Like many stock dolls that come with curly or wavy hair, Cedar (my Monique Magnifique) came with atrocious hair (sorry, Cedar, but it’s true). Seriously, this is how bad it is:

And yet, I didn’t do anything about it for a long time. A long, long, long time (read: until a few days ago). And what did I decide to do? Give her a hair treatment! Now, there are tutorials and guides all over the internet on how to do this, there are many valid methods of doing it – this is just one of them.

First off, the supplies. You will need: a doll, a comb, fabric softener (I prefer liquid, but I have used the sheets before and piping hot water straight from the tap) and a towel. Oh, and time. And patience. Both of which are very important as well.

I start off by getting the doll naked. If I’m feeling mildly prudish on the doll’s behalf, I wrap them in a towel. For photography purposes, I wrapped Cedar in a towel to preserve her dignity (and because strangers on the internet who don’t understand Blythe can be pervs).  Then I filled my bathroom sink with hot water (as hot as the tap will go) and put two fabric softener sheets in, as that’s what I had available.

Her hair goes into the water. Note, I said the hair. Not the doll. If you love your doll’s eyelashes and face-up the way it is, I would encourage you to not let her get into the water. Also, there are some holes out the back of Blythe’s head. Water can get into there, avoid getting water into her noggin if at all possible.

After the hair gets fully saturated, I let her hair soak for a bit longer (usually 5-10mins, only because I’m impatient), then I rinse out her hair, then lay her hair out onto the towel and start combing. I start and the ends and work my way up to the scalp of the doll. Go slow! Tugging on the hair makes it worse – the hair is plastic, remember, tugging on it stretches it out and that’s what makes the frizzies. Plus, once the hair is stretched out, it’s stretched out forever.

Combed hair on the left, frizzy box-hair on the right.

I let my dolls’ hairs air-dry. To keep the bangs looking great (and flat!), I just pop one of the plastic headbands that the dolls come with over their hairs.

All done!