Pruik Regancy Era

Original by Cynthia

You will need a section of viscose fibre in your choice of colors..
Start by dividing your hank of hair in two fairly even strands.

The first step is to comb out the "junk" from one strand.  Very firmly grasp the end of the strand with one hand, and comb thru the hair with the other hand.  You have to hold on tight to one end, or you will pull out ALL of the hair instead of just the short wiry pieces that we are trying to remove.;  Notice the big ball of junk that has been combed out?  That's from just one stroke with the comb. Comb thru several times till the hair is smooth and shiny looking.

Pull off a tiny strand from your just combed length of hair.  It is really hard to describe how small this strand is. If you held it clumped tightly together, it would probably be as big around as a piece of rug yarn. No bigger.

Dip the strand of hair into your bowl of water. I usually hold one end of the hair in each hand and dip and remove, but that doesn't leave any hands left to operate the camera.....

Pull the strand out of the water and hold one end against the curling rod and begin winding the hair around the rod. 

Your curling rods can be small double ended knitting needles, like mine, or you can use pieces of piano wire, or straightened paper clips, or pieces of coat hanger wire...you just want the surface of the rod to be smooth and something that will not rust when it gets wet.

Wrap the strand completely around the rod from one end of the hair to the other.  When I do the wrapping, I actually hold the strand against my fingers as shown in the photo above, and turn the rod, not the hair, positioning the hair flat and evenly against the rod as it is turned.  This makes for a flatter, less spiral looking curl.

Here are several rods with hair all wrapped and ready to go.  Notice that i have a couple of rods that are considerably thinner, these little curls will be used for bangs.  You can use a corsage pin to wind the tiny curls around, as it is about the right thickness for tiny curls.

I prop my rods in a disposable pie tin.  Place the curls in a 150 degree oven for 20 minutes to dry and set the curls.  Don't over cook. After 20 minutes, feel the curls, if they are still damp, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes.  They need to be completely dry before removing from the rods, or you will loose your lovely curl.

Here is a pile of curls just removed from the rods.  Set them aside for now.

Doing hair is just plain messy.  No getting around it.  And I hate picking viscose strands from my lovely laces for weeks afterwards....

So take a plastic sandwich bag and cut off the corner, making an opening just big enough to push the head thru. Put the doll in the bag, with head poking out thru the hole.  This will protect your clothing while you work her hair.

Note: I always save the wigging for AFTER I have finished all of the costuming, If you do the wig first, it may end up as a frizzy mess by the time you are finished fitting all of the clothing.

Here is a piece of hair measuring 2" in length and 1/2" wide after combing out.

Apply glue to the back of the head, beginning at the center top of the head and down the center section of the back of the head as shown.

Place the strand of hair into the glue and press down firmly.  The glue should NOT seep thru the hair.  Use the thickest tacky glue you have available when making your wig.  I prefer designer tacky glue.

When the hair is well anchored to the head, trim off to above the neck as shown.

Here is another strand of hair, 2" long and 3/4" wide.  We are going to make a center part in this piece of hair.  Actually, we are going to make one half of a center part...

Hold the hair taut between your fingers as shown.

In the center of the strand, apply a coating of thick glue, and spread evenly across as shown.

Place a straight pin across the strand, in the glued area as shown.

Carefully fold the strand in half, with the straight pin in the center, pulling taut against the pin as you fold over. 

Trim away any fuzzy hair that pops up from the folded edge of the hair.  Allow this to dry for just a couple of minutes, then gently pull the straight pin out of the hair while grasping tightly as shown. Grasp the hair as closely to the pin as possible before removing the pin.

Repeat so that you have two folded sections of hair, one for each side of the center part.

Find the center part line on your doll and apply glue on that line, and over one side of the doll's head, extending all the way back to the edge of the existing strand of hair that was applied in the back

Place one of your folded sections into the glue and press down firmly.  Be sure to make sure that your folded edge of the strand is exactly where you want your center part to be. 

At the back, where this new strand and the existing strand meet, comb thru gently with a straight pin to blend the two pieces of hair together smoothly.

Trim off the new strand of hair just above the jawline. 

Apply a small amount of glue to the lower 1/4" of the hair and press down firmly.  You want the hair to lay flat, and form a base on which to apply your curls.

Repeat the previous steps for the remaining half of the head, applying the remaining section of folded hair to the opposite front.

See how lovely the center part looks??

When the hair has been glued down around the bottom edges, you can trim it to just above the jaw line all the way around as shown.

Cut off the little scraggly ends of each curl.  Don't throw them out, they are great for soft tendrils or curls on a baby doll.....

We will use curls approx 1 1/2" long. You can make them shorter if desired, by trimming after they have been applied.  For now, just cut all of your curls to the same length.

Curls all ready.  Note that they are all about the same size around.  This is from using the same size rod on all of them, but also as important, is to use strands of hair that are as close in thickness as possible when wrapping your curls.  If you use a thicker strand, it will result in a much fatter curl.....  A matched set is always nice.  A dozen curls should be plenty for this doll.

Apply glue to the upper 1/2" of one curl.  When putting on the glue, turn the curl till you find the side where the cut end is, and put the glue on that side of the curl so that the cut end will be anchored.

Place the first curl on the side of the doll's face.  It is  very difficult to see the curl on top of matching hair, so I have drawn a line here to show you the level of the top of the curl.

Apply glue to another curl and place on head, right next to the first.  Keep the tops of the curls level around the head.

No, your eyes are not blurry... Sorry!!!

This shows the back of the head with curls lined up across in a straight row. Continue gluing curls till you get all the way around to the other side of the face.

You can stop here if you wish, as her hair is very lovely just as it is.  The part is nice, and the top hair is very smooth and even.

If you want to add curly bangs, take one of your smaller curls, (one that was made on a small rod or corsage pin) and cut it into 1/8" lengths as shown.

Apply glue over the face as shown.

Pick up the tiny curls using pointed tweezers.  Try to grab the little curls in the center of the length of hair and press firmly down into the glue.  Do not try to place the curls all lined up straight in a row.  Have them positioned at different angles and pointing different directions.  It will look much softer and more natural.  Let these curls dry well, then take a small straight pin and gently comb out and pick out a few of the curls to soften