Sawing is not as scary as it sounds!
The Superior head mold brings in some challenges to the customizer, as the whole top of the head is one solid dome of plastic, sealing the front and back head pieces. We now have to use a jeweler’s saw to cut across the dome to seperate the two halves of the head.
The first step will be to cut along the scalpline with a sharp x-acto/pen knife. You will cut just the back half if you are doing eye surgery, all the way around if rerooting.
we’ve noticed a trend in later SBL models - their scalps are attached with far less glue than the first few dolls released, and in some cases, the scalp flanges come out cleanly. Puchimadam recommends you make your first cut across the back of the scalpline only 2-3mm deep, then gently tug the hairplugs to see if the flange will pull out. it may lift in some areas, but stay glued in others. you can selectively trim off the glued flange sections, salvaging as much flange as possible.when the time comes to re-attach her scalp, you will need to use sharp scissors to trim the long sections of flange down to 5mm. the full-length flange is nearly impossible to fit back into the channel.
If you are only opening for eye surgery, stop cutting a little past the side seams, then carefully lift her scalp away from the head and fold it inside out towards the front. If there is a lot of glue underneath the scalp you will have to use an x-acto knife to slowly slice through the glued bits so that the scalp can go free. (Try not to cut hair roots otherwise those roots could fall out.)If you plan to reroot, try pulling the front flange out. if it is glued too tightly, continue cutting the rest of the scalp.
I like to make a cutting guide by pulling a piece of masking tape across her head from side seam to side seam.Start cutting her across the top of her head… move carefully, slowly, and keep the saw horizontal. Be sure to protect your worksurface from dust, wear protective eyewear and keep your mouth closed!
After you have sawed just up to the point where the channel starts, insert an x-acto knife into the crack, and then with a careful and slow sawing and prying motion against the dome, cut through the layers of plastic inside the dome. Please do it away from your body so that if anything goes flying when it breaks through, you don’t cut yourself.
Also stick the tip of your x-acto knife into the rubber flange that is left in the channel and slice it so that it too is severed and ready for popping open.
You may want to just cut as much as you can, and then periodically stick a screwdriver into the crack and do little twisting motions in an attempt to ‘pop’ the last bits of the seam. It may be all it needs to finally come open.If she is folded over and scalp still attached to the front side, you may want to let her scalp go back to its normal resting place (unfold it!) so that it does not stretch out the rubber. You can always fold it again to put her together.
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Don’t get high on saw dust.
Please be very careful with the craft knife. I’ve just come back from A&E after slicing through my thumb quite badly while scalping a Blythe.
Hiya, no matter what i do i just cant seem to pop her head apart, wfter having sawn the dome. I tried wedging in screwdrivers, and ive even tried squashing her head from the side to further pressurise the seam but it just wont pop, and her face is still totether. I wondered if you could help, i would be very pleased if you could, many thanks, Jules
Jules, you might want to re-do the step 5.
Exactly. step 5 is the trickiest. it helps if you have a new x-acto blade and go very slowly. Please make sure to cut away from you, like Michelle said, the knife is very sharp and if you push too hard and she pops open, that blade can cause some trouble.
This site is so useful..
I am now in the midst of opening up my prima head using this as a reference..
My NF came scalpless, and i popped her head apart by taking out the screws, and gently prising the face plates apart.
why do people saw if i may ask?
oh dear this is all harder than anticipated, im killing my dear prima violet eek, ive never done this before
What kind of GLUE do I use to put her back together??
snowgirl: check out the paints and glues guide
Do you have to scalp the doll before a simple wig replacement? Or can you just apply the wig when you take the scalp off? Thanks!
If I want to do a hair reroot do I need to saw through her head or is that only for messing with her eye mech? Thank you.
jeannie - yes, you only have to saw open the head to get to her eyemechanism.
annette - you can usually just pull the doll’s hair into a ponytail or bun before putting the wig on. if you take the scalp off, you may want to put a “spacer” between the wig and her head since the scalp is about 1/4″ thick.
can you scap and change the hair on petite blythe? i´v been meaning to buy a blythe put don´t know if i should buy a regular size or petite (cheaper i don´t have the money…) but restyling really seams like the fun part to me.
answer this and make me a happy blythe customizer to be… ^^
“scalp” darn…
Newbie - Yes, technically you can, although the process is different. You need to unscrew the screw in the back of her head, and then carefully pull the two halves apart. you may have to score around the edge of her scalp with a sharp blade.
The scalp has a very thick ring of rubber around it that makes rerooting difficult unless you cut away most of the ring.
Good luck and have fun!
thank you! i´ll keep that in mind!
I just scalped my SBL…and when the scalp came off (there was no glue at all!) it looked nothing like step 2, more like step 3. What exactly is that in the step 2 picture? Her scalp had no flanges to speak of…?
Verilens - what blythe do you have?
She’s a PiccaE.
verilens - interesting! maybe they changed the scalp mold in later SBLs!
verilens - did you cut all the way around your scalp? the picture in step 2 shows a doll that had so little glue that her scalp was not cut. if you cut all the way around, then the “flanges” are still inside her plastic head. Don’t try to remove them, it will make gluing the scalp back on more difficult.
Thanks Melissa ^^
I’m gonna take my girls scalp off, next week!!! But I don’t have the guts to cut her open!!
Novelty: You should try popping the front or back of the face off with leverage before you saw. I’ve fully customed two SBL dolls now and I didn’t need to saw either one. The doll’s head is actually in three parts - the hard plastic scalp pops out of the front and back head pieces quite easily in my experience, just by shearing force on the glue which holds it in place, by using a padded screwdriver around the split in the neck to gently pry open the two sides. I really can’t see the point of sawing through the scalp, unless the original SBL doll heads actually were one whole piece of plastic.
Jo which sbl blythe did you opened like that?…doyou mean pop the scalp first,then unscrew the 2 screws at the back/bottom of her head then just prythe back or front faceplate off?…or just take the face plates apart with the scalp still attached?