Does anybody have any tips for rooting human hair? I’ve only done mohair & human hair doesn’t hold together the same way while you work on it.
I’ve only rooted human hair twice. I did my husband’s hair on one of my first dolls and did one for a friend with her sister’s hair. Hubby’s hair is finer than most adult hair and her sister’s hair was long and silky. So two things that I found helped - I had the hair damp when I hit a hard spot and I used a bigger needle so it would grab the hair. I like thicker hair anyway on dolls so if it grabbed an extra hair I didn’t care. Just use caution if you use a 36g! The doll with the sister’s hair - she wanted it long and thick so she could style it so Kendall ended up looking like a toddler. My sculpt was Lucy and the hair is shorter. It really isn’t that different from rooting mohair if you use the bigger needle.
Human hair needs to be super fine and root at the cut end with your needle at a slant in the direction you want the hair to fall. I use Bountiful Baby’s 43 Gauge SINGLE BARB Needles for human hair. http://www.bountifulbaby.com/seaside/in … =t&d=false Don’t use hair from china, the shaft is too thick. Look for “European hair”. I usually onl use story bought human hair for older babies. I lucked out and found a kid’s salon that sells me toddlers’ cut pony tales and occasionally a baby’s hair cut, which looks appropriate on the younger babies. After rooting I coat it in Softee Hair Food and bake it for a condition, sets the style and it helps the hair lay flat.
Here is to I’m working on with rooted human hair. Delia on the left has toddler hair and Grant has actual baby hair.
Here are some pictures. I mark out my pathway with a nail pencil. Stating with the back of the head, I will root but the channels, between the arrows. With one hand hold a small amount of hair at the end; then with the other hand fish out one single hair. If you needle tip is 1/2 an inch long, you can start rooting it a tad less than 1/2 inch. With the needle at the angle you want the hair to go, catch the hair with the single barb and embed the hair.
Voila! Now repeat about a thousand times, lol.
OMG, that’s why I don’t paint my nails, lol.