Shantey, the girl with the blue hair

[KiraKira]

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.


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.


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!


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.


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...


Shantey has three pair of handpainted eyechips by Buzzingbumblebee.


And her dress is by Vertefae/Toadstool Tor.
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.


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.


Thank you for sticking around and reading this far.

[Miss Edith]

everything about her is perfect 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

[Cornflower Blue]

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!

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Oh, yeah, the beach glass pulls are really nice and unique!

[Marilyn]

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!

[Alliecat]

Yay 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?

[Chihiro]

Ahhhhh ! It looks amazing Shann You're inspiring me to finish a white alpaca scalp I started years ago lol Well done though, it suits her so well.

[Missy_Crane]

Oh boy, she's just exquisite! Your hard work on her hair paid off, Kira

[MayaPapaya]

Love that reroot! Congrats on sticking with it! She looks great