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Step Six: Rooting
The first thing to do is choose the hair color. You might have had a color in mind from the start, but sometimes your baby has taken on a life of its own and demands a new color! If you have more than one color available, hold them up against the baby to make sure it looks right before you start rooting.
One of my favorite things to do is mix two or more similar shades to make a more natural head of hair with highlights and lowlights.
Once I get started rooting, I'm going to be there for a while, so I gather all my supplies, the telephone and the TV remote! I sit in a comfortable armchair with a table next to it to hold my supplies. I also get a towel to lay across my lap to catch the excess hair. You will also need some type of heat source within reach - a lamp with a hot bulb or a hair dryer.
I recommend you purchase a rooting tool (I got mine from PrillyCharmin's Doll Shop to put your needle in. It gives you a better handle for rooting than a slippery little needle. Others make their own tool from a piece of dowel or by wrapping rubber bands around the needle.
Cut a strip of your mohair about five inches long and one inch wide. Remember, the hair will be about half the length of this strip when it is rooted, because the needle is catching the whole hair and bending it. If you want longer hair, get a longer piece; if you want shorter hair, get a shorter piece. But you can always cut the hair later, so I usually go for a little longer than I want.
Load your tool with a needle and hold the doll's head directly against the bulb of the lamp for about a minute, or aim the hair dryer on hot directly against the vinyl for several seconds. Heat an area near the hairline - front, back or side doesn't matter.
Lay the piece of mohair vertically against the head, gripping it between your first and middle fingers and holding the other end down with your thumb. Start poking the needle through the hair into the patch you heated, across the strip in a a random pattern, not in a perfectly straight line because that's not how hair grows.
 
Start out gently to get the hang of what the needle can handle. Aim your needle into the head at an angle, so the hair lays flat. Don't poke too much in one patch, or the hair might get too thick there. Remember, a baby's hair is fine and a bit sparse. You can always fill in later if you feel an area is too sparse.
When you're finished with one patch, gently lift the strip of mohair away from the head. The hairs you rooted will stay and the rest will come away in your hand.
Move the strip of hair over to the next area of the head. You may need to reheat. Start at the hairline and work your way around the head, heating whenever it gets cool or you break a needle. Don't feel bad when you break needles; everybody does it sometimes, especially at first. But heating the head will help you keep from breaking needles as much. I recommend having a dozen needles available for your first try - I broke every one of my dozen on the first head I rooted!
When your strip of mohair starts looking too sparse or straggly (or you notice that the hairs rooted in the head look shorter and/or broken), put it aside and cut a new one. Then continue around the head, heating and rooting, heating and rooting. Be careful not to root in the ears or too far down on the forehead. Pay attention to the lines on the head, especially once you reach the top of the head, because they will help you create a natural flow and a crown for the hair. You can also add features like a widow's peak, if you want.
This is really the fun part because the baby starts to come to life as you work your way around the head. It will go from bald to monk to full head of hair!
 
After the head is fully rooted, I go back and look over it for any areas that look too thick and pluck some of the hairs out with tweezers. I also look for holes that have too much hair in them and pluck some out. Also look for patches where the hair is too sparse; on this head, for example, there is a patch near the crown that needs to be rooted a little more. The hair will probably look kinda crazy at this stage because it hasn't been styled yet.
 
Next, if you are rooting a sleeping baby, you can root the lashes. Take a piece of mohair that is about one inch wide and two inches long. Lay it across the eye just as you did on the head and root into the crease. It doesn't matter right now if you get it too thick or if the lashes are too long. When you've got the whole length of the crease rooted, take your tweezers and pull out the hairs in the thicker areas. View the head from above, below and the sides to make sure it is even. Then take a small pair of scissors and trim the lashes to the length you want. Remember that lashes usually follow an arc and are slightly shorter at the corners of the eye.
When you feel satisfied with the evenness of the hair and lashes, it's time to glue. With a popsicle stick or some kind of long tool (I use the end of an old makeup brush), apply clear E6000 glue to the inside of the head, coating the entire surface where you see hairs poking through, including the lashes poking through behind the eyes. Glop it in there - the stuff will flow together some. It helps to rotate the head around in the light so you can shiny and non-shiny areas inside the head and know where you still need to add glue. This glue really stinks, so set the head in a well-ventilated area to let the glue dry thoroughly.
When the glue is dry, wet the hair and put a dime-sized drop of hair conditioner in your palm. Rub your hands together and then lightly apply the conditioner to the hair. If you don't put too much, you won't have to rinse it. Some people like to cut the hair at this stage, but I prefer to wait until it's dry so I can see the actual length. Then put a clean knee-high stocking (or 6-inch section cut from a pair of pantyhose) over the head to hold the hair down until it is dry.
© 2004 Kristin Walters
Step Seven: Styling
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