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Jaden · Veteran Member

Rooting hair on used toy dolls

Buffington · Guru

The rice sock works extremely well on the old hard Luca head so give it a go on this hard head. I wouldn't use the fine needles on the old dolls because they are a different material. Maybe a different guage needle

Jaden · Veteran Member

Thanks for your quick response. If you have any ideas on where I can find stronger needles for hard head dolls, let me know. As far as I know, Secrist doesn't have anything thicker/stronger than the 38 gauge size. If not, what is your advice on using wigs on dolls you are hoping to sell on ebay? Another question I have is: how difficult is it to replace doll roll sleep eyes ( eyes that close when the doll lays back and open when she sits up}? I see some cute used dolls out there with those kind of eyes that I'd like to reborn with Secrist eyes. Is it possible?

Buffington · Guru

You can check with Stephanie Sullivan at Hunnybuns for needles. She has several types to choose from.

Some people have gone to the clear cap wigs as they have a little less hair than most regular doll wigs. You can also thin the wig with thinning shears. Works pretty well I think. I've seen some really cute ones.

Changing out the "sleep eyes" is really pretty simple. People who are getting the walmart and Kids r Us Berenguers sometimes get the ones with sleep eyes.
You have to remove the head (of course) and remove the eyes. Now, some of the older dolls have something between the eyes that holds the eyes in place and a bar with weights on either side of the eyes. Some of the newer ones just have a weighted eyeball in a 1/2 metal back. You would remove the entire thing and throw away, but before you throw, you would measure (in mm not inches) the entire flat back of the eye so you know what size to get for the replacements. Or you can measure from inside corner to outside corner of the eye opening itself.

Make sure you look to see how they are inserted in the first place before removing. You may be able to put them right back the way the old ones were. You may have to use E6000 to glue them back in.

LovesDolls · Guru

The crown rooting needles are the strongest I've used. They only have 3 barbs and what a difference it makes! The softer doll heads are made by Bountiful Baby and some of the German made dolls. I broke about 30 needles using a rice sock on my Secrist twins (Zoe & Missy) whereas I only break about 5 on the Bountiful Baby heads. Comparatively, Secrist has the hardest heads since the new Buernegers have come out!

Heather M · Senior Member

If the head is too hard, you can just use a wig. I like to use the Kemper Cassidy wigs and then trim them and thin them out a bit.