How to Create Realistic Curls for Dolls and Action Figures

Here is my method for creating realistic curls! For this demonstration, I will be using acrylic yarn. I won't be going into details of how to process yarn into hair or how to make wigs since I have detailed articles on both already.

Here are both articles if you need them:

How to Turn Yarn into Hair

How to Make Wigs for AFs and Dolls

Now, here are the materials you'll need for this project:

• Hair straightener

• Wooden dowel/BBQ Skewer

• Hairspray (optional but strongly recommended)

• Water-based glue

• Superglue

• Needle/Straight pin

• Scissors

The first thing to be done is to process your yarn into hair. If you are making curls for an action figure, I would only tie one string of yarn to your stick at a time. For dolls, I always do two. The reason is, action figures will need smaller curls to be more to-scale with their tiny heads, and if the yarn is already sectioned off in such small clusters, making small curls is much easier.

After your yarn is good to go, simply wrap a section of hair around a wooden dowel or a barbeque skewer and roll it between the hair straightener, making sure you heat it evenly.

The size of the dowel will depend on the size of the curls you want. For the blond wig above, I used a barbeque skewer. Here, I'm using a small dowel because I want smaller curls to fit the scale of my action figure.

When you do heat the curls, make sure you don't roll the dowel all the way up to the knot on the yarn. In other words, leave a portion of the hair uncurled. Doing so will make your life much easier when you have to glue down the end (as you can see below).

When you're finished curling, spritz the curls with hairspray, cut them from their knots, and glue the flat ends down. I know the curls aren't very pretty at the moment, but they won't stay this way. I like to leave them in this state for now because it makes them a little more manageable when attaching them to the wig cap. Of course, you can always glue these directly to the doll/figure's head, but keep in mind a wig cap means the hair can be removed if you want to repaint the face.

A note before going any further: paint the wig cap to match the hair. I usually don't take this step because the cap tends to be covered completely by wefts. But with gluing individual curls, especially if you don't place them super close together, the gaps can be visible.

Trim the glued ends of the curls and adhere them to the head or wig cap from the bottom up. I used hot glue because it dries so quickly. Use a very small amount so as not to create bulk. I don't recommend using super glue because it creates a white stain on the hair. Fabric glue will also work, but it won't dry as quickly as hot glue.

Use a needle or straight pin to pull the curls apart. Be gentle with this part. The curls can get frizzy if you yank at them. Wetting them helps bring the curls back.

Here is the finished result! Realistic curls, perfectly to scale with an action figure with a head the size of a dime.

I made a few of these curly wigs, and I learned a few things from my mistakes that I'm going to share with you. One, I found that pulling the curls apart works better before gluing them onto the head (rather than gluing the rolled-up hair down and then pulling them apart). It gives me a better sense of what the curls would look like on the head before I committed.

While plastic wrap is usually great for tamping hair down, it ruined my first attempt. It made the curls too much of a helmet. The individual curls were lost.

Towards the back, I was getting impatient with gluing the curls so close together. It was taking forever to cover the cap, so I just glued loose curls over the blank space. I think this turned out better in the end because there is less bulk. You might want to be more deliberate about where you place curls around the edges, but in the middle spaces, go nuts.

Another note about placing curls around the edges: I wanted small and delicate curls for bangs, but I placed a wide curl weft at his brow. This is another blunder that showed me it's better to separate the curls before gluing them down.

That's it for now! If you have any questions, feel free to message me on Instagram, Facebook, or Etsy! :)

Love,

Haley

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