Reroot Doll Hair: Knot Method

Ethan before (left) and after (right)

Some dolls have low-quality hair or improvised “haircuts.” Doll hair cannot regrow, but it can be rerooted! Rerooting replaces a doll's old hair with any hair you want: saran, yarn fibers, tinsel, etc. There are many ways to reroot hair, and two of the most common are the knot method and the reroot tool method. This tutorial outlines the knot method, a very slow, but beginner-friendly, way to reroot doll hair. It features a lovely second-hand doll, Ethan, whose head I removed in a previous tutorial.

You Will Need:

• Doll
• Large-eyed Sewing Needle
• Hair (old wigs are perfect for this)
• Scissors
• Pliers
• Tweezers (optional)
• Cup of water (optional)
• Towel (optional)

More after the jump!

1. Prepare your work area. Remove your doll’s head along with as much of its original hair as possible. Use tweezers to remove stubborn sections from inside the neck-hole. Hole patterns on the head determine the doll’s hairstyle, and can be altered for different hairdos. Select a few hanks of hair, and lay them aside. Longer is better: remember that the final length is half of the hank half the strand (so a 12-inch strand of hair will be only 6 inches after rerooting.)

2. Thread the Needle. Put one end of your hank into a cup of water. Separate a thin strand of hair, and thread your needle with the wet side. Then silde the needle to the middle of the hair-strand, like a “needle necklace.”

3. Sew a Plug. Push the needle into a head-hole. Cover your hand with a towel for added pressure. Slide the needle out of the neck-hole. You might need to use pliers to pull the needle out through the neck-hole.






4. Tie a knot. Tie a knot at the end of the hair. Cut off the needle, then tie the loose hair-ends into a tight knot.

5. Pull the Plug. Pull the plug up into the neck-hole. Repeat for each hole.

Now you have mastered the Knot Method! This is not my favorite method, because it takes forever! However, it is useful if you do not have a reroot tool. To see what Ethan looked like once he was finished, check out my Makeovers Page!