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Cleaning an antique doll's hair?

Cleaning, fixing, stain prevention etc... Share your knowledge of what to do and what NOT to do.

Cleaning an antique doll's hair?

Postby Lunis » Wed Feb 26, 2014 4:49 pm

I just got my first Ichimatsu doll, and she's considered antique. I don't know when she was actually made, but her hair is synthetic. It has an odd, almost oily feel to it, so I was wondering what's the best and safest way to clean it?
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Re: Cleaning an antique doll's hair?

Postby zirconmermaid » Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:25 pm

Pictures? And is her hair rooted, glued on, or a wig? Are you sure she has artificial hair? Sometimes the hair was human hair, and sometimes it was silk. If her hair is not removable you will want to consider what her face and faceup are done with before doing anything.
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Re: Cleaning an antique doll's hair?

Postby Lunis » Wed Feb 26, 2014 9:11 pm

zirconmermaid wrote:Pictures? And is her hair rooted, glued on, or a wig? Are you sure she has artificial hair? Sometimes the hair was human hair, and sometimes it was silk. If her hair is not removable you will want to consider what her face and faceup are done with before doing anything.


Her hair is rooted. I seriously doubt her hair is human, it looks and acts like artificial hair. But I had forgotten about silk, so it could very well be silk hair. I don't know what her head is made of, but it's really smooth. I read about a lot of traditional japanese dolls having their heads and hands covered in gofun, but I've never had anything made of it before so I can't recognize it.
Here are some pictures of her. <3 Her hair doesn't look bad at all, it's just the feel it has. Like it's not as clean as it should be. If it would be too risky to try cleaning it then it's no problem, but I would like to clean her hair if possible.

Image

Image

Image

These are the best pics I could get in this lighting.
Lunis's Dollhouse on FB (my doll page)
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Re: Cleaning an antique doll's hair?

Postby zirconmermaid » Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:10 am

She's beautiful! She doesn't look like Gofun, it's very white and chalky. I love the pictures!
It's all about Hazel!
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"Space.... the Vinyl Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Obitsurprise. Her 1/3rd scale mission: To seek out new plotlines, to explore the Whole Apartment - To Ball-Jointedly go where no doll has gone before!" -- Swan

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Re: Cleaning an antique doll's hair?

Postby Lunis » Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:53 pm

zirconmermaid wrote:She's beautiful! She doesn't look like Gofun, it's very white and chalky. I love the pictures!


Thanks! I really love her! <3 Any idea what I should do about cleaning her hair then? She probably isn't gofun then, if that's what it's like.
Lunis's Dollhouse on FB (my doll page)
https://www.facebook.com/lunisdollhouse

Bittersweet Haven on FB (my art shop)
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