Shantey, the girl with the blue hair
#1
I never thought it would happen, but the hold that the Groove dolls have on me seems to have loosened up somewhat. I still adore the ones in my collection, of course, but now I can look at the new releases and not want to purchase them.

I still want to stay active somewhat in the doll hobby. I turned to my most recent acquisition--Blythe--and decided to give re-rooting a go. I had gotten a pre-owned Jane LeFroy Blythe on ebay for a good price. I knew I wanted to send her to Buzzingbumblebee/Bee's Dreamland for a custom face-up, new eyechips, the works! And since the Blythe's hair was a right mess and couldn't be saved, I decided to take all the hair off of the scalp and use it as a base to do my first re-root. At least the holes were already there; one less thing for me to do.

So I ordered some saran from Dollyhair.com. I agonized over the colors for such a long time--so many choices! I settled on a mix of blues--phtahlo, lagoon & midnight. And because I didn't want to run out, I think I bought more hanks than I needed, but better safe than sorry. (Good thing I did too, because I destroyed many strands during my rerooting venture).

ByronicHeroine shared her favorite re-rooting tutorial with me, and I was off. I already had some long needles and jewelry pliers.

This is the beginning stages of the re-root. The tutorial said to do the thatch/part first, so that's what I did. It's entirely separate from the rest of the spiral that starts at the crown of the head.
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I was annoyed at how fuzzy the inside was turning out to be. Look at all the fuzzy strands! And the amount of strands I destroyed...it felt like I was throwing away money with each saran strand that got kinked and tangled. I felt like it was very slow going...this is a couple weeks' progress. Truthfully, though, only maybe an hour or two per day, and not every single day. Also, I was dealing with a finger sprain at the time, so I probably wasn't working at full speed.
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After awhile, though, I started to feel like I had a handle on what I was doing. I knew how big a hair plug should be, and once my finger got better, I could increase my speed. I finally finished the re-root in early September. Ta-dah!
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Here is the interior of the scalp. I put on a thin layer of glue over the locked loops as a measure of security. The scalp is VERY full--man, this girl will have a LOT of hair. It's probably a combination of thick hair plugs and using every single hole. I'll have to remember that for the next time...if there is a next time.
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And here's the recipient of the scalp--it's Shantey the custom Blythe. You may remember her from Buzzingbumblebee's thread earlier this month. She was sporting blonde hair then. Here she is now...
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Shantey has three pair of handpainted eyechips by Buzzingbumblebee.
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And her dress is by Vertefae/Toadstool Tor.
[Image: 21503501791_d5689064cb.jpg]Shantey by KiraKira a.k.a. JustLikeWasabi (but you can call me Shann!), on Flickr

I didn't like the Blythe stock body...so I opted for one that's a little more poseable. The tradeoff is that it is less stable.
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Here are her pulls--made of beach glass, shells and natural beads. I wanted the pulls to be reminiscent of the beach, or the ocean. She is named 'Shantey' after all, which is a word that means " a sailor's work song". And she has blue hair like the sea.
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Thank you for sticking around and reading this far. grin
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#2
everything about her is perfect Heart 2 Congratulations on her hair, I know how time consuming rerooting is and I say Bravo ! Her dress is lovely, her pulls are so perfect and her faceup - gorgeous.

I have always disliked stock Blythes, still do, but I have a Pinterest board full of 100s of stunning customs. I hope you don't mind if I add Shantey smile
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#3
The rerooting project came out wonderful! As someone who has attempted and been unable to stick with a reroot, I can appreciate the effort that you put into it. I love the color mix and it looks really good with her new faceup. Well done!

Oh, yeah, the beach glass pulls are really nice and unique!
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#4
Brava! She came together beautifully, and it's so cool that you did it with the help of other forum members. I look forward to many photos!
>>>I'm not gone, just really, REALLY busy.<<<
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#5
Yay grin Good for you at finishing the re-root! That is really a LOT of hair. And the loop method looks so neat.
I do like dolls with blue hair.... and I like that you gave her all the ocean-themed touches.
Haha, yes, I'm annoyed with having to chuck out strands of ridiculously fine hair when I can't get them back into the plug. And I also found that after you do a bit, you get the hang of it and it's not really hard. I made some plugs too big and some way too small (doubled and even tripled them in a hole or two)... but once you get going it's kind of meditative, if you don't feel rushed.
It looks great -- congratulations on getting her all finished. Will we see some photos of her singing shanties by the sea? LOL
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#6
Ahhhhh ! It looks amazing Shann grin You're inspiring me to finish a white alpaca scalp I started years ago lol upside down Well done though, it suits her so well.

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#7
Oh boy, she's just exquisite! Your hard work on her hair paid off, Kira yay
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#8
Love that reroot! Congrats on sticking with it! She looks great grin
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