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Have you ever wondered how to restore American Girl doll hair and skin? Perhaps you have dolls you hold dear that could use some sprucing up, or perhaps like me, you’ve gotten lucky at the thrift store. I scored this pair of American Girl dolls for just $3.99 apiece at Goodwill! As someone who grew up owning three American Girl dolls and who scanned the catalogues religiously, I was pretty excited. These sell for over $100 now brand new, so I was excited at the chance to grab some for my daughter for such a low price.
Of course, there had to be something wrong with them: the wigs were worn out in the back, to the point where the wig cap was showing through. I realized I would need to replace the wigs. A quick Google search revealed that I could get wigs for about $30 each. I decided this was worth it, and I moved forward with bringing the dolls home.
This project was very exciting to me! I wasn’t sure if someone else would have bothered to pick these up in their condition, and I was happy to rescue them from possibly ending up in the landfill. I did some research online to learn how to restore and care for these dolls, and ended up finding that some methods worked better than others. This blog post is a tutorial showing exactly what worked best for me.
The first thing I had to do was remove the wigs. One tutorial advised using non-acetone nail polish remover (very important that it is NON-ACETONE, or you could ruin the dolls features and skin). Another advised using a spoon and a steamer.
I decided to try the steamer method first, since it involved no chemicals. Above is the tutorial that I found on YouTube. I wasn’t worried about ruining the wigs, so I dug right in there and ripped the wig off. I used a metal spoon as leverage. If you’re trying to remove a wig you plan to reuse, you may need to be gentler than I was. This method got most of the wig off, but there was some glue residue and some bits of the wig cap stuck in the adhesive. I tried the non-acetone nail polish remover to help scrape these off. However, I found it did nothing to budge the adhesive.
I ended up leaving some of the smaller bits of wig on the heads. My husband removed one big chunk on the front of a doll’s head by sanding it off with a metal file. I did not photograph this process, but we used painters tape to tape off the parts of the head we did not want to touch with the file. My husband was able to get this sanded down smooth. This ended up really helping the wig to sit better on the doll’s head.
The next step is cleaning the dolls. They had some dark marks on their faces, and I suspected a magic eraser would do the trick – and I was right! I got the eraser damp with some water and went over their faces and arms and legs with it. Everything came off so well that they looked good as new. I even went ahead and cleaned up some of my old dolls from childhood using this method. It was a miracle worker for those scuff marks!
I found that the best deals for quality wigs were at BBeautyDolls. I shopped around and ended up selecting a short red wig and a long brunette one. My total came to around $60. They arrived within a week and were packed nicely, with no damage from shipping. I would highly recommend this site if you are looking for doll wigs!
If you thought removing the wig was the hardest part of this process, it isn’t. The scariest part is putting on the new wig! You need to get the placement right on the head and you need to avoid getting any glue in the hair when placing the wig.
Your adhesive is important. Many tutorials I read online suggested tacky glue. The problem with this is the they were reporting that sometimes, the wig would come off while their daughter was playing with it, and they had to reglue. I didn’t want this problem. But the issue with using a super permanent glue (like E6000, which I was considering) is that if you ever want to replace the wig in the future, you risk pulling off bits of the dolls head when you remove the wig.
I decided to find a middle ground. For me, it was Gorilla Hot Glue. More permanent and strong than tacky glue or regular hot glue, but still removable if you really need it to be.
You need to get your glue placement right. You don’t need to apply glue all over the head. Just a line at the front hairline and a line or two on the back of the head, toward the base of the wig cap. I marked the placement with red lines.
And that was it! I gently tugged on the wigs to test the durability of the glue and I was happy with the hold. But I know that if I ever need to replace the wigs again, I won’t have a hard time removing them.
This is the fun step, and one that my young one-and-a-half year old enjoyed: dressing the dolls. I have a bunch of American Girl doll clothes that my mom made for me as a child, and I let my daughter pick her favorites to dress the dolls in. She had a blast doing this! I can’t wait until she’s old enough to enjoy these dolls fully. You can order clothes from AmericanGirl.com, find used American Girl doll clothes on eBay, or sew your own using patterns.
All in all, it cost me about $70 total for the two dolls. Here is the cost breakdown:
A brand new American Girl doll costs $125. A used doll on eBay can cost $50 or more, depending on the condition.
I truly enjoyed this project, and I hope it inspires you to rescue your old American Girl dolls, or dolls you happen upon at the thrift store or a yard sale. They can be cleaned up and restored to their original beauty with some determination and elbow grease!
Comment your favorite American Girl doll below! Mine was Samantha.
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