How to Replace Sculpted Doll Hair

Love the face mold but hate the plastic hair? Here's my method for creating a rounded base that you can use to fit a wig onto.

Here's what you'll need:

-X-acto knife, scissors, or both

-Masking tape or duct tape

-Hot glue

Optional:

-tin foil

-Apoxie Sculpt

The first step is to cut off the old hair. Any raised edges are going to create bulk and will influence the shape of your wig cap. For now, only cut off the top of the head, leaving the back. In other words, you're removing a "helmet" shape, the lid of the head.

Take an X-acto blade and cut along the sculpted edge. Once I removed a chunk, I was able to do the rest of it with some 708H fabric scissors.

Next, place a piece of tape on top of the hole. Don't worry about it not covering the gaps where you cut out the sideburns.

Next, trim the tape so that it fits the shape of the head rim.

Crumple a piece of tin foil into a half-circle and hot glue the edges down to the tape. The foil's purpose is to fill space so you don't waste glue or Apoxie.

In the sideburn gaps, build up thin worms of hot glue from the base of the rubber, waiting for each layer to dry, until you connect with masking tape.

The next stage is to use either Apoxie Sculpt or hot glue to create a dome shape. Keep in mind, hair will add bulk, so try not to make the dome too big.

Now is the time to cut off the back of the hair if you want it to be flush and more rounded out. Since this head would have long hair for the custom I had in mind, I left it. But if you're going to do a hairstyle with close-cut hair in the back, you'll need to get rid of any protruding hair sculpt.

Once you've cut the back away, fill the gap with Apoxie or with hot glue as we did with the sideburns, building up layers from the nape of the neck until it connects with the hot glue helmet.

From here, you can create a wig to fit your

smooth new base. For guidance on how to make custom-fitted wigs, check out my article where I lay out the step-by-step process in detail.

Love,

Haley

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