Unnecessarily Wordy Introduction
(Totally understandable if you skip to next bolded subtitle)
If one were to ask me at any point in my life which American Girl was my favorite, my answer would be immediate: Samantha. I could tell you it's because of her story (which I love) or her looks (she just has the sweetest face) and this would all be true. However, there is an admitted certain bias I have for her. I got mine for a birthday one year (I believe I was eight or nine) and not only was she one of the few constants for a girl who moved everywhere (I moved back to the states from Japan shortly after getting her and all over since) but she was one of the first indications that my mother felt I was responsible. I understood her price tag was high, understood her hair was not as easily fixed as a Popple's tail or easily replaced like a barbie should I take scissors to it, and understood that if any damage came to her that was not accidental I would face the wrath of Mama's disappointment. (Parental Disappointment has always been more effective than Parental Anger or Parental Grounding.) The point of this paragraph is this: I was also petrified to to anything more than brush her hair and give her hugs.
Flash forward five-thousand years. As previously stated in other threads I'd lost that Samantha in a move and just recently managed to find one in good condition for a price I could justify. (That she came clothed and with another dress was a good deciding factor!) Her arrival must have been fate for I experienced some Personal Issues shortly after and bonding with her has been therapeutic.
Not as Wordy Plans
As I stated before, she is in good condition. Excellent, even, for a doll her age. Her hair was dry but easy to brush, her limbs noticeably loosened over the course of a few days (not the seller's fault at all, totally the buyer's), and I'm not sure if a section of her eyelashes are retracted or breaking off. (Her eyes open and close fine, that tiny little section just looks uniformly shorter, maybe a centimeter from the eyelid.)
Here she is before, in a cute modern ensemble because I wanted to play dress up:
(Why yes, those ARE Tiny Flynn and Tiny Rapunzel! They're just hanging out with Doctor Whooves.)
Here's what I plan on doing (Or have done):
Mild Skin Cleaning(Done)- Hair Restoration/Curls (In Process)
- Restring (Once I gather up the courage)
The eyelash, though I would love to fix it, isn't exactly something I want to have replaced. And the risk involved is not worth the minor flaw.
Progress
Vinyl cleaning
This was actually simple. She had a smudge on her pinkie that just wiped right off. The rest of her limbs I gently scrubbed with water and a bit of Dawn and voila! (I don't have pictures of this as it was just a simple wipe down.) I cleaned the dust in her mouth and ears with a Q-Tip. Probably not the best thing in the world but there were no fuzzies left behind.
Hair
As I am sometimes overly cautious, I perhaps went a little overboard in prepping her... Shrink Wrap bathing suit and wrapped in three plastic bags. Heh.
Despite her smile, I know she's planning revenge.
So her being all ready, I gently washed her hair in lukewarm water. I would have done cold but my hands are very temperature sensitive. I didn't use baby shampoo as I see often suggested because I have none. So now her hair smells like TRESseme. (TRESemme Advanced Technology Curly Hydration for those interested, as that's the type I use to enhance the natural curls I have.) After, I towel dried and let her hair dangle over my dresser.
Then I decided I may as well curl her hair. I don't know what kind of rollers they are as they're my mom's, but I know they have tiny hooks in them. I asked her about five times if they were okay for doll hair. I figure if I'm too nervous to take them out myself I'll just ask her. (The benefit of having a mother who trained as a beautician is she can likely fix most of my mess ups.)
(Please note that this is my first attempt at curling doll hair.)
It was somewhat intuitive with what to do with the curlers. (Read: I made stuff up as I went along!) I'll list how I curled it, and once they're taken out I'll edit this post with an image to show you, and you can decide from there if it's a way you'd like to try.
I worked from the bottom up. There are actually eight curlers in her hair. The bottom row are two big curlers rolled with the curl she still had. The third is two curlers slightly smaller, and then the last is three small rollers. And the top level of her bangs were kind of not overly even so I just rolled a small section of her top bangs with a tiny curler. (Or rollers. I keep wanted to switch.)
Restringing
I'm actually kind of afraid to try this. But I will eventually, just need to go out and get the parts for it.
Miscellaneous
The same seller I got my Samantha from also had some of her outfits. I bought a few, and this one was clearly listed as stained (but it came with another item I wanted and the combined price was still very good) and figured if nothing else, I was out a dress.
Well, I can now applaud the wonder of Oxyclean! This took two soaks over two days, the last soak with a bit of ALL detergent. (Note: Don't be a goober like me. If you have sensitive skin, don't go squishing the fabric all willy nilly in the Oxycleaned water. Dryness occures! Ah well, live and learn.) This is the first time I actually took the time to remove any sort of staining, so I'm quite pleased.
(There's still some mild yellowing under the collar along the ribbon hem, but it's so far better than it had been and no longer noticeable through the fabric.)
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