Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Extreme makeover, Ken edition

On flickr the other day, I saw an awesome AA Ken redo (someone else's ken) and I loved it.  So I set out to reproduce it.  First, I found a cheap "beach steven" because he had molded hair without too much height to it.  He also has the newer, more barbie-like head join, so i didn't have to try to reroot the other type of ken neck--score!  Then I used straight acetone to 'erase' his black hair.  Bald Steven.
I used an extra big "doll" needle to root a line of hair across the front of his hairline. 

There were 14 plugs. If I were to do it again, I wouldn't put plugs quite so close to his ears--they weren't necessary and were harder to glue. 

I braided each plug and fastened it with a tiny rubber band. 
 Then came the hard part.  First off, I learned that hot glue would not work.  I like the instant-grab nature of hot glue, but it dried too bulky and shiny.  So I peeled it off.  Tacky glue would have been good, I think, but I didn't have any, so I went to good old Elmers school glue.  I started with the front center braid and ran a line of glue over the top of his head down to the nape of his neck and laid the braid in it.  It held for all of 2 seconds and popped back up.  There was no way to glue the hair down and have it hold...until I thought of pins. 

So I made lines with the white glue in contours around his head, and pinned the braid in at strategic intervals.  I let it all dry overnight, and it turned out pretty good, except in a few places the glue looked a little flaky, like he had dandruff. 


Fortunately, flocking covers a multitude of sins, AND made the braids look "softer", so the flaking doesn't matter. 



Once the flocking glue is completely dry, I will probably go back and fill in a little bit more where necessary.  But for now, the hair is close enough for government work!  I'm tickled. 

12 comments:

  1. Great job, Ms_Lola_77! I like the combination of the sewn braids AND the flocking.

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  2. Hi again! I would like to Follow this blog, but when I click on the Followers word to the right of your entries, no Followers actions happen. In case you forgot to enable Followers.

    Thanks in advance ;-D

    D7ana
    http://phillycollector.blogspot.com/

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  3. Thanks! I've got a few followers...so it must be enabled...but if it's not, how do I do it? I'm ridiculously new at this.

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  4. Yay! Coolness. One day I might try this. I like the idea that I have to do less rooting but the idea of braiding that small and that much makes me lazy. Hahaha.

    As for Dana's query, I usually add the URL of blogs I'd like to follow from my Dashboard. I hope that helps. :)

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  5. @Niel, I actually think using something like yarn to make the braids would be better than braiding 'hair'. It looks too slick when braided that tiny. I actually really love the "fuzzy" look it has now with the flocking and am thinking about cutting the long braids down his back off or somehow 'flocking' them.

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  6. looks good, gonna have to try this one. I did one with braids but I used the hot glue and flocking as well. It came out well, however it was a hassle to work with the hot glue LOL. Great job.

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  7. Love your blog, great tutorial!!! Thanks for joining my blog, you've got a new follower!

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  8. I did dreadlocks to a doll but I like this too! Great Job!

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  9. @Niel, thanks! I've got "I can quit anytime" in my blogroll now. Yay!

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  10. Awesome! I just some flocked hair on a Moxie Teenz doll!

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