As I wrote in my previous Op Shop doll post I spent most of a Sunday afternoon working on this batch of dolls and I had the wrinkly fingers to prove it. As well as cleaning the dolls I wanted to sort out their hair and also try a few things that I had seen on You Tube. The main one was fixing the swingy knee joints on the pivotal Barbie that I told you about last time . I was quite pleased with how that worked out so it will be handy to use for any other articulated dolls. I have spent literally hours watching YouTube tutorials lately and it has been quite helpful. I found out how to fix a loose neck knob by winding a rubber band around it and how to reattach a leg if the knob is broken. I haven’t actually had to try this yet. I’d still like to know if it is possible to swap limbs as I have a body that is perfectly good but for a chewed hand and another that has good arms but a broken neck knob. There is a fix for broken neck knobs though. I just need some wire cutters to cut through a hair pin.
I decided to try a different method of combing out doll hair too. Usually I like to comb out the tangles before washing dolls hair and as I’ve mentioned before I will sit and do this while watching TV squirting the hair with a spray of 50:50 fabric conditioner and water. Some people use a pet brush with metal bristles for this job and although I was doubtful about how that would work I decided to give it a try having recently acquired one of these brushes. I was quite impressed at what a good job it did as it took just a few minutes to get the major tangles out meaning I could get on to the hair washing sooner. I would definitely do it again when I have a big batch of dolls to get through.
Here is the pivotal Barbie again. Thanks to Andrea who correctly identified her as a Clutch Wave 1 Fashionista from 2012. I was unaware that this wave had pivotal bodies as Marissa who is from Wave 2 does not. Andrea explained to me that the pivotal Fashionistas are a bit different to the collector pivotal dolls which are a bit taller and have more well-defined neck bones. That’s what I love about doing this blog. You can always learn something new. Here is a link to a picture of the Wave 1 dolls. This is a website that has an excellent guide to all the Fashionista waves. I’ve also added it to our resources page on fashion dolls. As you can see this girl’s hair was quite a mess. It felt nasty too, very rough and sticky. In the second photo she has had her hair washed, conditioned and boil washed. I decided not to style it that day and may give it another wash before restyling it but it certainly looks and feels a lot better already.
Andrea also said that she thinks that the dark-haired doll that I had thought was Candy Glam Raquelle is actually a 2010 Fashionista and Pets Sassy. Having looked the photos I have to agree that she is probably right about this one too. I was fooled by the belly button body and thought she might be a foreign issue doll. This doll was meant to be on a pivotal body too so as she is on a standard belly button body someone must have Frankendollied her. I wish I’d met the person who brought her in. If there is another adult collector around here who does rebodying I would like to meet them.
I am still a bit nervous about boil washing. I am still a beginner at knowing whether a doll has nylon, saran or kanaklon hair so I decided that I’d just dunk the dolls for a few seconds at a time, take them out and repeat the process if they needed it rather than leaving them in for a long time and risking damage to the hair. I’m happy to say that this seemed to work quite well and all the blonde dolls hair was improved after the process.
The dolls that I didn’t feel needed to be boil washed just got a shampoo and conditioning and were soon ready to be dressed. I showed you those in the last post.
I have not identified any of the blonde dolls as yet. The ones with articulated bodies are probably from the late nineties while the belly button dolls are more recent.
I ran out of time to try fixing the curls on the African American doll so that will happen next time. I hope that I will be able to keep her curls but if not I can either turn her into a straight-haired doll or she will end up in the re-root box.
While I have been busy with learning about cleaning and basic fixes Naomi has been looking into some more artistic ideas. She wants to create some custom coloured hair on her male fashion dolls with dyes so she would like to borrow some Barbies to practice on first. They don’t know it yet but the blondes have volunteered for the experiment. I hope that we will be able to post the results later on.
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
As far as I’m aware, these Fashionista bodies are not referred to as ‘pivotal’. Pivotal bodies used on collector dolls are completely different – different torso, arms, legs and hands. There are also pivotal hybrids, but these are different again. These tend to be referred to as articulated, with or without the under bust joint. There are comparison pics on my blog here: jenjoysalldolleduppage.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/quick-post-body-comparisons/ Great job on the restorations.
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Thanks Jen, I used that term to be different from the normal articulated Fashionista. I don’t know a great deal about these dolls and until I learned about this one I was unaware that any Fashionista had a bust joint.
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Lovely, very good links. Great fun w/ the dying, was going to try some too with fabric/Rit dye have left over from re-dying stained linens.a deep apple red,and then deep plum or gray.I’ve seen a few gals at church with lovely gray or white hair and wondered if it could be done.The moulded hair dolls are easy..and I plan a man bun ken re-do to blond after seeing his hair at a reunion.
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(nephew)..
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You did a great job with the dolls.
The first blonde looks like 2008 Lipsmackers Birthday Barbie, who came in two versions. The first had the closed mouth facemold, while the second had a smiling facemold. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31JK0kv8iSL.jpg
The second one looks like 2007 Chic Barbie. She came in two versions too, on bellybutton body and on the shorter body. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nana_cawaii/3769670600/sizes/o/
Three and four seems to be the same doll 2006 Barbie and Tanner set. https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/1113/17/barbie-tanner-doll-dog-pet-toys-dish_1_df5014f9b2f666177152f97aef9a33cd.jpg
The AA Girl is 2005 Barbie Diary Tia. https://transfixed.ecrater.com/p/29322871/barbie-diaries-tia-doll-aa
The only idea I have for saving her curls is washing her with handwarm water and forget about a boil wash, since hot water will kill those curls for good.
I’m curious how Naomi’s experiments turn out.
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Thanks for those ID’s Andrea. I haven’t touched Tia yet. What I don’t want to do is comb her hair out and I will wash it if warm water first. I only do the boil if I’m not happy with the results. I actually have that blue dress that the Chic Barbie wears. It came in the same lot so she can have it back. There was a similar orange dress in the same lot too. Naomi is coming over Sunday so I expect she’ll take a few dolls home to play with. I mean experiment on. I’m hoping she’ll have time to post some photos of what she has been up to at home with her own dolls soon.
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The orange dress belongs to 2007 Chic Teresa.
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Yes I thought so. I looked her up this morning as I felt that there was probably a brunette doll as well.
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Sounds like fun! My scene swapping heads Maddison dark hair is too dark to attempt[t red but one of my lighter skinned heads can have her tipsdipped in a pony tail and if it’s too odd clip it off.
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Have you tried dyeing before? How do you like to do it, dip or paint it on?
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So far clothing and linens for a wedding,but looking to try some yarn hair dolls and the feathery types of hair..tried a generation doll but it just washed out so cut it off. Used to do my daughters hair /painted on ..and a giant person size) doll head in school. Going to try a blonde ken w/ red then if it washes out to pink I can lot him into my Beyond pink dolls.
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Naomi painted some colour onto a Ken last week. Most washed out with warm water but she said that cold didn’t seem to make that happen. Hope we can show some results soon.
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BTW..stained kens (white Tux) did great w/ Rit dye dip.
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The AA w/ the Shani face would look gorgeous as a mermaid..if her hair doesn’t pick out well it can be braided or adorned w/ beads/flowers.
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I think I am going to try just a warm wash and scrunch it up. I have some gel so I will dilute it and spray some on to help it keep the shape.
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Sounds great.Think I’ll try the dye with vinegar to “set it”, don’t know how Ken will like being a ginger ..look worked for Allan, but he also looks good as a blond,(repaint)..Tell Naomi still on pins and needles to know more abt Kiss dolls and the latest capers in her rental/doll house.
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I will tell her. She said to me yesterday in a message that she was working on a new post about her CEX house and its tenants. Can’t wait to see what they have been getting up to. I’ll ask her about the KISS dolls too.
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