Bangs are easiest to cut and style on a center part. They also look a bit better (IMO). It’s easy to poke new holes for a center part and just ignore the original holes. You’ll never see them under her new hair. Use a needle or awl for the holes.

I have just bought an Urban Cowgirl and she has a side part. Im not happy with her hair so I am going to re-root it but if I wanted to cut the new re-rooted hair and give her bangs will it make any difference that her hair used to hair a side part? Or am I just worried for no reason?

Of course, the hotter your dyebath, the better and stronger your dye will take. Remember, saran hair can withstand extremely hot boiling water, but nylon hair can frizz and melt if the water is too hot, so nylon hair should only come in contact with water that’s been brought to a mild simmer, when the tiny bubbles of air just begin to rise to the surface of the water. Nylon, however, because it takes dye so easily, does not need extremely hot water for a dyebath.

I know you didn’t inquire about polypropylene hair, but it’s appropriate to mention that it will not take dye at all. It’s completely non-porous.

Here in the United States, we have Rit Dye. I don’t know what other countries have Rit available to them, but I’ve been told that it’s not available in Germany or the UK. Dylon dye, which is a cold water dye, is available both in the U.S. and in Europe, but I’ve never used Dylon, and I’ve been told that it’s not as effective as Rit.

As far as bleaching synthetic hair, I read a review on the saran manufacturer’s web site about how saran hair is affected by different chemicals and agents, one of them being bleach. If I recall correctly, they stated that the saran hair’s color was changed by the bleach, but I believe it changed to an orange-y color. If you’ve ever spilled bleach on your carpet, you know that sometimes it doesn’t lighten to white; but instead, it simply becomes a different color.

I know that carpet fibers are often comprised of nylon/polyester/acetate blends, but I believe that the synthetic hair textile is extruded differently than carpet fibers are. Some nylon manufacturers will mix the pigment directly into the goopy melted nylon before it is extruded through the machine, while other manufacturers will do what’s called “dope dyeing”, where they extrude the hair in its colorless state, and then, after the white hair is spun around the spool, they dip the entire spool into a hot dyebath. I would imagine that dope-dyed nylon would be affected by bleach, but I would think that the nylon with embedded pigment could not be bleached. I am just speculating …

Great tutorial, but for those of you who are worried about scalp splits because the crochet hook is too thick, why not just take the plug of hair, fold it in half, and put the two ENDS of the plug (not the loop, but the two cut off ENDS of the hair that are now together because you folded the plug in half) through the eye of a needle, and then just put the needle through the loop of hair (just like it’s shown in photo 9), and once the needle comes out the other side of the scalp, pull the needle off the hair and secure it? Then, repeat the process again, because you’ll still have the loops on the inside of the head!

You know, there are a few different methods for rooting dolls, and Dollyhair.com sells a punch tool that would be a lot quicker than the locked loop technique. For that method, I do suggest that you swab some glue on the inside of the scalp once you’re finished, just to prevent any hairs from coming out. It ends up being very similar to the locked loop technique, except for the fact thatthe loops inside the head never get interlocked, hence the need for the glue.

Another method would be the needle and thread technique, where the loop of hair is pulled into the head via a thread. This method probably wouldn’t be any faster than the locked loop technique, but it may be easier for those of you who don’t want to use a thick needle, becauseo of course, the concern about splitting the scalp is always an issue.

As far as how much hair to use, Dollyhair.com sells hanks of hair intended for Barbie dolls in short, medium, and long lengths. Regardless of which length you choose, I always tell customers that Blythe needs somewhere between one and a half to two Barbie hanks. So if you just order two Barbie hanks, you’ll have probably more than enough hair for Blythe’s head.

Once you figure out how many hanks YOU need for a Blythe head (everyone roots differently, and some people use more hair in their plugs than other people do), if you find that you only need one and a half Barbie hanks, not two, then you can always order a Barbie hank that’s HALF one color and HALF another color, and we can keep the colors separate for you. That will allow you to order 1 1/2 hanks of color A, and 1 1/2 hanks of color B, and you’ll have enough hair for two Blythe heads