Adventures in Wig Restoration
- wingedmermaid
- May 7
- 6 min read
Updated: May 21
I recently got a Just Like You #7 from eBay for a fair price (I made an offer -- she was way overpriced). Not only did she have a Pleasant Company stamped head and the now retired light blue eyes, but she had something I really wanted to add to my collection, a wig with straight bangs.
I do already have Samantha and Kirsten, both of whom do have straight bangs, but those two are display-only for me. I wanted one that I could do different hairstyles with, or at the very least, put in different outfits.
The doll arrived a few days later and she turned out to be dirtier and more dinged up than she'd appeared in her photos. I was SO glad I hadn't offered a higher price. I'll talk a little more about that once I introduce her.
As soon as I saw how dry and damaged her wig was, my heart sank. But, I decided not to give up hope on #7's wig just yet. As someone who's seen lots of American Girl restoration videos, I know that even the grimiest wigs can look a thousand times better after trying some usual restoration methods.
First I removed her head and washed her hair thoroughly. The listing didn't mention anything about where she'd originally come from or how she'd been stored, so I erred on the side of caution and used Dawn dish soap to help get any potential germs and grime out. Then, after rinsing the hair, I meticulously combed out her wig, carefully working in small sections.
Her hair still felt incredibly dry, so I decided to try some baby shampoo and some cheap conditioner. The smell of the baby shampoo was awful! I was so surprised! I feel like I really loved the smell of baby shampoo when I was little. Then again, it has been several years, so maybe I'm confusing the shampoo with body wash or something (or maybe the scent has changed after decades lol). After washing out all of the shampoo, I combed through the hair a second time, getting out even more tangles in the process.
The hair still felt dry.
I went in with the conditioner and let it sit on the hair for several minutes. Then I rinsed the hair completely and did a third round of combing and detangling. At this point, the wig seemed a little softer, and was definitely free from most of the tangles, but it still didn't look or feel that great. I decided it was time to bring out the big guns -- a flat iron.
I had used a flat iron about ten years ago, when I decided to flatten my Marie-Grace's side curls (they were a little beefier than Elizabeth's pin curls) and merge them in with the rest of her wig. That time, I'd made sure to really wet her hair and use the lowest setting on the straightener. It had worked like a charm! Unfortunately, I no longer had that flat iron, because I haven't straightened my hair in years.
After consulting different doll forums and Reddit for straightener ideas, I settled on a Bed Head 1/2" straightener for bangs and short hair. Honestly, it made me miss my old straightener. I chose it because I thought the size would make working with small sections of doll hair easier and I knew it had an adjustable heat setting. In the end, it felt like the flat iron kept randomly shutting off or at least cooling off (maybe because I was working with it for a long time?), so I had to keep turning it off and on, hoping it would "reset" any internal timers.
I made sure to wet each strand and then carefully use the iron. I didn't let the iron stay in one place for too long, I just did several careful and relatively quick passes. I don't remember how long it took to do the whole wig -- I think I kinda got into the rhythm of it and zoned out -- but maybe half an hour? Maybe more?
I let the hair completely dry overnight and the next day, I surveyed the results. The hair looked a LOT better, but the strands themselves were still in pretty bad shape. The wig had lots of visible breakage and the permanently fried ends definitely needed to be trimmed. The worst part was how delicate the strands felt -- like they would easily snap if I tried to tie her hair in even a low and loose ponytail.
I ultimately decided to rewig my #7. When I removed her wig (which was still surprisingly really secure), I found areas where she was missing a lot of hair, and that made me feel better about my decision. In the meantime, she got to try on the wig I'd originally thought would work for my AG version of Magic Attic Club's Megan.
I spent a long time trying to find a wig that was close to Just Like You #7's original -- brunette and with bangs. I knew I didn't want anything too thick, because in my experience, thick wigs can loosen a doll's limbs (not to mention make it difficult for them to stand on their own), but that seemed to be all I could find easily. I scoured eBay for older wigs that were still made of good quality fiber, but most of them seemed to be designed for younger-looking dolls (think larger porcelain baby dolls). At some point I decided to give up for the time being and go with my second choice -- a red wig with bangs. It looked good in the mockups I created, but in reality, it was just... fine. As cute as she looked, I still really wanted to keep her as a brunette.
I kept hunting. I went back and revisited some of the wigs I initially didn't think would work. There was one in particular that I had almost gotten before, but I thought the color would be too light. I'd already tried Rebecca's wig on her and decided the color was just too light. I wondered if maybe the stock photos were making the wig look lighter than it was in reality. I decided to try searching through Instagram and see if anyone else had used the same wig. Thankfully, I did find a few different photos of the wig -- and in different lighting! It looked like it would actually be a pretty close match! The style wasn't exact -- it was a lot longer and likely pretty thick -- but I thought I could figure out how to work with that.
The newest wig arrived yesterday and I'm really, really happy with the color! It's a nice rich brown, very close to #7's original hair color. The wig fibers feel so luxurious -- so much softer than her original wig. There were only two issues right off the bat: one, the wig felt about twice as thick as a typical AG wig, making it heavier than I wanted, and two, it was a little longer than I ideally wanted it to be.
I decided to tackle the thickness first. I knew I wouldn't mind the extra length if thinning the wig out solved the problem of its heaviness. I watched a few YouTube tutorials on wig thinning and consulted a few posts online and learned that just like with real thick hair, thinning shears are the way to go for synthetic hair. As someone with thiccc hair, myself, you can bet I have a pair of thinning shears already. They are magic!
I ended up using both methods I'd seen done online. I took every other weft (after skipping the very top, sides, and bottom sections of hair) and used my thinning shears to make cuts halfway down, halfway down from that, and halfway down once more. That took a good chunk out, but it wasn't enough. I was afraid of having small hairs sticking out everywhere if I tried to do more of the same, so I tried the second approach, cutting just below where the wefts were sewn in place. I think I liked this method better. It took out a lot of bulk and didn't produce any small hairs that stuck out. Next time, I'd probably try that way first.
I kept cutting away, combing out, and testing the weight of the hair. Ultimately, I realized I needed to cut some of the length to really get the weight down. I worked carefully all the way around her hair, cutting in small sections and taking some of the cut hair to use as a guide for the next section. I still had to go back and tweak a few areas, but overall, I think I did pretty well!
After combing out the hair again, and looking for any other changes I wanted, I decided I really liked the final result and glued down the wig. Once her hair is fully cured, I might fluff it up a little more or style it a bit, but for now, I'm pretty happy with the result!
Now she just needs a backstory and a name!
