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Friday, March 10, 2017

Dyeing to be Black Part 3 - Hair and Painting


Twistee Totsy's hair color fix

After assessing the initial results and what each doll would need, I worked on restyling the dolls' hair and painting those areas that required it.

Twistee Totsy's hair was pulled back into a ponytail.  The hair was darkened using a brown Sharpie marker as illustrated above.  Her soft-vinyl arms and head dyed well, but her gray-toned body required painting.  The Davtex head also required painting as did Adam's torso and neck.

All clones' hair has been combed and/or is in the process of being set.  One clone's head has been repainted as well as the Totsy body.  Adam's torso and neck have also been painted.  Several more layers of paint were required for all painted surfaces.
In the above photo, Babette's ponytail has been restyled with swirl bangs added.  The Davtex (splotchy-faced) doll's ponytail was restyled and repainting of her face has begun.  Both dolls' ponytails, from top to bottom, are held in place with several rubber bands.


After the dye bath, the unmarked  clone's original blonde bubble cut turned brunette with blonde highlights.
Upon removing her from the dye, the unmarked clone's hair was "all over her head."  I saturated the hair with mousse, brushed it down into a style, then wrapped the head with a ribbon that was taped into place, as seen above.   I left the ribbon in place for several days while I worked on other dolls.

 
After the Davtex doll's face was painted, mousse was applied to her bangs, which were then wrapped with a paper towel.  The paper towel was taped into place to allow the bangs to reset and remain flat (they, too, were sticking straight up after the dye bath and needed some serious retraining).

Completed heads:  Babette, unmarked former blonde bubble cut clone, and Davtex clone
In the photo above, the hair has been restyled on the clone heads, whites of the eyes repainted, the Davtex face repainted, and lip color freshened.  (While writing this post, I realized I did not repaint the Davtex doll's eyebrows when this photo was taken.  Yikes!)

The Davtex head now has painted eyebrows.  Black eyeliner has been painted on the lower eyes as it was originally.


Two clone heads have been placed onto the two Barbie bodies that were dyed a deeper color.

Babette and the unmarked clone use the dyed bodies.  The Davtex doll found another body later.   The arms of these more recent Mattel bodies, because they are made of different material than the bodies and legs, did not dye the same color as the other parts.  A remedy was found for this as well.



Unless they perm or "conk" it, Adam's original molded hair is not a style typically worn by African American males now or in the '70s era he represents.  I knew I would have to give him a new 'do.  I used my saved hair to create a rooted Afro. The beginning stages of that process are captured in the above image.  (I began by first gluing the hair to his head, but ended by rooting the rest with my rooting tool.)


The painting has been completed on Adam's eyes, torso, and neck.  Painting such tiny areas is tedious with a paint brush.  I use the tip of a toothpick or a straight pin, which is dipped into paint, then dabbed onto the desired area.  Rooting of Adam's Afro has been completed.  It was later trimmed with fingernail clippers.  Twistee Totsy's body has been painted and her head and arms placed onto it. At the time this photo was taken, her detailing was finished.  She just needed redressing.



Joe now has brown painted eyes.  After the areas of his joints and feet that did not dye were painted and sealed with matte varnish, I opted to paint his molded hair black.  The writing on his shirt was painted black and sealed.


35th Anniversary Barbie's hair only required replacement of the original rubber band, which had broken prior to the dye bath, and finger combing her bangs.   Her eyebrows were later repainted as well as the white area of her eyes.  Her complete detailing will be discussed in the next post.


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15 comments:

  1. I particularly like how all the fashion doll heads turned out. :D

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    1. Except for having to paint the one, I am pleased with how they turned out, too, Maricha!

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  2. Wow, a lot of work, but it appears to be worth it. Adam's reroot is great and I also like Joe's repainted hair and eyes. Thanks so much for sharing your process!

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    1. Yes, it was a tremendous amount of work, Phyllis. Determination got me through it! Thanks for the compliments. I hope you'll be as pleased as I am with the final results.

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  3. Thanks for sharing these results.

    I really like the guys. Adam, especially, looks like he's ready to pull on a dashiki. High five lil soul dude ;-)

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  4. Wow! Great work, Debbie! I have always wanted to do this. You have given me the courage to try it.😍

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    1. Thanks, G.G. Go for it! Use inexpensive dolls first just to test the "waters."
      :-)

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  5. What an interesting series! I don't know if I'll ever try this, but it is certainly interesting to know how you did this.

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    1. I'll try anything (legal) once that's doll related to achieve the desired effect.
      :-)

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  6. You did a lot of work! I really like the Joe!

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    1. Yes, Ms. Leo; a lot of work was involved to get them presentable, but I was determined to stick with it until the end. Joe did turn out nice, with his stubborn-jointed self (stubborn as in the joints refused to absorb any dye and were difficult to paint. Three more posts will wrap up everything that was done.


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  7. Looking good! I wanted to see more details about how you rooted Adam's hair.

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    1. Hi Roxanne,

      I thought I had written a blog post that included an image of the rooting tool I use. I wanted to at least include a photo of it. If I root another doll, I will illustrate the process. I can share that the tool is a felting needle attached to a fabricated knob. The felting needles are very sharp and break easily. You have to take great care not to stick yourself and to gently poke the head when rooting to prevent the needles from breaking. Adam's head was a snap to do, because its soft vinyl. I won't even attempt to root firmer vinyl, but it can be heated first to soften and make the process easier. The beauty of my method is that once the hair is poked into the head with the felting needle, it is there and glue is not required on the inside.

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    2. Hi again, Roxanne. I just remembered that I do have a Black Doll-E-Zine Doll Care Basics article about rooting using the felting needle process. Back in 2004, I became interested in the reborning doll process to include the process of rerooting hair. I tried my hand at it. This is documented at the link I will share. Please note that if you get any pop-ups that tell you to download something or click okay, don't do it. I think the BDE site at Angelfire might be corrupt, but escaping out of these popups will remove them and take you to the 2005 article. (My how time flies when you're having fun with dolls!)

      Here's the link: From Molded Hair to Rooted Hair.

      Tip: The key to rooting with felting needles is to insert each poke at an angle instead of straight.

      A similar felting tool to the one I used can be seen along with felting needles at this link.


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