Materials for Rerooting & Wig Making

Learn how to re-hair your dolls and action figures? Here are the materials you need to get started!

Rerooting Tool

Reroot tools are used to poke small bits of doll hair into the holes left in a doll's head after the factory hair is removed.

You can find reroot tools on Etsy, but you can also make your own pretty easily. I use an off-brand X-acto knife, removing the blade and replacing it with a reroot needle. if you do this, make sure you get a blade handle with an x-shaped gap (which holds the blade in) rather than a straight line. This will just hold your needle better.

Rerooting needles can also be found on Etsy, but again, it's easy enough to make your own. If you have a pair of wire cutters, you can cut the loop of the needle on a slant to create the hook as shown above. I use size 8 embroidery needles (for Barbie and Monster High) because they tend to be stronger than normal needles and the loops are longer.

For small head holes, you don't want to use a needle that is too large. I made this mistake when I first started out, and I ended up creating tears in the heads of my dolls.

Wig Caps

To make a wig cap to build a wig onto, all you need is:

• A bald doll

• Plastic wrap

• A small rubber band or tape

• Pantyhose

• A paintbrush

• Mod Podge (glue)

All of these (excepting your doll) can be found at the dollar store.

For an in-depth tutorial on how to make wigs and wig caps for dolls and action figures, please refer to my blog post, "How to Make Wigs for Action Figures and Dolls."

Yarn Wigs

For yarn wigs, you'll need to get acrylic-fiber yarn. Acrylic yarn, when processed, is the smoothest among yarn types.

To process the yarn into hair, you will need:

• A wire cat brush

• A hair straightener

• Mod Podge

• A paint brush

• A silicone mat (optional but recommended)

For an in-depth tutorial on how to process yarn into doll-scale/action figure-scale hair, please refer to this short article, "How to Turn Yarn into Hair for Dolls and Action Figures."

Other Hair Types

Yarn is a common material for making doll wigs, but there are tons of other materials, such as saran and alpaca hair, which are also used. There are advantages and disadvantages to different materials. For a comparison between saran (typical factory doll hair) and acrylic yarn, here is a post I wrote called, "Saran vs Acrylic Yarn for Doll Hair."

Dollyhair.com offers a variety of hair types, and I know that Etsy also has a lot of vendors selling custom doll hairs.

Conclusion

Re-hairing your customs is super affordable and can do a lot to elevate their look. It definitely takes some trial and error, but with a little practice, you'll get good at it.

And if you get the hang of wig-making, you can even make some pretty good money selling custom doll wigs. I get the majority of my materials from the dollar store and have lately been selling wigs for around $50, give or take depending on the wig. It's a pretty good turnaround!

Happy rerooting and wig-making!

Love,

Haley

#dollrepaints #howtorepaintdolls #dollrepainting #repaintingtips #customdolls #customactionfigures #custombarbies #custommonsterhigh #blog #artblog #dollblog #customcollectables #barbierepaint #artdolls #dollart #Mrsuperclear #msc #rerooting #toycollector #Etsy #Etsyseller #monsterhigh #barbie #balljointeddoll #bjd #dollhair #customdollhair