Marie-Grace Part Four: Straightening Her Hair

Besides the removal of the pincurls, people are probably most curious about how to straighten M-G's kinky hair. Yeah, we said kinky. :-P

This is another task we referred to AG Playthings to accomplish.

TIP: If you want to see any of our pics larger, just click on a photo and you will be brought to a Blogger slideshow of all the pics in a post.

LOTS OF WORDS coming up......

First we stripped the doll nekkid.

They we started running the hot water in the bathroom sink.

We held M-G's hair under the running hot water and filled the sink. Then we swished her hair around in the really, really hot water.

Now our hot water isn't boiling, but I would say it is a strong simmer.

We have an industrial strength water-heating system over here that will singe your skin right off.

Not something you want to put your hand in.

You can try your house's hottest water or bring some water to a simmer.

Swish your doll's hair around in the hot water.

The hotter the water, the less time you should be swishing.

Also, MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET ANY WATER IN YOUR DOLL'S EYES.

If they get wet, they will rust and get stuck and yucky.

After we finished swishing (probably about 3 mins for us), we dried her hair just a little bit so it wasn't dripping wet.

Then we carefully brushed her hair into the style we wanted it to be in.

Don't brush your doll's hair at weird angles or upside down at this point.

It may stay in that funky position.

M-G/Liv with her hair brushed out after the hot water treatment.

Now if you just let her hair dry, it will probably kink up again/become a little wavy in the areas that were in the braids.

So the next step is to flat-iron it with a ceramic human flat-iron.

Yes. A flat-iron. Be careful peoples.

Get adult supervision.

And only do this to AG hair.

Other doll hair will probably melt.

The doll's hair must be wet for this procedure. Like wet wet wet wet.

Not slightly spritzed.

Hence, why we like to just soak it in the sink before this step.

Find yourself a ceramic flat-iron that goes to "1" -- i.e. a very, very. very low setting.

One, peoples.

So you need one that has multiple heat settings.

You don't want to burn the doll's hair or melt it or toast it.

Just mild heat.

We got a Conair 3/4 inch ceramic flat-iron.

It has 25 heat settings, including "1."

GET A CERAMIC ONE NOT ANYTHING ELSE.

CERAMIC.

This one is like $13-14 at Target.

The smaller ones are better (3/4 inch) because you are just dealing with doll hair here.

We like the curve to ours as well - easier to hold and manipulate.

We turned our flat-iron on after plugging it in.

(Remember to plug it in.)

Then we also turned on the "Turbo" on/off option.

And we made sure the dial was set to "1."

One, peoples.

We brushed out a section of her hair (remember -- it has to be wet) and then ran the flat-iron over it.

We didn't clamp down very hard at all, just slightly. We just kept brushing it smooth and running the flat-iron over each section several times. Probably ten times for each section of hair.

Again, do this in the direction you want her hair to lay when finished.

If you flat-iron it at a 90 degree angle from her head, it may stick up funny.

We never heard any sizzling, which some people report as the water steaming. 

Don't burn yourself.

Don't burn the doll.

If you smell burning plastic/vinyl/flesh, stop flat-ironing.

We kept misting the hair as we went. 

Don't mist your doll's eyes.

(TIP: Fill your mister with distilled water. That is best for your doll's hair.)

Once a section of hair looks like it is drying, mist it up before flat-ironing it again.

We carefully went around the doll's head, doing all of the hair.

Once it all looked straight enough to us, we stopped flat-ironing it but kept brushing.

So as it is drying, keep brushing it straight downward, smooth.

Don't forget and let it just dry without brushing it. 

The curl or waves or kinks may want to come back. 

We found this method worked well with M-G.

Her hair has not gotten re-kinky, and we managed to keep a little flip at the ends of her hair, the way we wanted to.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Stay tuned for Part Five -- Liv Brooks with her newly straightened hairdo!

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