Re-rooting dolls is a great way to give your doll new, longer hair, or give her a new color and to make her look quite different. It is also very handy for restoring dolls with missing hair plugs.

 

    In one way, re-rooting can be the easiest of customizing techniques compared to repainting or fashion making, but it also requires a lot of time and the determination to complete it.

 

    A Jem doll can have about 300- 350 plugs in their head (give or take), so that means re-rooting each and every one of those plugs. Depending on what time you take, it can take somewhere between 7-15 hours to re-root and that’s not including removing the head and removing the original hair and maybe even the first re-root may take a little longer till you work out what you are doing. Also, there are some areas such as the lower back of the head that can be tricky to get the needle through, so some techniques to guide it through need to be learnt on some dolls. But once you do your first doll re-root, the next ones become a lot easier, as you get the method of it going. And having a unique doll with such gorgeous new shiny long hair, is well worth the effort.

 

    With re-rooting, you can also add new plugs into the head, by pushing the needle through vinyl. I often do this to create a new hair line that is a touch lower, plus it’s a great way to even up any off track hair lines.

 

    Painting the scalp is also important if you want to give the doll a completely new hair color, as you don’t want a light pink scalp showing through of black hair. Also, painting the scalp, makes the head look nicer, as it stops the look of ‘bald spots’.

 

    Before you can get to starting on a doll re-root, there is some preparation to start with such as removing the head from the body. This can be tricky, but like many things, once you get the technique, it does become easier. Also, not all dolls are the same and some heads are glued to the neck ball a lot stronger than other dolls, so be prepared for the unexpected as it can’t be guaranteed this is gonna work smoothly every time.

 

    Following are photo tutorials with all the steps from removing the head to re-rooting your doll.

 

 

Keep going till all the plugs have hair and your doll is fully re-rooted and then place her head back on the body and you are done.