How to Curl Doll Hair: Briar Beauty Edition

Here at last is my tutorial on how to fix Briar Beauty's hair! I'm sorry this took so long to put up, but I'm in college now and have a lot more demands on my time. Those parties aren't going to throw themselves... ;)

Anyway. Here it is. I tried to make it as "fool-proof" as possible. I made my own tutorial because I was never satisfied with anyone else's tutorial. I tried to make this step-by-step from washing to curling to styling. Hopefully it helps!

If you have any questions at all about the process, please comment below. :)

Here we go:

Apple: Briar, are you sure you want to go through with this? I hear it's dangerous….

Briar: Oh, don't be such a worry wart! It will be an adventure!

Apple: Good luck!

Comparison of Apple and Briar's hair. Notice how dull and unhealthy Briar's hair looks.

Let's change that.

Things you will need:

• Foil (preferably heavy duty or layered regular foil)
• Normal size drinking straws (or change it up for different size curls like coffee straws for small curls or smoothie straws for big ones)
• Straight pins (preferably pink ;)
• A willing doll subject
• Small towel for blotting
• Shampoo and conditioner (most brands should work, I just used Dove because that's what I had on hand)
• Pot for boiling water (and parental supervision if you're young!)
• Mugs or bowls to hold water.

Step 1: Remove Briar's Accessories and prep her for washing. I was afraid to take off this shoulder/necklace thing at first because I wasn't sure how well it would go back on. It's easy to put back on. Go ahead and take it off.

I also removed her earrings so her hair wouldn't get caught on them. 

I bundled Briar while washing her hair so her clothes would stay dry, but I would just go ahead and remove them at this stage. The wash cloth is easy to hold however, so you might want to still do it. It's up to you. 

Step 2: Rinse her hair in lukewarm/slightly cold water. I did this with her hair hanging down into the sink. Avoid getting lots of water on her face and keep it away from her neck and joints! You don't want to invite mold. I also kept the water away from her roots to avoid excess water entering her head. NOTE: Briar's "knot" of hair on her hairline is pretty fussy, and I stayed COMPLETELY away from it during this whole process. You'll thank me later. 

Step 3: Brush the hair while wet. It works best to brush her lying down like this. Keep a gentle hold on her head with one hand so you don't strain her neck joint. Disney Princess brushes are my favorite for 12 inch dolls. :) They are very sturdy and work best for me. This step helps eliminate knots and works the water into the hair. Any original box curls will disappear in this step, but the boil ones will be better. ;)

Step 4: Shampoo 

Use about a penny size of shampoo on her hair. Again, Most kinds will probably work. Just keep it basic. Massage it through her hair gently with your fingers. Keep the shampoo away from her scalp and face. This eliminates any gross product already in her hair and makes it easier to work with. 

It will get pretty sudsy. Do this in the sink. :)

Step 5: rinse the shampoo out using the techniques in step 2. Work through her hair with your fingers to get the suds out. Stay away from the scalp and twist!

Step 6: Condition

This step is the most important. Use a little more conditioner than shampoo. Work it gently through her hair with your fingers. This makes her hair silky smooth and shiny at the end. :) You don't want so much that her hair is goopey, it should disappear as you work with it, but make sure her hair feels silky. DON'T immediately rinse it out!!

Step 7: Brush with Conditioner. Now brush her hair the same way as step 3 but WITH the conditioner still in her hair. This helps get out all remaining tangles and coats the hair evenly with conditioner. 

 After her hair is effortless to brush lying flat, stand the doll up and brush itas it would fall naturally. This part is nice to have her wrapped in a washcloth. Some suds will probably appear near the ends of her hair as you continue to work with it. One you are sure her hair lies nicely standing up, move on to step 8.

Step 8: Rinse with cold water. The cold water helps seal in the shiny silky feeling. I'm not sure how,  but it just does. (It works on humans too!) Work it gently with your fingers to make sure the conditioner is well rinsed out. However, her hair should still have some of that silky feeling to if and it should not feel dry. 

Step 9: blot hair gently with a towel so she's not dripping everywhere. This removes large amounts of excess water, but her hair should still be fairly damp. You're not trying to dry it in this step, just make it easier to work with. 

Step 10: CURL

Start sectioning off her hair and curling it. You don't want huge sections, but you don't want tiny ones either. This picture shows sectioning her bangs, but I would suggest starting at the back of her hair. (remember, this was my first time. :) 

Just like a hair stylist, use little clips to keep the middle and top sections away while you're working. I divided Briar's hair into 3 sections horizontally. The bottom (closest to her neck), the middle, and the top (this included her bangs mostly and the hair that frames her face)

Break down of how to make a curl: Take a small section of hair (the one shown here is good)

Rip a small piece of foil to fold over the ends. You do this to ensure her hair gets curled at the tips. It also makes it much easier to start the curl around the straw. I used heavy duty foil so it would have a stronger hold, but you can just fold normal foil into this size 2-3 layers thick and it should work. Make sure the ends are lying as straight as possible in the foil so they curl in the right direction. 

Once the ends are foiled (the piece in the picture below is too big, I was experimenting, but the process is the same) curl it around a small section of drinking straw. You can either cut the straws before you curl, or simply curl it with the whole straw and then trim the straw once you have it pinned. This is sometimes easier to manipulate. 

Curl the hair all the way up to her scalp. 

Once at her scalp, push a straight pin through the straw and into her scalp. It is MUCH easier if you take the time to stick the pin through one of her hair plug holes. It will go in and out smoother. Plus, sticking pins just into her vinyl made me nervous. Push it in until the pin head is nestled in the hair.

Her hair is easiest to curl when damp. If the hair starts drying out while you're working on it, wet your fingers or doll brush with water and smooth it through her hair to wet it.

****Pay attention to which direction you are curling the hair. Curls framing the face should be curling away from her face. The ones on the back of the head don't matter as much, but keep it varied to achieve Briar's carefree look. Basically, you just don't want all of your curls going in the same direction because they'll look too uniform. 

Continue sectioning and curling the entire "bottom" section. I ended up using 12 curls for her entire head since I left them pretty thick, but use as many as you want. 

Once her bottom section is all curled, move onto the middle, keeping the top clipped out of the way. I did some normal curls in this section, but also tried this alternative technique to have some variety in texture in size. (it worked really well) 

To do this, section the hair like normal. Before foiling and curling, twist the hair tight on itself kind of like a rope (see picture) Then apply foil, and curl up straw and pin as normal. It adds a tighter coiled look. :)

Then move onto the top section. I saved her bangs for last because they're a bit tricky. Twist the strand slightly (but not as tight) AWAY from her face. Then foil, curl and pin also away from her face. (so you're curling towards the back of her head.) Otherwise her bangs will flop down in her face. Unless that's the look you're going for, then go for it. ;)

All curled! Be patient, this takes a while but needs to be done right!

Okay, this is getting ridiculously long. If I want it to upload with all these pictures, I'll have to split it up. So stay 'tuned for part 2: BOILING, WAITING, AND STYLING! :)

click HERE for part two!