Making a Tibetan Lamb /Mohair Wig for your Monster High, or BJD

 

Within the doll community people tend to call Tibetan Lamb by the wrong name. It is very often referred to as mohair, when in fact mohair is from another animal entirely and is sold as loose locks. Tibetan Lamb is always sold as fur attached to the skin. This tutorial can be done using either one, but I am showing Tibetan Lamb fur in the making of this doll wig.

For our first Tibetan Lamb / mohair doll wig tutorial, I will be showing you how I make an easy  wig.  You will need a piece of gauze or thin, loose weave fabric that can be shaped around the head, Aleene's Brush on Tacky Glue, FabriTac Glue , scissors, a small crochet hook, tweezers, or hemostat, a couple rubber bands, mohair on the skin, and plastic wrap. You will need a bald doll as well to use as a mold for the wig. I would use a doll that isn't yet repainted, as there is quite a bit of handling of the head. Why chance ruining a repaint.

This technique can be used on any size fashion doll or BJD. I am showing this on a 16" Tonner Doll, but this wig making tutorial can be used on Monster High and Barbie as well as other fashion dolls. The first thing you will need to do is to cut off all of your doll's hair, if she has hair. If using a bald doll, you are ahead of the game.

Then you will need to remove the head from your doll. There are several methods for safely removing a doll's head. Use whatever method you are comfortable with. I routinely use the blow dryer method. When the doll still has hair you always need to wrap the hair in a towel to protect it from the heat of the blow dryer, as it will melt the hair. This time, since you have removed the hair, you can just aim a blow dryer on high at the back of the doll's neck for about 45 seconds. The vinyl then will be softened. Push down on the head and then pull up and ease the head off of the neck knob that is holding it on. You an always heat the neck knob again if it isn't soft enough the first time.

Some folks like to pour hot water over the back of the neck to soften the vinyl, and some use a heating pad. I prefer the blow dryer method. Once the head is off you will need to remove the remaining hair plugs. This can be quite difficult, as the hair is sewn in. You can use a small crochet hook to scrape the plugs on the inside of the head to loosen them. Then a hemostat or long nose tweezers can be used to pull the plugs out. The doll will need to be completely bald to make a perfect fitting wig. See Step One below.

Cover your doll head with plastic wrap and use a rubber band around the neck to hold it in place. See Step Two below.


Place the piece of fabric on top of the dolls head and wrap a rubber band around the neck to hold it in place. Arrange the fabric as smoothly as you can, pulling down around the sides or edges as needed. You want it as smooth as possible over the top and sides of the head. See Step Three below.

 

 

                                                                               Step one: Bald Doll                           Step two: Plastic Wrap

Step three: Gauze Wrap

At this point we need to mark an approximate hairline. Take a pencil and lightly trace on the fabric around where the hairline would be. You can figure it out by feel. Make sure your lines are over the ears, so you don’t make a wig cap that accidentally covers the ears. It can always be cut later if this does happen. Once the fabric is in place, and the hairline marked, apply the Brush on Tacky Glue glue to the head area. Really saturate the fabric with the glue so that it soaks in.   It will take  several hours for the glue to dry. When it does, it forms a nicely hardened wig cap. See Step Four below.

 

Step four: Glue saturation

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Purchase Tibetan Lamb fur for Doll Wigs here

If you have enjoyed this Tibetan Lamb Mohair Doll Wig Tutorial, please visit my DOLL CUSTOMIZING BLOG for

more FREE Tutorials on Monster High, Ever After and Barbie Dolls.

Doll customizing Tutorial CDs can be found here.

 

 

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