Dollieh Sanctuary

If I want to use rooting hair to make my own doll wigs what should I look for in a cap?

I use the crochet wig cap from here to root hair or yarn wigs.
http://byhookbyhand.blogspot.com/2012/08/simple-wigs-and-other-bleuette-goodness.html

http://byhookbyhand.blogspot.com/2011/08/wigmaking-for-tulah.html

A mesh cap will work well too. Look for one that is stretchy yet firm, like the strong lining mesh used in some nicer bra bands. You can hand knot it like lacefront human wigs or work out a latchhook sort of style for it with some wire. You have to be careful to strike a balance with the amount of hair though so it won't stretch the mesh out but also is thick enough to look good. A lot of cloth wig caps for protecting from staining are the right kind of mesh, I've found.

I'm going to be trying to do this soon-ish (read, after I have all the supplies, which is still holding on Paypal finishing my transfer, me ordering stuff, and that stuff arriving, and so on...), with those two brothers I mentioned. The heads I want to get have sculpted hare in a short style, so it seems to me it'll be easier to stick a wig over than risk damage trying to sand down and root that. I'll be making my own 1/6 wigcaps out of little bootie hose. I'm not sure where I saw how to do this, but I can post a few pictures if you think it would be of any help?

I made a white one ages ago to see if I could, and have it stuck on a blank barbie 'practice head' but never rooted anything to it. I'll need to make a couple in black for the siblings in question. (Ok, I'll just come out and say it, I'm trying to make dolls of Regulus and Sirius Black from Harry Potter.)

I have yet to actually try rooting hair to these, and am still a little iffy on how to make wefts from loose rooting hair, so... learning process?

One of my doll making books shows the hair being laid out in a row, I'm guessing on wax paper, then a layer of glue being put on an end to make wefts.

Somewhere I saw a method using tissue paper folded around hair ends then sewn a few times in a sewing machine.

DollyKim wrote:Somewhere I saw a method using tissue paper folded around hair ends then sewn a few times in a sewing machine.

That sounds a lot like a method I used ages and ages ago for making yarn doll hair for rag dolls. I'll probably give it a try. It sounds a lot less messy than the glue could be. Hmm... I'd be worried about hair coming loose sewing that close to the ends tho, so I might vary it a bit. When I did the yarn hair (I'd completely forgot about that until you mentioned that method, it was more than 20 years ago now) I just sewed the pieces (wrapped around paper) down the middle before cutting it apart. With this... I'm thinking use the tissue paper, sew it down the middle of the hair, then fold in half and sew just a wee bit down from that seam, It'd mean the middle of the hair strands would be the top of the weft and might be less likely to pull loose that way. Might be a little harder to get all the tissue paper out tho...

Luckily, for the first try I actually have pre-made black wefts from a wig that belonged to a ruined china doll. I took the wig apart (the wig cap had actually dry-rotted, so there was no saving it), and ended up with wefts that should work. Then I'll give making wefts a try.

Also, I can't believe I spelled 'hair' as 'hare' above (last post), and am placing all blame on Aunt Flo.

You're forgiven. It looks like there's You Tube tutorials on how to do it with a machine. Some cheap wigs have the ends folded over a couple of inches before being sewn along the loop ends. Another method had the hair spread out flat and the sewing done along the middle. As long as the hair is sandwiched between some sort of stabilizer you should be okay.

I saw a pic that looked like hair folded in half for needle and thread rerooting then hooked together some how, similar to the inside of some rerooted Blythe scalps. I might play with that idea later.

DollyKim wrote:As long as the hair is sandwiched between some sort of stabilizer you should be okay.

I'm considering getting some cheap rolls of tulle fabric, based on what was left of the dryrotted wig I disassembled. If I can match the hair colors reasonably enough, it might be effectively invisible. This month, tho, I must focus on Moving Day. I've got two big bookcases, an early xmas present, and my dolls are relocating to the new shelf space. Or they will be once I have the shelves assembled. Maybe I'll finally get some pictures taken, too...

DollyKim wrote:I saw a pic that looked like hair folded in half for needle and thread rerooting then hooked together some how, similar to the inside of some rerooted Blythe scalps. I might play with that idea later.

I've never seen one of those, but that does sound interesting. I wondered at one point if there was a way to root the hair to a wig cap as if rerooting, but I guess without the vinyl there it would lack the tension to hold the hair properly in place. Ah well, wefts it is.

You can do the hairs kind of like a latch hook rug or sewing a few hairs in place. Pack some provisions though because you can only do a few strands at a time to make it look good. Wefting will be a more direct way. Just use tear or wash away stabilizer on the wefts. Once there's a few rows of sewing on them they should hold together.

If the wig already has wefts see if you can cut them off the cap, look inside to see how they were sewn on. I've been able to do that when harvesting Halloween wigs. I keep the wefts intact until I'm ready to use them.

A couple of the BJD making books I have glue the wefts directly to the head. I originally asked for a wig cap because I have Gene doll and wanted to mix her up a bit. Her hair line is too wonky to make gluing wefts down easy.