I have an Akina head and one other i bought from Ebay .Both tbe vinyl is so hard even though i rarely bend a needle now ( on BB kits) Akina i bent 3 in doing about an inch of hair .
Are all non BB kits this hard?I havent done any other than these 2 .
The other i have is just as bad
I used a heated rice sock still didnt do much
Any other ideas to soften the vinyl to work with ?
Not all kits have hard vinyl. Some of the old Berenguers are hard as cement. The LDC ones are quite soft. I never heat my heads. I fill them with poly pellets up to the flange and then pack them tightly with paper towels and root away. The poly pellets prevent the vinyl from ‘giving’ so the needles don’t bend so much. You could try heating small sections with a hair dryer or heat gun and see if that helps.
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Heating the head with one of the salt lamp bulbs works great for the harder vinyl heads. I bought one on eBay for about $10. Much cheaper than therapy .I have used the same needle for 5 dolls now. Use the"search" feature on this forum to see where to buy it.
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Some heads are really hard. The only hard-ish ones I’ve gotten from BB was the Nod heads. But it wasn’t too bad. I have a Luca Knoops that I traded away because the head was like a rock you couldn’t even squeeze it! And all of my babies get rooted so I said no way to that. I love the look of the painted newborn hair so if you could try that it may be a good idea
Akina prototype is so cute with tons of hair but her head barely gives when squeezed To me hard! Ill look for the… salt light?
whst watt would i need 15?How do you keep it from touching the vinyl
Here is the topic about these lamps. The one you need is the one with round disc for base and spring to hold it firmly in the neck. The one from Jana come with other round extension ring for bigger heads.
Heat Lamp
and more recent topic on the subject
rooting lamp
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