imagine this is why most up-do hair styles are either sculpted or mixed media — so there isn’t a scalp line. Even the toy companies haven’t found a good solution to this problem — at this scale anyway.

Stryker2011 wrote:About the only way to solve the hair/scalp line issue is to have a few different versions of the same bald (full, non-removable-scalp) head sculpt, and then glue the hair on yourself, unfortunately. That way, as you glue the hair on, you’d have to think of the direction you wanted the hair to be (up or down, pony-tail or loose, etc.), and once in that style, it would pretty much have to stay that way. I imagine this is why most up-do hair styles are either sculpted or mixed media — so there isn’t a scalp line. Even the toy companies haven’t found a good solution to this problem — at this scale anyway.

Yeah, it's understandable. And I know that hair is pretty tricky at this scale no matter what, but I just get frustrated sometimes. I do like to have multiples of the same headsculpt anyway, just because.

Sorry if I seem to constantly harp on the hair issue, it's just been driving me nuts lately.

Weird question, but I've seen people mentioning 'painting' hair in the past -- is that even possible? To use thinned acrylics to paint or 'dye' hair? I use it for fabric painting, but didn't think it would work on doll hair. O.o Has anyone successfully used that method of changing or tinting hair colour before?

I used copic markers and alcohol ink to tint this hair from platinum blonde to pink/grey. It’s faded a bit over the months though.

Kirsty - curvy mtm by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

Kirsty by Christine Sutcliffe, on Flickr

That's so pretty! Thanks for the tip! ^.^

That does look good! @Lynkhart

Really cool!

rollotomasi wrote:The KT005 looks great with green hair. Would be perfect for Top Cow's Aphrodite IV character.
Thanks for the tutorial!

Glad to see someone else showing some love for that series! The art on the 2013 relaunch was even more stunning than the original. Totally agree that the head/hair combination would be PERFECT.

Stryker2011 wrote:Okay. I just checked a couple of the DS Toys head sculpts that I have, and the scalp pieces are not removable. They glued them in with some seriously strong stuff. If you wanted to change the hair, you'd have to shave the head and use a wig, or glue the hair onto the bald sculpt.

What is the best way of separating the plastic part feat. the hair from the plastic part featuring the face?
Brute force?

If brute force fails, what is the best way to shave the hair off? ..a scalpel would probably do the trick.

(thanks)

ukshaun wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:Okay. I just checked a couple of the DS Toys head sculpts that I have, and the scalp pieces are not removable. They glued them in with some seriously strong stuff. If you wanted to change the hair, you'd have to shave the head and use a wig, or glue the hair onto the bald sculpt.

What is the best way of separating the plastic part feat. the hair from the plastic part featuring the face?
Brute force?

If brute force fails, what is the best way to shave the hair off? ..a scalpel would probably do the trick.

(thanks)

If they are not removable, don't try. Just shave the head, like Stryker suggested. Small scissors pressed against the head surface should do the trick.

Some head sculpts use separate hair pieces, usually softer plastic into which the hair is rooted, and sometimes these are attached with glue that is pliable enough to allow them to be ripped off -- or glue that stops holding eventually (I discovered this accidentally on a couple of heads recently) -- so yes, you can force it, yank it off, or pry it off with some tools (small flat head screw driver?) and maybe heating it up first would help. Just make sure you don't damage something you want to see later.

With sculpted (molded) hair, if you are dealing with PVC, heat up the head and whittle away with an X-acto knife. If resin, I guess you need to use a Dremel and a respirator of some sort -- it's nasty business, and nowadays I draw a line at that.

GubernatorFan wrote:

ukshaun wrote:

Stryker2011 wrote:Okay. I just checked a couple of the DS Toys head sculpts that I have, and the scalp pieces are not removable. They glued them in with some seriously strong stuff. If you wanted to change the hair, you'd have to shave the head and use a wig, or glue the hair onto the bald sculpt.

What is the best way of separating the plastic part feat. the hair from the plastic part featuring the face?
Brute force?

If brute force fails, what is the best way to shave the hair off? ..a scalpel would probably do the trick.

(thanks)

If they are not removable, don't try. Just shave the head, like Stryker suggested. Small scissors pressed against the head surface should do the trick.

Some head sculpts use separate hair pieces, usually softer plastic into which the hair is rooted, and sometimes these are attached with glue that is pliable enough to allow them to be ripped off -- or glue that stops holding eventually (I discovered this accidentally on a couple of heads recently) -- so yes, you can force it, yank it off, or pry it off with some tools (small flat head screw driver?) and maybe heating it up first would help. Just make sure you don't damage something you want to see later.

With sculpted (molded) hair, if you are dealing with PVC, heat up the head and whittle away with an X-acto knife. If resin, I guess you need to use a Dremel and a respirator of some sort -- it's nasty business, and nowadays I draw a line at that.

Thanks..
I have a head sculpt and wig on order. Until both items arrive, i have little to go on as to what is required. If the wig is punched into soft plastic, then i will attempt the shave head route. If the wig arrives and the hair is punched into solid plastic, then i will have to attempt to remove the plastic section of the head sculpt. It will be something new 1/6th scale to learn.

I trimmed the hair off scalps with hair cutting scissors, and then shaved the remainder as best as possible with a disposable razor — it’s virtually impossible to get it all off, but you can get close.

Yes, I trim it down as much as possible. If the scalp is removeable, I even sometimes remove the hair entirely (it's woven into the holes underneath, and I cut it and it comes out more easily). Then there's nothing but the bare scalp with the holes in it. I sand the scalp down to remove the shine, and then I glue real lamb hair to the scalp.

Stryker2011 wrote:I trimmed the hair off scalps with hair cutting scissors, and then shaved the remainder as best as possible with a disposable razor — it’s virtually impossible to get it all off, but you can get close.

Funny enough a razor crossed my mind.

ukshaun wrote:Funny enough a razor crossed my mind.

That might be useful, but at a fairly late stage of the process.

I have done a bunch of rehairs over the years, but always going from plastic molded hair to real hair (like Sky mentioned). At any rate, some of the steps (past getting rid of the original hair) would be the same. Here are a few of the more informative ones I've posted --

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t2126-converting-arnold-schwarzenegger-kp-conan-head

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t2335-converting-sebastian-stan-ht-bucky-barnes-head-updated

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t2006-converting-jason-momoa-ht-aquaman-head

Halfway down here I’ve got a step by step of how I rerouted a silicone scalp on a Kumik head with mohair if that’s any use!

http://lastalliancestudios.blogspot.com/2017/02/aeryn-stormwind-nord-sellsword.html?m=1

Lynkhart wrote:Halfway down here I’ve got a step by step of how I rerouted a silicone scalp on a Kumik head with mohair if that’s any use!

http://lastalliancestudios.blogspot.com/2017/02/aeryn-stormwind-nord-sellsword.html?m=1

Arnold works well, given the type of Warrior hair required - slightly messy, wind-swept, in a time when shampoo as we know it had not been invented.

Bucky Barnes - i sense a slightly darker shade of hair color would have fitted better with the front plastic hair area.

Aquaman - the best of the bunch. The real hair with product works very well on his head.

Lynkhart wrote:Halfway down here I’ve got a step by step of how I rerouted a silicone scalp on a Kumik head with mohair if that’s any use!

http://lastalliancestudios.blogspot.com/2017/02/aeryn-stormwind-nord-sellsword.html?m=1

Tibetan mohair, punching it in. That must have taken some time. The results were worth it.
When my head sculpt and wig arrive, i will attempt to make the wig work! without the need for hole punching.