So, was gonna style my little Obitsu's hair up today and figured I might as well make a tutorial of it, since there's been a couple mentions on here of perms lately. So, heres what you'll need.
Comb, curlers, bobby pins, and a towel. You will also need your doll to be permed of course, and a pot of water. If you don't have curlers, you can use drinking straws cut in half(normal ones for tight curls, milkshake straws or bubble tea straws for bigger curls)
This is today's victim/star, who looks just thrilled. As you can see, I'm more than halfway done with getting the curls rolled up, but you can see how stick straight that lock of hair is originally. To start out, you'll want to separate out the hair into however many sections (I did six, cuz I had six curlers D:) Try to layer them on top each other instead of vertical strips, it'll make the curls lay more naturally.
I'm doing loose wavy curls, so I'm rolling bottom to top. For more spiral-y ones roll top to bottom, and twist the lock of hair as you go. (I might add pics of this later) Secure each curler with a bobby pin when finished.
Poor thing looks scared doesn't she? Lets give her a friend for the boiling-pot....
(Fluttershy: "Meep!" )
On Fluttershy I'm only trying to curl the bottom of her hair, hence the curlers not being all rolled up.
Now I couldn't take a pic of the actual boiling without fear of dropping both camera and doll into the pot, so I'll just describe it. You'll want to boil the water (it might not work on some fibers if its not actually *boiling*, and some fibers don't take well to boiling at all, so check what you're working with first!!!! ) and then carefully dip the doll's hair into the water. Use tongs if possible, you really don't want to burn your hand. If your doll has a painted face, you might not want to let that go in the water too much if possible. Make sure the hair all gets equal time in the water, and don't let it touch the sides or bottom of the pot. Different hair takes different amount of time to fully set, I usually go two minutes or so.
Remove the doll and lay her in the towel (she will be VERY HOT). Don't unroll her hair until she's cooled down, and if you're really worried about the curls setting, leave it to dry fully before undoing it. I wanted loose curls on my girls, so I just waited until they had cooled down. Unfortunately camera ate the pic of the girls with fresh-from-the-curlers hair. Its super sproingy and curly and sticks up strange when first unrolled. After a bit of drying and combing, it looks like this:
This also works on wigs, though you REALLY need tongs for that. Here's a wig I curled for Mizzy:
And one I straightened, just dip the wig repeatedly in the water and let it hang straight to dry.
If I can find the batch of ponies with permed ringlets I did recently, I'll post the pictures and instructions here as well.