How to fix frizzy doll/pony hair with boiling water (yup!)
You know how doll hair gets to be rather frizzy after a while? It starts out all smooth and shiny and then a few years down the road, the poor toy looks like it stuck its finger into a light socket.
And no amount of brushing fixes the problem. It just goes from tangly frizz to less tangly frizz.
The other day my nieces were over and we got down our bin of ponies, which contains two dolls too.
(I'm not sure if this is still the case, but when I was a kid, Megan and Molly dolls accompanied My Little Ponies.)
(This is her hair post-fix, in case that wasn't obvious!)
At any rate, Megan's hair was pretty trashed, as you can see from the first photo above.
So, my nieces and I watched some video tutorials about fixing doll hair. I'd read about fabric softener fixes, but since I don't use fabric softener, I never have any in the house.
Luckily, we came across a tutorial that just called for boiling water and that seemed totally doable.
Two steps to fix frizzy hair
First, we combed all the knots out.
Second, we boiled water, poured it into a shallow bowl, dipped the doll's hair in, and combed it.
I'm not sure exactly what the boiling water does to the doll hair, but it's pretty amazing how well it works.
Once the hair was all smoothed out, we towel dried it, combed it so it was laying the way wanted, and then let it dry.
What if the ends are still straggly?
The boiling water was a magical fix for most of the hair, but it couldn't fix the straggly ends. So, I gave the doll a little trim with my hair-cutting scissors.
And voila! Her hair is SO much more manageable than before. It's smooth and even shiny again!
(Her hair is actually evenly cut...I just couldn't get her to stand up straight for the photo!)
We've tried this on My Little Pony hair too, and it seems to work just as well.
See the small pony there in the middle, with a very frizzy light purple tail?
Here what she looks like now, after boiling water and a little trim.
So much better.
Does shampoo/conditioner help?
We also tried doing shampoo and conditioner on the hair, which seems to slightly enhance the effect of the boiling water. However, I think the boiling water is really the key.
You can also use a hair straightener on a very low heat setting if the doll's hair still isn't quite smooth enough for your taste. Just be careful not to melt the hair!
Does this method work on other toy hair?
I'm not sure if this works on all toy hair, as I'm sure there's variation in hair material from toy to toy.
However, if the toy's hair is in terrible shape, you haven't got much to lose. If it goes badly or is ineffective, you still won't be worse off than you were when you started.
And considering how effective this seems to be, I'd say it's worth the risk.
Note: I have definitely heard that American Girl doll hair is sensitive, so I wouldn't recommend trying this method with one of those dolls unless the hair is so bad that it couldn't possibly get any worse!
Do let me know how it goes if you try it. I'd love to hear!
Has anybody tried this on Am. Girl doll hair?
Ooooh, I wouldn't do that.
My daughter just puts a little bit of conditioner into a spray bottle with water and fixes her American Girl doll's hair. It really looks a whole lot better than before.
I did...it did NOT go well on one that we picked up at the thrift. Made it worse, if that is even possible. I was so hoping it would work!
Yeah, I've read that American Girl doll hair is quite different than other doll/pony hair, and it requires special treatment. We've never had any AG dolls, so I'm not sure what's the best way to detangle that kind of hair.
You're only supposed to use water on AG doll hair. They won't fix it if you use anything else.
Yup I tried it and it's so much better.
I wonder if this would work on my hair? I've tried just about everything to tame the wild frizz!!!
Haha, I wish! It would be, like, a permanent fix for bedhead. 😉
I have a whole bin of my old childhood dolls that I plan on passing down to my daughter (she will be one this Saturday.) I know some of these dolls are in bad shape, so I can't wait to try this!!! Although, it may not happen for a while, since she isn't quite ready to play with dolls yet.
Jenelle unless your hair is made of plastic this won't work! :-)That's why the boiling water method works... the plastic the hair is made of is a low-temp plastic (hence why if using a straightener to be careful) so it actually is somewhat malleable in boiling water. The hair over time gets little nicks/cracks/etc in it strands (kind of like our split ends), so by soaking in boiling water and re-combing, it actually makes a intact strand (seals all the nicks/cracks/etc). That is also why you want to make sure the knots are out; chance that it might actually 'glue' together. Have a great day!
Lisa, thanks so much for that great explanation 🙂
Amazing! I'm going to try this on some of my daughter's dolls!
For a second there, I thought this said, "I'm going to try this on my daughter!!".. haha, oh gosh.
Wow, this is super neat! I can't tell you how many of my dolls were thrown away because their hair was absolutely destroyed. If only we knew this little hack. 🙂
I smiled when I see those My Little Ponies. Our daughters play with them a lot.
Hi Gladys! Good to hear from you...I was thinking about you the other day because I realized you hadn't commented in a while.
You're so thoughtful, Kristen! I've been lurking around on your blog lately but as always I enjoy your posts especially about your growing children. I can't believe how your oldest is in college now. Time went so fast!
Gladys, I had the same reaction! My favorite thing to do with my sisters and friends was playing with My Little Ponies....
Hi Julia!
I thought I'm the only one who has daughters that have tons of them of different sizes and still they want more. They also ask me who's my favorite among them.
Hi, Gladys,
I'm almost 30 and so I was getting the original My Little Ponies as hand me downs and from resale shops. I've got three boys so far, but I have a dozen here for when we have nieces over! Those ponies came with us outside, in the tub, on camping trips! We each had a bin full of horses!!! I love hearing that your daughters love them!
Where were you ten years ago when I needed this! Haha, guess I will file this away for when I have daughters. 🙂
Instead of teaching young girls that textured hair is something that must be "fixed" with boiling water and hot irons, why not let them embrace all types of hair? Perhaps even add a few wavy and curly haired friends to Megan and Molly's crew?
Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way. I think if Molly and Megan had come with textured hair, I wouldn't have thought of messing with it. But since the hair wasn't in the same shape it arrived in, I didn't think twice about restoring it to its original condition (or something close to it).
So for me, it was more about helping that particular head of hair be what it was supposed to be. Which is how I view human hair too. If Lisey's hair, which it naturally smooth and straight, got damaged and frizzy, I'd want to help her get it healthy again. And I'd feel the same way about Sonia's wavy hair...if it got messed up, I'd want to restore it to its healthy, wavy state.
"Helping that particular head of hair be what it was supposed to be" - I like that!
Restoring it implies that straight and smooth is the original way that particular dolls hair was to begin with....I dont see any thing that had to do with discounting the value of other textured or wavy haired dolls.
@Jenna
I have some plastic horses from the 80s - Kenner’s Fashion Fillies - that had ringleted hair. And you can imagine how that worked out when played with! A treatment with boiling water and a “set” with drinking straw curlers made the ringlets beautiful again. Like the were meant to be.
Frizzed knotted messed up plastic hair is not a good approximation of naturally textured hair. Alas.
I am so happy to have this tip! Thank you!!!!
I never even thought of boiling water. My kids are grown, but I have granddaughters now, so I'll be sure to pass this tip on. Now how did someone ever first think of trying that?
I tried it on an Our Generation doll (knock off AG). Unfortunately, it didn't work. I was hoping to salvage my daughter's doll.
WHERE WAS THIS POST 25 YEARS AGO?? I was 5, my doll had straight hair, but I wanted it to be curly. Suffice to say I could have used this information 🙂
Yep, I totally melted Barbie's hair trying to curl it with my mom's curling iron. Oops.
Also, you can't give Barbie a bob- the hair in the back just stands straight out. Experience is really the best teacher.
You can't give Barbie bangs either. :/ My poor Barbies were all given new hair styles.
Wish I had known of this fix when I was a kid! I loved my Crissie and Violet--grow-your-hair dolls but after so much playing with them, their hair was gosh-darn awful!
The website EPBOT.com has a bunch of tutorials on this - including how to create curls and ringlets. She buys dolls and ponies at garage sales and does some amazing work with their hair!
Thanks so much! I've been looking for a solution for my Cabbage Patch babies who have curly hair but they definitely need some help, lol. I'm excited to check it out too!!
OMG. This takes me back to when I had my Cabbage Patch "cornsilk" kid. Remember the ones with the "real" hair and not yarn? Well, I made the mistake of brushing her hair with MY round brush and it got all tangled!!! After we finally got it out, her hair was all frizzy and ruined! I was devastated! I was also 9......LOL! Wish I knew this trick back then!
My favvvv! I looove my little pony!!! well I used to but I think they look different now.
Will this work on an Our Generation Doll? I have a doll that was in critical condition a few weeks ago and if not for YouTube,would be in the trash.Here's how bad it was-
STATS-
Reg. brushing--------------------FAIL
Misted+Reg brushing----------FAIL
Misted+WetBrush2 brushing-FAIL (At this point it was beyond ''frizzy'')(More like ''Hair from Hell)
Deep Conditioning--------------FAIL
Fabric softener soak-------------Success
Now it's more a minor frizz-at-the-ends but my sister loves this doll from hell (and I only call it that because of it's hair) and after it's been through It's getting sad to bear.Will just warm water fix an only MINORLY frizzed doll hair? And how long does it have to soak?
Please write me back before Thanksgiving of 2016.
Could you do a trim on the ends? I think it's pretty tough to find anything that will completely take care of the trashed and frizzy ends of doll hair.
Actually,yes. And it worked like a charm! Just like a human,dolls may get split ends or limp,frizzy hair. A good trim was perfect!! Thank you for the advice!
ALSO, if anyone needs to know, BRUSH YOUR DOLLS HAIR AFTER EVERY PLAY-TIME.
Doll-from-hell did not get this.
Plus, she was one of those extra-long-haired dolls and I think she NEEDED one of those trims,if you understand me.This doll was like Repunzil (I don't know how to spell it) but with cursed hair. Thank you so much again!
BTW the MLP help is perfect because I,too,have ''imperfect haired'' My Little Ponys. Haven't tried it yet but sound like it works.^_^!
Yay! So glad the doll's hair is back in good shape.
Stacy, AG says water only? Well, boiling water woukd be water only, does it state what temperarure?
This worked AMAZING with an AG doll. My 12 year old daughter has one from when she was seven, and the hair was so awful and frizzy. We did this, and wow. I couldn't even recognize her when we were finished! I highly recommend.
Oh, yay! I'm so delighted to hear that.
My 12 year old got her first when she was seven. I did this and her hair was like new ( I did it four times and it even helped the ends.)
Stephanie, did you soak the AG hair in boiling water????
It had absolutely no effect on my dolls hair.... it didn’t make it any better or any worse
Frustrating!
Aww, I'm sorry it didn't work for your doll. Perhaps your doll's hair is made of a different material than the ones we tried this method on.
Is it by any chance an American Girl doll?
How long do you let it soak in the boiling water?
I just let it sit in there while I combed it out...so it sat however long the combing process took.
This would make me nervous just based on the temperature of boiling water. What if it melts? I purchased some used dolls on Ebay and may need to give this a try. Thanks for the tip!
The water does cool down pretty fast, and I haven't run into any melting problems.
But hopefully you're using this on hair that is really bad off to begin with and can't get much worse. Low stakes! 🙂
We did this last night with about 15 JEM dolls from the eighties and it worked remarkably well - the hair is like new on both the straight and textured hair. Thank you so much for this tutorial!
Yay! I'm so glad it worked for you.
Didn't work for baby alive 🙁
Oh, bummer. I'm sorry to hear that!
Omg, how did you know what I was looking this up for? Just did all my old little ponies hair with your advice, and it looks wonderful! Funny story--I have curly hair and always wanted straight and when I was little my mom said she would find me angrily unsuccessfully repeatedly brushing Cherries Jubilee's hair to try to make it straight. If only she'd known this! Finally, 33 years later, they all have straight hair! I winnnn!!!
Ha, that's great! I'm so glad it helped you...it worked great on our ponies too.
I have been working on my three granddaughters' American Girl dolls wild and crazy frizzy hair and came across your solution using boiling water! It's like a miracle! Thanks for sharing this information!! Before the boiling water I did wash and condition the hair with shampoo and conditioner. Then gave each doll's hair several 10 second dunks in a bowl of boiling water. And was able to easily brush through the hair! The hair is now silky and shiny! Really pretty! It is amazing how that boiling water works! I never would have thought of doing that! Thanks again!
I wish I want to get rid of the Frizz That one of My Baby Alives have the Same Problem Cause I was obsessed with their Normal looking good Hair and all that too And I started brushing their Hair Before doing that too hard And There goes the Frizzy Hair So I just got now Frustrated
DO you think it would work on cabbage patch corn silk hair
I wish I could answer this, but I'm not sure! I've never owned a Cabbage Patch doll and the ones I remember from my friends' childhoods had yarn hair.
Hi, I collect for myself and resale toys for others and came across a Ron Stoppable Toy and ordered a Kim Possible Toy to complete the set. Her hair was wilder than the big hair bands of the 80's and had no idea how to calm it down, being that I never purchased a doll before (Ron is more like a hard plastic and so is Kim except the hair). I tried the boiling water on just the hair, combed it down, squoze out excess water and let it air dry. Lo and behold the hair settled back to how it was in a package and I just combed it over and out with a thin comb and it filled in nicely. Thank you for the article, I will remember that if I ever come across another wild hair doll again! Most excellent ^_^
John
Yay! I'm so glad to hear this.
I tried on my rainbow dash doll after 4 washes and a trim at the end. Worked miracles . Thank you . Never using 2 in 1 again!
I did this. My older doll's hair is completely ruined!
how long do you leave in water? i just did this
I just left it in there for maybe a minute, and I brushed/combed it as it sat in the water. The water cools down pretty quickly, I found.
Do you think this could work on build a bear doll hair?? My rainbow dash that I got like 8 years ago and her hair is CRAZY
Hmm, I have no idea.
BUT, if the hair is basically trashed to start with, I figure it's worth a try. If it works, great! If not, well, her hair was already dead.
Your decision, though! That's just how I look at it.
how funny, i came here to see if this will work with my celestia bab.
hot water did not work for ariel ..
I have a problem I put this stuffed animal in the dryer,not thinking about how the hair on it would act,and now its frizzy/fried what should I do...Ps it's a 90s Eeyore plush...
Oh man, I'm not sure! I have no experience with refreshing stuffed animal fur.
For stuffed animals i was told by a classic plushie restorer she uses alot of patience and a laundry steamer.
I tryed it but I couldn't get it to the shinny state it was orginaly was Maybe I didn't do it right it stil looks kind of frizzy,not smooth and shinny like it used to be. Diane
I am going to try this with a few of My G1 My Little Ponies...
I can attest that boiling water doesn’t hurt AG dolls. I have done eye switches and you have to set head in boiling water to get the eyes out. Never hurt any of my AGs hair.
I recently got some Sailor Moon dolls in an eBay auction, and two of the poor girls' hair is in horrible shape; stuck together, matted, just gross. I just got done applying conditioner to the hair so it can soak overnight, but I'm going to try this tomorrow no matter what! I will report back and let ya know how this worked with Irwin brand dolls from 1996 or so!
The washing and combing out with some fabric softener works SOMEWHAT on SOME dolls, depending on the age and condition. The hair on older dolls is a different vinyl than the newer ones (say, since the late 90s) -- the new stuff is called "hollow core Kankelon" (sp?) and it is very silky when new. The old stuff was coarser, but it didn't frizz as much (mostly). I have some 60s era Barbies that still have very nice hair. I have some new dolls whose hair is toast. Obviously if a child owns the doll and doesn't take care of it, it can get really bad.
Remember none of it is real hair, so regular shampoo or conditioner are not really the right things. I use Dawn liquid dish soap -- it's detergent, works great on all cleaning -- doll bodies too! -- even washable doll clothes! -- and fabric softener like Downy. Don't use too much product -- start with a little, then add more. You don't want super greasy hair that will get dusty and greasy and yuck.
Boiling water will help set curls, which is great for restyling, but I have not found it makes frizzy hair silky. It's free though, so try it. It can't do much harm. (Be careful to dunk just the hair and not the whole doll head! you don't want to affect paint or color!)
REMEMBER: (!!!!) -- dolls like American Girl have WIGS not rooted hair! hot water will dissolve the glue! this is not a good thing! These techniques only work on ROOTED doll hair!
You should always test a single strand as some sythetic hair will melt. Dolly Parton dolls are notorious for this. Also laundry soap or paintbrush soap is a much better shampoo then human shampoo or dishsoap which can break down the polymers in the hair.
I have been struggling getting something to work on my daughter's rapunzel barbie. It was getting this supper dry/matted texture on the bottom. I used conditioner which didn't work, then tried fabric softener which also didn't. This also didn't work. I might have to give up and just buy a new one.
I tried this on my daughter’s pony we bought at Walmart and it worked, I may have to do it a few times and the longer I left the hair in the water, the more relaxed it got. Thank you!
Yay!! Isn't it so rewarding?
The reason boiling water works is because it causes the plastic strands to revert to their original form when they first made. Voila!
You are a godsend!
I just spent the last hour sorting out my daughter's barbies hair and it worked a treat. Thank you so much!
Oh, I'm so glad this worked out well for you. Yay!!
There is a nice lady at our church that keeps making clothes for my daughter’s 18” doll. I feel so bad because the doll’s hair was a tangled mess, but she’s wearing custom made clothes. I soaked the hair in conditioner and water so I could comb it but it was still terribly frizzy. This trick worked amazingly well to smooth out the frizz. It brushed out beautifully and I immediately styled it so it looks nice. Thanks for this tip!
Oh, I am so glad. Yay!
Another tip I came cross that helps restore curl: after combing out, use sections of drinking straws (regular for tight curls, big smoothie straws for wider) wrap the doll’s hair around the straw and secure with a Bobby pin before pouring boiling water over it. Then let it dry overnight.