Mohair Reroot
How Much Mohair? To
reroot one Blythe doll, you will need to order 2 ounces of mohair.
it will take between 1 1/2 and 2 ounces of hair depending on the
fullness/poof you want to achieve.What Type of Mohair
to Buy? At this time, I only know of one mohair supplier that I
can personally recommend, Bountiful Baby -
www.bountifulbaby.com . Whether
you order curly, wavy or slightly wavy will depend on the look you
want. You should order the longest mohair (the 8+ length when ordering
from Bountiful Baby). The mohair will come bundled, rubber banded at
the tops of each bundle and underneath the rubber bands, the mohair
will be undyed so you will have to cut that part off. This causes you
to loose approx. 1 to 1 1/2" of length. Using the lock loop method
that I will describe below, you will also loose length when you fold
the hair over to make the loops.
Depending on the type
of Blythe you have, you will follow the instructions for removing the
scalp provided for
EBL/BL, or
SBL
Blythe dolls. *Note...if you are working on an ADG blythe, you will
follow the same instructions as for EBL/BL. |
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Once you
have the scalp removed, you will prepare the scalp by cutting the
hair very short and close to scalp. |
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Turn the scalp inside
out and using tweezers, pluck all of the hair out. After you've removed
all the hair, turn the scalp right side out.
You now have a clean
scalp, ready for new hair. |
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Dying Mohair - If you
want a fantasy or unique color, you may want to try hand dying. |
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Your best bet is to use a white base
color, but if you can't find white, you may want to try using a pale
blonde. I use RIT dye. I prefer to use
the liquid, but you can use powder too.
If using the powder, you will want to
make sure you mix really, really well and try your best not to let the
mohair sit on the bottom of the bowl or pan of dye, as bits of the
powder that do not fully dissolve will settle there and get on the
hair. If you do notice bits of the powder on the mohair, don't
worry, you can dissolve it during the rinsing process, but it will
just take some patience and added time.
Boil the water. |
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I lay a garbage bag on
the counter, covered with layers of paper towels and then my mohair
that is ready to be dyed. |
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If I'm using liquid
RIT, I will pour some in the bowls now, add a bit of salt and a drop
of dish soap and add the boiling water last. If I'm using powder
RIT, I will first pour the boiling water into the bowls, then add the
powder, salt and drop of dish soap. |
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Mix the dye baths
thoroughly. I like to make 2 to 3 different dye baths of varying
strengths. Depending on the amount of color variations you want, you
may not feel you need to do this. You will also get varied shades of
color by leaving the mohair in the dye baths for shorter and longer
periods of time. |
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Begin dipping small
bunches of mohair into the dye, until you have dyed all the mohair. |
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As I'm dying the
mohair, I will pull the small bunches out of the dye and drape them
over the middle of my sink to let them drip/drain a bit. I then rinse
the hair under warm water and I will use a dab of baby shampoo or dish
soap while rinsing. I do this to help get rid of the "mohair" smell
and also to help get any extra dye out of the mohair so that it won't
bleed later. |
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I lay the dyed, rinsed
bunches back onto the garbage bag lined with paper towels to help
absorb a lot of the water. I then transfer the
mohair onto cookie trays, lined with aluminum foil and layers of paper
towels.
I leave the mohair to
dry because I like to separate it into individual plugs while dry. |
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Preparing the mohair plugs -
I sit down with my tray to lay the
plugs on, the mohair beside me on a paper towel, a towel and a bowl of
water on my lap and a box of kleenex/tissue by my side. Don't
use tissue with lotion added to them. You want plain tissue. |
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I take a hunk of
the dry mohair and separate an individual plug. I find it easiest
to separate the plugs while the mohair is dry. I then run the
plug thru the bowl of water, making sure it is completely wet and
running my fingers over the plug from tip to tip to make sure that
it is free of matted spots and tangles. |
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Any bits of mohair
that come off the plug while I'm wetting and preparing it, I roll
up beside me on the towel and then use the kleenex to wrap it up
and keep it out of the way. I lay the
individual, prepared plugs onto the tray.
I always use 2
trays to lay out the plugs.
You will want to
keep them wet while rerooting. I find that if you try to root dry
plugs, they will tangle and matt easily.
I use a small
spray bottle to mist the trays of plugs throughout the process and
sometimes I end up running the plugs through a bowl of water
again. |
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Re-Rooting For instructions on how I root the
plugs onto the scalp, using the lock loop method, please visit my
Saran Reroot page.
- I like to root in a part line.
If you don't wish your mohair custom to have a defined part, you can
simply root in circles beginning at the crown.
- I add two to four rows for the part.
- I then continue, beginning at the
crown, circling around, and working my way thru the field and finish
with the very outer scalp line row.
- When working with mohair, depending on
the style I'm trying to achieve, I may skip holes and even entire
rows. The amount of holes/rows you skip will depend on the
fullness, the amount of poof that you want. It will also depend
on the amount of mohair you use in each plug.
- When you are finished rerooting...if
you did do a part line, you will now want to thatch the part, crossing
hairs from one side to the other.
- You can then style the mohair and if
needed refer to my
Mohair
Care page.
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