One of the hobbies I have besides thrifting is cleaning up dolls I find on my thrifting adventures. I do not collect or keep the dolls I just enjoy finding them and cleaning them up. I usually sell them or give them to my friends little girls. You would not believe the dolls I find when I am out.
This post is to show you how I clean the dolls, it is rather easy to do and it feels therapeutic to me for some reason. I will explain what all I use and what I do to get them clean. I will say that most of my routine came from watching a youtube channel called A thousand splendid dolls (link is provided), she is very informative and her tips are easy to follow and work out very well!
First off are the utensils you need for the job, dish soap (or shampoo body wash) to clean the body, conditioner for the hair, baking soda and tooth brush for harder to remove dirt, pet brush (with metal bristles), large tooth comb and a rat tail comb. I also have two towels (one for laying them on to comb the conditioner in their hair and one to help with drying the hair. I also use a large measuring cup for boil washing the hair but that is optional.
Today I am going to be restoring the beauty to this 1960s scooter doll (friend of skipper). I have a post on her if you are interested in where I found her and how much I paid. Her hair is really stiff and dry I am hoping to get it to soften up a little bit. Her body does not have any dark marks just some surface dirt, also want to get this poor girl clothed.
After I wash her body with the soap and scrub her with a little bit of baking soda I rinse the body off and wash the hair. I lay her on the towel and put conditioner on her hair (I let her set for about 5 min with the conditioner on). Then I comb her hair starting at the bottom and working my way to the top of the head. I let her set about 5 more min. with the condition in the hair.
Then I do the boil wash on her (I will tell you if you have a doll with curly hair and you do not want to loose the curl DO NOT BOIL WASH, most of the time it will make the hair straight as a board). To boil wash I put a 4 cup measuring cup full of water in the microwave for 3:00 then I dunk the head in a few times then let it set for about 5-10 min. After that I rinse the hair in the sink one more time to get the rest of the conditioner out then towel dry, comb/brush
I then set her out to dry, Her hair isn't super shiny but it is a lot softer than it was when I started. I could repeat the process a couple more times and her hair would probably get softer each time but I think she is fine like this.
Little lady turned out pretty nice I wanted to put her hair up in pigtails (which is her original style) but for some reason it did not look right. I think she looks cute in her dress with her hair down. Was super excited to get this girl cleaned up and clothed, poor thing had been naked and dirty for lord knows how long. Hope you enjoyed this new sub post I am starting. I am not going to only be doing dolls I am also going to be restoring the beauty to dishes, ceramics and other items I find thrifting.
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