Barbie repair Archives - Page 3 of 8

August 23, 2021August 23, 2021

Don’t be afraid of re-paints

So the make up of your doll is gone? Do you have to throw her away? The answer is no. You don’t need to throw her away. You can restore her with a little bit of acrylic paint, a brush or two and a wet palette. What a wet palette is can you learn in the following video below.

I can tell you from my experience here that your Barbie doll or whatever fashion doll, or doll you have. You can save her. Just have the courage to do it.

Maybe I can help you a little with this article. When I started doing repaints I had no idea that extreme small brushes are available. At first I only looked in hardware stores like home depot for my brushes, tested some nail brushes for artificial fingernails and came to the conclusion they were not right medium for me. So far no problem. I did not spend a lot of money for them. I started to look online for extreme small brushes. I found them under the brand of DaVinci Micro. I don’t want to make any advertising and they are not the only ones I have. My work is not perfect in this stage and I plan to experiment further here with brushes from different brands, check their feeling in my fingers, their behavior when painting, getting to know them until I will find the perfect brush for me.

Problems with beautiful and equal eyelashes

My problem when I work with acrylic paint are still the eyelashes. I tried watercolor pencils but somehow mine are not sharp enough, still looking not realistic enough. Hopefully I can solve this problem with a special kind of sharpener ( which I already ordered for a test) and different brushes.

What I can’t recommend is doing repaints just when you cycled around because you hands will still shiver a bit so that painting details is not recommendable in this condition. I recommend to grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and wait at least 30 minutes. After that it should be no problem anymore.

What I can recommend is that you try to relax even when your day was very stressful. This has an effect on your result. That’s what I can tell you from my experience.

Stories/Experiences with repaints after cyling directly

Several years ago I cycled home when I still working as a private tutor and after that I want to continue my repaint. My hands were so shaky I really had problems to paint any line. This lead me to the conclusion not do repaints directly after cycling. Like I mentioned before it is better, more relaxing when you wait for 20 or 30 minutes before you start to paint. Then this problem should be gone and it should not be a problem anymore. I only tried this once after painting but having to cycle uphill every time I have to go home I never tried it again.

July 16, 2021July 16, 2021

Repaint dolls – avoid Cadmium in paint

I don’t know how many dolls you have at home but I saw this phenomenon among my Barbie dolls. I have a Jewel Hair Mermaid Teresa at home nrfb and for some time I observe that her lips started to bleed out even in nrfb condition.

JHMT — Jewel Hair Mermaid with lips whose color started to bleed

I think I could fix it when I take her out of the box but I don’t want to do it. I heard from another collector that this could have been caused by Cadmium in the paint itself. I recommend you when you repaint dolls – avoid Cadmium in paint. No good, seems to be the material to bleed.

Repaint dolls - avoid Cadmium in paint 2 — Liquitex acrylic color

How to solve the problem doing repaints?

In the last years the industry obviously worked on the problems of bleeding. There are for example now some red tones from Liquitex that are free of Cadmium. So when you don’t paint it on the dolls, it can’t start to bleed, right?

How to deal with little paint jars with a cap you simply can’t get open

So and when we talk about paint here at the moment I had the problem recently that I wanted to use some of my little jars filled with paint but the caps were stuck. Man, this really left some blisters on my thumb. It’s very unpleasant to have such a situation. Nevertheless I found a very easy solution in the model making corner.

It’s always good to a pair ( or two) of pipe tongs at home. They come in very handy when you have small jars with the cap problem.

Catsilk1 — Open the jar with the help of your pair of tongs.

February 18, 2021February 18, 2021

Re-rooting a Barbie doll

I just saw that I blogged nothing for about a month. The last month was a very busy one for me. I had less time to work on my projects after work due to winter weather. We got a lot of snow that caused traffic problems. I wasn’t able to use my bike for some weeks. Let’s cross our fingers that the winter will be over soon.

Coming home later caused some time problems. I was not able to blog so much as I did before. I somehow felt tired after work and my projects from January were time-consuming. For example I did a re-root and 3 days after working for approx. a hour daily on it, we got snow. We got a lot of snow. Approx. 50 cm in 26 hours. It was snowing all day long. Nice to look at but bad for the traffic.

So my project lasted longer than I wanted it to last since I did work on several videos when I did my re-root. Last year in September I found a Barbie head worth to re-root. I prefer the Vintage Barbie dolls at the moment. It’s less work because you just have to root the outer circle and it’s not full re-root. I think a full one would have lasted even longer. I already did a Ponytail Swirl Barbie in 2019 in a flamboyant red tone. This time I wanted to do a blond version. Somehow she reminded me a little bit of Marilyn Monroe while I did this. I even found a photo with a similar style. That’s how she reminded me of Marilyn.

The styling always needs a lot of time because the hair in not cooperative. After all I had 4,5 hours of film. I filmed the whole re-reroot of this Barbie but I knew I had to cut it down. Starting with 4,5 hours I managed it to come down to 1,5 hours without problems but even the 1,5 hours were way too long. I didn’t want to make a documentary. I wanted to show my viewers the makeover, the transformation. After cutting for one week I finally came to about 40 minutes. This was way more acceptable than the 1,5 hours. At the end I came down to approx. 35 minutes. Way better than before. If you want to see it, have a look below. I linked the video.

January 13, 2021January 13, 2021

Flax seeds – incredible versatile stuff

You might wonder how do I mention the tagline? Am I serious about this? Yes, I am. No, this is no joke. After eating them for a long time in my bread I discovered that flax seeds are even more versatile than I thought they would be. Why? You can do so many things with them that you probably don’t know all the areas to use them in. One of them I knew was simply eating them for breakfast or in breads. What I did not know were the other areas I stumbled across.

I don’t know how you feel about wearing a mask due to the coronavirus when doing grocery shopping but I hate to wear it. The result is that I avoid going shopping if possible. My preference is doing online shopping because it’s delivered to my doorstep and I don’t have to care about wearing masks. That’s also how I came across the flax seed gel. Doing some research for some of my next videos I came across a recipe for flax seed gel. I admit I was a bit sceptical at first. Would something that easy really work? Two options came into my mind, trying it or buying a hair gel from a supermarket. Before going to a supermarket I wanted to try the homemade flax seed gel. I always have flax seeds at home. So trying the recipe was no problem. At the end I had a lot of gel even from a small amount of flax seed. The consistency was a bit wobbly and I had my concerns about this stuff.

What to do with so much flax seed gel?

At the end after my repair adventure in the Barbie world I had far more gel than I needed and I had to find a solution what to do with the gel. I did some more research and found out that it’s possible to use it for your own hair care too. You can use it to feed your hair with Vitamine E by simply smearing it into your hair. The smell is a bit strange but it disappears after washing the gel out. I can recommend you to let it in your hair for 30 minutes before you wash it ( if you don’t use any silicone shampoos) to feed your skin. Anyway, here’s the video with the recipe.

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021

Nothing is impossible – You just have to know the way how to repair your Barbie

I know that I’ve been posting not enough in the last months but I try to improve my number of posts in the next weeks. Sometimes I need more time for my videos because you know I’m a part-time youtube creator. Sometimes you need more time because things don’t work out they way you want them to. It’s normal but you as a creator feeling stressed when it does not work as you want.

This is not always the case but it can happen and I want to encourage you don’t let this come too close to you.

I have an example for you. The creation of the first part of this video was no problem. Everything was running smoothly. This was not my first try. I already recorded another video with the same topic in 2019 but back then I used another cutting program which gave me less freedom than DaVinci Resolve.

It’s just the way how to come from A to B. There is a product that does the work for you.

What caused more trouble was the second part. The hair was not co-operating here in the first place. I had to some tricks to get it under control and needed two evenings to tape the re-creation the hairstyle. After filming I realized that although that my hand was in the way again, like often. So I had to tape the whole process again but with another doll.

The try with the second doll was no problem. It did work out like it should. The little waves at the end stayed in place at my Ponytail Barbie dolls. So far no problem. Only the fact that this first record was anything but professional was annoying me. You know it try to do it as original as possible. It’s not impossible to recreate it but sometimes you have to find creative solutions for strange problems.

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020

How do you revive a Barbie doll’s hair?

That’s a very good question but it’s easy to answer when you know what hair fibre your doll has. In general there are only three hair fibres that were ever used by Mattel. You have Saran hair ( early dolls have until mid 1980s used widely), Nylon hair ( some 80s dolls have Nylon hair, very shiny, you find it mainly on MLP My little Pony) and Kanekalon hair ( mainly used in the 90s for Barbie dolls with giant amount of hair).

What you can do with every doll head is wash the hair to revive it. It’s artificial hair so nothing can really happen except that Barbie dolls produced in the last 15 years could loose their hair because they are glued in with resin or a glue, anyway something very gluey and stick but not resistant to heat. It seems that Mattel glued the hair in the head after they bought new machine which work automatically. It seems that the new machines don’t need a worker anymore. This a way of cost saving but what about the quality? Do you know that the glue comes out of the head after you debox the doll and comb it? Some modern collectors say the hair has a feeling like wax, not very pleasant. The original way how dolls got their hair is this one…

Here you have a worker but no glue. You can imagine it like a sewing machine for doll hair. Your thread is the hair. By the way these machine are expensive up to 3000 € and more in used condition.

But back to the topic now

The easiest way to revive the hair is by washing it. Treat it with conditioner instead of soap. I show you in one of my videos how I do this. The procedure is a little labor intense but it’s worth the procedure because the hair is always looking much better than before. What these sewing machines for doll hair do is this here

So basically due to the pattern inside the head that the machine made nothing will happen when you treat the doll with the conditioner. The hair pattern done by the machine is secured inside the head. You must proverbial cut the hair very short to be able to destroy the pattern. This here is my way to revive the hair …

This method also works for shorter hair and is a very good method to save hair so that your doll doesn’t loose so much hair. This method also works for Saran and Nylon hair but these fibres don’t tend so much to tangles. By the way the doll in my video has Kanekalon hair and I think this fiber was used mainly in the 1990s because it was cheap.

So I hope I’m able to give you a good idea how you can treat the hair of your doll to revive it.

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020

It’s Friday and my post is gone

This week I was a little late when I started to write a new blog post and I wanted to finish it today. Now I realize my blog post was not saved … gee whiz I had so much work to do this week … I obviously forgot it but now that it’s Friday I wanted to post another blog post because 14 days passed by since my last post and I wanted to tell you about my updates. Instead of telling that new videos gonna come with delay I finally found some time to render new videos this week, actually my PC is just rendering at the moment and I have to wait for the video so I use my time to blog. Last weekend I started to work with Silicone for one of my next videos. I also want to work with Epoxide resin but I need time for it. I don’t want to make any mistakes because the stuff is very expensive I think it’s gonna be a big project, not the longest video but the things around. I already made several calls to be sure with the Silicone. I also did one for the Epoxide idea but it’s not the last one. The only problem is the working time of my contact persons. I only can call them in the morning. That causes problems when you are working full time because you’re also working but nevertheless I find a way to do it. I’ve done at least 400 – 500 phone calls this week. After closing time I felt not like doing much private phone calls.

Using the weekend to relax?

No, I’m the wrong person you should talk to when it comes to see somebody laying on a sofa. I’m almost always busy … preparing this … doing that but I try at least to stop my work at 8 p.m. in the evening because you have to stop at least once a day for a rest and a good night’s sleep. I also try to read at least 3 pages per day in a book. The good news is that I can sleep very well at the moment and I feel relaxed after waking up.

Ideas I had for almost one year

At the moment I work on a project that came into my mind last year but I had difficulties to put it into reality because the material I used was not the right one. It has to do with the blue chunk you saw in my “projects for 2020” video. So I really thought for a long time how I could do it. In February I found a solution during a conversation with other crazy “makers”. I suddenly had a new starting point and it became much easier. That’s the video series I’m working on at the moment. I know my solution is not perfect but it will be good enough for a demonstration of my ideas. Maybe a chemist will come along and help me a little bit with knowledge???

January 22, 2020December 27, 2020

Barbie doll wiki: the crimp waves in her hair

Good day my dear fellow collectors. The crazy Barbie collector is back with another crazy story to tell. In 2018 I bought several Barbie dolls. Among them is a Ultra Hair Whitney. She’s in good condition, has uncut hair but the crimp waves from her hair is almost gone.

Time for experiments

You know me. I love to do experiments to get good results. At first I thought I could restore the waves with hot water. This idea did not work out like I wanted it to. For a very long time I didn’t care about the waves but by the end of last year this project came into my mind again. Is it really a bad idea to try it again?

Before my vacation I started to check out places where you can buy used hair crimpers. In the beginning I was not very successful because I found only one hair crimper and it was sold during my vacation. Not good…

When I came back home another hair crimper was offered. I bought it for a reasonable price and had the chance to test it in the meantime. The good thing is that you can control the heat. The crimper is not immediately very hot. You have at least five minutes to prepare the hair. That’s very good in my opinion. In this way you can’t burn the hair of your doll.

I can definitively recommed you hair crimpers with temperature control for your experiments. I did several tests before I want to work on my Ultra Hair Whitney. The result is quite good for the first time. I’m currently testing the crimpers.

Yes, I have bought more than one. The technology has become better and I saw that they have often interchangeable plates concerning the size of the waves. This was impossible 30 years ago but now we have the chance to test which one works best. So why not try it?

Next steps

I’m a fan of testing things before doing videos but it’s not always possible. For me is the next step to get my second hair crimper. It was already delivered by a postal service. Unfortunately the company wasn’t able to tell me where to pick it up. Two days later the crimper was on its way back to the seller. I can tell you this was definitively not what I wanted. Obviously it’s not easy to get your parcels when you’re working full time. I called the company who delivered the parcel to my door step. Nobody felt responsible in any way. I also a e-Mail but nobody cared about my inquiry. For me the next logical step was to contact the seller and tell him the problem. He promised me to send me the parcel again. I hope that I have it by next weekend and can start my tests with the second crimper.

Important things to consider

What I’ve already learned is that you should work with wet Kanekalon hair. The moisture keeps the hairs out of the situation of ruining the hair. Don’t let them too long in there. Don’t use too much hair. I recommend rather to do little streaks. It’s easier for you and you get better results. Have patience and get a feeling for the iron. I know that I’m going to need some practise before I do my next video but nevertheless I can have lots of fun while practising.

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???????,?????????? ??? ? ?????? ???? ????????? ??????. ??? ??????? locket surprise Barbie. ??? ??? ??????,????? ?? ?? ?????? ???????,??? ?? ???? ???????? ?????? ? ?????????? ?????? ??????????,? ????????? ???? ????????????? ?????? (??,??????? ? ???????) ?? ?????,?? ??? ???????? ??????? ?????????? ???????????? ? ? ??????,??? ?? ???? ??????? ????? ??????? ??? ??? ??????,? ????? ??????. ??????? ???? ??????,???????? ???? ?????,?? ????? ???? ???????? ?? ??????????? ?????????? ???????? ? ?????????. ? ??? ????? ???????,??? ???? ???? ?? ???????,?? ???? ?????? ?? ? ????,?????????? ??????????? ???? ?????. ??? ????????? ????????? ???? @vanilladaisy_dolls , ??? ??????? ???, ?????? ? ???? ???????? ???? ?? ???.? ? ????? ??????? ?????????,? ??? ????,????? ?? ???????????? ????,??? ??? ??? ? ????? ?????,???? ??????,? ?????? ??????? ????? ???????? ????? ??????????,?????? ?????? ? ????? ????? ? ????? ???????? ??????? ????? ?????? ??????????? ??? ?,????????????? ?? ?????,?????? ?????????? ?????????? ??????????????? ? ???? ???? ?????-?? ???????,?????? ????? ??????,?? ??? ?? ??????????

Ein Beitrag geteilt von ????? 90 ??? ??????… (@barbiecollector90s) am Jan 18, 2020 um 4:32 PST

Here you can see what I’m talking about. The Locket Surprise Barbie has for example crimp waves ( like many Barbie dolls from the 1990s). My second crimper is going to have temperature control but it is not here right now but it’s on its way to me. I got a short notice today. Let’s cross our fingers that I may have it here by tomorrow evening. So curious to test how it works …

December 4, 2019December 27, 2020

Barbie doll wiki: hair – just hair?

Greetings and yeah, the crazy Barbie collector is back with a new topic for you. Let’s talk about the hair today. Yeah, that’s what I want to talk about. I guess you never thought about the fibres on the head of a Barbie doll. I asssure you that you’re not the only one. There are different fibres that were used for different dolls in different decades. I give you a pic for every fibre as an example.

Saran hair

I can’t prove it because I’m no chemist but I think the first form of hair for Barbie dolls was Saran hair. Saran hair is soft and silky. In general it’s available in natural colors like different shades of blonde, brown, red and black. I can tell you from my experience in rerooting that it’s a material easy to work with. I heard collectors talking about that Vintage Barbie dolls – the very first ones – have a kind of mohair but nobody was able to proof it. So there a two fronts among the collectors – the ones who believe it and – the ones who don’t it.

I belong to the front who don’t believe it. Why? Saran hair is/was mainly produced in Japan. Guess what? Early Barbie dolls were produced until 1970 in Japan too. Mohair is more expensive. I can imagine from what I know of the Mattel history that production centralisation is/was an important factor. In times before stock reduction and in-time production I’m convinced that they used what they had in their production area or maybe in their own country due to short delivery ways, time and costs.

Importing goods is always time-consuming and expensive when you consider the import-fees and taxes. Wouldn’t it be cheaper produce with the products you have in your own country?

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Let's welcome my latest #modbarbie. She's a Platinum Twist n Turn Barbie who recently found her way into my collection. I hope you like her as much as I do. #barbietnt #tntbarbie #vintagebarbie #barbievintage #dollstagram #barbiemod #barbie1967 #barbieblond #superstarbarbie #barbiesuperstar #busybfromgermany #barbiedoctor #barbiedoctora??

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Busy B from Germany (@busybfromgermany) am Nov 27, 2019 um 9:01 PST

Nylon hair

The material Nylon itself was discovered in the 1930s and mainly used for stockings for ladies at first. I found out that the first Nylon wigs were available in the 1960s. I found an ad on youtube. Since I only found chemical formulas I would estimate that Nylon hair was in the 1960s probably too expensive to use it for Barbie dolls. Do I have to mention that Nylon hair is very shiny and comes in thousand different colors? When you need a wig for carnival Nylon is your material. I assume from what I’ve seen so far that Nylon hair was used first for Barbie in the 1980s. The first dolls I know with this kind of hair are Barbie & the Rockers. Nylon hair was not used as widely as Saran hair was for Barbie dolls. I think it appears several times on special occasions but it was no standard.

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De vuelta a la vida ? #barbieandtherockers #barbierockers #80sbarbie #1986 #barbiefashions #barbiestyle #barbielife #ilovebarbie #barbiegram #instabarbie #barbiephotography #rockers #barbierocks #barbiespain #bringbacktolife #barbielover #barbiefan #barbieholic #matteldoll #barbie

Ein Beitrag geteilt von Gabriel Gómez. (@bdollsgabs) am Sep 17, 2019 um 4:22 PDT

Kanekalon hair

By the mid 80s a new form of hair was avaiable for Barbie. At first only a few dolls hat Kanekalon hair. I saw a Dream Glow Barbie with it and a Doctor Barbie. Maybe these dolls were something like a test if a child would accept it or not? I don’t know it. Anyway, Kanekalon hair is one of the big topics of the 1990s. Suddenly all Barbie dolls came with Kanekalon hair. There are a few exceptions like Hollywood Hair Barbie and Strollin’ Fun Barbie and Kelly/Shelly but 98% of the production of the 1990s had Kanekalon hair. As far as I was able to find out… Kanekalon is a cheap kind of hair, easy to produce and easy to work with although it tends to tangles. Probably cheaper in the dozen.

That’s why you often see Barbie dolls with bad hair cuts from the 1990s. You find the explaination why these dolls have hair cuts in the fibre itself.

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Super Talk Barbie #Barbie #90s #Barbiegram #Dollcollector #90sBarbie #Toys #Beauty #Stunning #Beautiful #Love #Addicted #Cute #Collection #90sKid #BarbieCollection #Childhood #Pink #Dream #80s #Retro #Vintage #Classic #BarbieStyle #BarbieWorld #BarbieLife #Blonde #SuperTalkBarbie #Jeans #1994 #LongHair

Ein Beitrag geteilt von 90s Barbie (@90s.barbie.world) am Dez 4, 2019 um 6:46 PST

Conclusion

These three types of hair were used in the last 60 years. I don’t think that there’s much going on the market. From what I’ve seen in the last decade Mattel started to use Saran hair again. The amount of hair is smaller than it was 20 years ago but Saran hair is still used as Barbie hair while Kanekalon hair and Nylon hair are almost gone.