How To Fix Frizzy Doll Hair - Perfect for Ponies!

I picked up this Pinkie Pie from the thrift shop for $.99 - and over John's protests:

 

"Where are you going to put that?"

"Your room, if you ask nicely."

(This from the guy with the Fluttershy shrine in his man cave. I mean, REALLY.)

Despite being covered in stickers & having a matted frizzball for hair, Pinkie was in perfect shape. Besides, I remembered seeing some tips on Pinterest for de-frizzing doll hair, and I wanted to give it a shot.

About five hours later... BEHOLD:

I used a different method on the tail versus the mane, and you can see the tail is a little more messy and natural looking, while the mane has those perfect Shirley Temple ringlets. I like the mane best, but really, both ways work!

So for the tail, I rolled sections of hair over a section of a drinking straw, bent the straw in half, and secured the two ends with a small rubber band:

Next I dunked the hair in almost-boiling water for a good minute or so:

 

 I let the hair cool, squeezed off the excess water, and had this:

Not bad!

For comparison, this is what I started with:

I tried the same method for the mane, but I made my sections of hair way too big, so the resulting curls were... less than impressive:

 Meh.

So next I tried wrapping much smaller sections of hair around a thin wooden dowel and flat-ironing, like so:

Bingo! Worked like a charm.

Of course you have to watch your heat level, since the hair IS plastic, but I had to crank my adjustable heat iron up halfway before the curl would hold, and even then I had to hold it on the hair for several long seconds. (Don't worry; there were no fumes or funny smells.)

Really the only hard part was separating out the hair to begin with, since the doll hair was incredibly rough and snaggy, and individual strands tend to stretch out instead of break. It gave me something to do while John and I watched TV, though, so I didn't mind. Oh, and I used a small comb, but mostly just the very tip of it to separate the worst of the tangles.

(There's a doll hair detangling spray you can make by mixing a little liquid fabric softener in water, but I didn't have any softener on hand. It looks really helpful, though, so next time!)

Since it's hard to iron the very ends of the ringlets without burning yourself, you can trim off any frizzy tips when you're done. I didn't bother, so you can see the bottom of my curls are a little rough. Adds character, though, right?

You can also just flat iron the hair straight if you don't want curls, but I'd recommend still working in small sections to keep it smooth.

And that's it! So, now to find a matching Fluttershy...

Any questions or tips? Share 'em in the comments!

*****

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