It’s been a gorgeous President’s Day weekend on the east coast, which is the perfect time for a dolly makeover! This is my second post documenting the restoration of my early PC Molly doll. In part 1 we went easy, and tried to clean up Molly’s complexion. But in part 2, I make a more drastic change — I give her new hair!
Molly has been with me since 1989, and her hair was in terrible condition, as you can see:
Even so, I debated for about a week about whether to re-wig Molly. Typically any changes (even improvements) will reduce the value of a collectible. Plus I’ve heard a rumor that the doll hospital won’t service dolls that have been re-wigged, or modified dolls more generally (can anyone confirm/deny?). I decided to do it because 1) I don’t intend to sell Molly, so I don’t care about her value, and 2) I wouldn’t send her to the doll hospital anyway. She’ll need her legs restrung eventually. But since AG has started using knots instead of ferrels to string their dolls, I’d rather learn how to do it myself (and do it right!).
So I took the plunge and re-wigged my Molly. I started by removing her wig, using a spoon and some elbow grease. This was Molly’s least favorite part.
Her wig came off pretty easily, and I decided to save it in case I ever want to restore her to her former self. Here she is with her hair removed:
And here’s her hair. Yick. I soaked and rinsed it in a bowl of water for awhile, then put it on a mason jar to dry by the window. I plan to store it in a plastic baggie with some silica packets to keep moisture away.
Now for the really fun part! Shiny new hair!
I wanted to find hair that would be the right fit for my older Molly. A new wig might look fake on her. My goal was to stay as close to her true self as possible, and find a wig that would suit my Molly’s unique complexion. I started looking for gently used authentic AG wigs on eBay, and soon found the perfect solution: a lot of 7 AG wigs, so I could try different shades and find the one that best suited her!
After looking at each of the wigs, the choice was obvious. I choose a brown wig with bangs that looks EXACTLY like my Molly. I think this one is from a Girl of Today doll. It’s layered, so her braids will end up shorter or with more stray ends. But my Molly is not just any Molly, and I think that this wig fits her personality perfectly. Kit and Josefina agreed with me. I was so happy to have found the perfect new hair for my most precious doll!
(Don’t worry, she’s not naked at her wig party. PC dolls have body-suit perma-panties 😛 )
After we found the perfect wig, I glued it on using Tacky Glue. This part was tricky business. I pinned the bangs back and put the wig in a ponytail. In the process of getting her wig glued on, I still got a little bit of glue in her hair, which I rinsed off with water on a wash cloth. I also gently brushed her hair, and found a couple of other sticky spots where bits of glue had gotten on the hair. I cleaned these up, and left her to dry. I was so focused on doing it properly that I didn’t take any pictures!
Just for comparisons, here’s the before shot…
…and here’s the after shot.
Isn’t she beautiful? I am so pleased with how it turned out!
Over the sunny long weekend, Molly, Addy, Kit and I got out the camera for a photo shoot to show off Molly’s new look. Since the weather was so beautiful, Kit and Molly decided to go to the park to drink lemonade and trade stories about life during the Depression and WWII.
(photos removed by photobucket — new pics coming soon!)
Who should show up but Time-Traveling Addy! She was out on a walk taking photographs, her new favorite hobby. She offered to take a picture of Kit and Molly.
(photos removed by photobucket — new pics coming soon!)
Addy’s really getting the hang of this time-traveling photographer thing!
(photos removed by photobucket — new pics coming soon!)
Molly had a great time showing off her beautiful new hair, and I’m looking forward to many more years of loving her. Next time I’ll be doing an update on re-painting her face. Thanks for reading and hope you and yours had a great long weekend, too!
xoxo Toni
Dolls in the Closet 
I’ll look forward to your post on painting Molly’s face. I have an extremely pale #4 whose face makes her look rather ill, but I’ve been too chicken to attempt repainting her.
LikeLike