Health Care Plan for Dolls

I must admit, I'm mired in the current discussion of health care reform (for people). However, health care for dolls has become a more pressing issue in our household at the moment.

Yes, thankfully I can afford this luxury to think about the dolls because our family has a good health insurance plan.

Here are our doll health care priorities:

(1) Detangling curly hair on 18" Our Generation doll from Target.

• First you have to figure out what kind of hair your doll has, Most likely it is synthetic unless it is a very old doll.

• These are great instructions for cleaning, detangling, and curling synthetic doll hair.

• Basically we'll need a metal hair pick* never touched by human hair, and one or more detangling products depending on severity: Downy fabric softener, human hair detangler, Windex, Fantastic, or Son of a Gun vinyl car cleaner by STP if things are really bad. *For dolls without curly hair you can use a wig hair brush. Dolls with curly hair need to have ringlets each combed separately with the pick.

• NOTE: I trolled the blogs and discovered that although "Our Generation" and "American Girl" dolls are quite similar by many accounts, some folks say that the hair and sizing are different. Apparently "American Girl" dolls have hair that is much easier to brush. And 18" dolls vary in size across manufacturers and even within the same brand. Here is a great article on comparing American Girl dolls to their knock-off counterparts. So we've probably got the worst hair situation then since my daughter picked the "Alexis" Our Generation flower girl doll with beautiful curly locks that tangle when you just change her clothes. Lesson learned -- get the doll with the straight hair next time.
  

(2) Hair transplants. My daughter's 12" doll needs a new 'do after being a customer at the beauty school practice salon. I've also got a 4' doll from my childhood that is nearly bald.

• Here are some great instructions for re-wigging a doll. None of our in-need-of-help dolls have wigs so I'm hoping that the hair plugs can be cut off and a new wig added.


• If the instruction for detangling don't work, maybe Alexis will be getting a new wig!

(3) Dermatology appointments. That same 12" doll, above, and her friend Dora, need serious facials. Ink marks every where.

• It turns out that a dollar bottle of acne cream (10% Benzoil Peroxide) and 2 hours in the "tanning bed" (sunlight or light bulb) is a simple effective solution.


• Here is a nice tutorial on what to do and what not to do!