My Little Pony - Rehairing

Hey everyone.

I already have a few My Little Pony instructables up for hair fixes, but i have had a few requests to do one for rehairing, aka.. what you have to do if the hair is too far gone to fix. I kind of taught myself how to do this, so it may be different to some other people, but i hope you still find it effective and useful! I take all modelling and doll making fairly seriously. Its a great hobby to get into and it can be cheap or it can be super costly. Try it!

Where to buy hair!

http://www.dollyhair.com/

http://www.mylittlecustoms.co.uk/

These are the two places I get my hair from. I also got my rehairing tool from mylittlecustoms <3

Lets get started :)

Please excuse the fact i used the couch as my workbench, haha.. It was comfy and i was watching a movie while i took the photos :)

You need:

Scissors

Hot glue gun

Rehair Tool

Flea comb, or any comb really, i just like this one because it has two comb size options.

Pliers

Hair

Cable ties

Pony

Now im super aware the colors ive chosen to rehair this pony with are not quite correct, but i really like the shiny silver and have wanted to use it for a long time. :p

Ive already removed the head on my pony, some are glued, some aren't. Just cut around the neck and put the pony in a bit of hot water, with a little brute strength it should pop right off no problems.

Removing the old hair is pretty easy, you just have to hold the head tight, and cut as close to the head as you are able to without damaging the pony, which should leave you with a moehawk look (Pic 1 and 2)

Using pliers you can reach inside the pony's body, and grab the tail, some tails might be stuck a bit, just due to age, give it a good twist and tug and it should come right out. (Pic 3 and 4)

Place the head in a bowl of hot water (Pic 5), please be careful not to burn yourself, as i do all the time. After its soaked for a good time you can take the head out carefully and reach in with your pliers through the neck and pull the hair back through. (Pic 6) The glue should be soft enough inside the head that you can pull it through and throw it away.

Clean the head up so all the holes are good and clear and your body and head should be ready to go. (Pic 7 and 8)

Take your hair of choice from the bag and place it in your work space, you will need decent room for this. Roughly spread it and you will see if breaks into nice little clumps, these are the strands you can use to rehair. (Pic 1 and 2)

Pick up your rehairing tool, and pick up one of the small clumps, like i have in Pic 2. Make sure you have it in about the middle (as it will be doubled over) then wrap the hair around your pointer and middle finger and use the rehair tool to pick up the strand between the two fingers. I have found for me its the easiest way to grab the hair. Once you have done that it should look like Pic 3.

Press the needle into the first hole on the head carefully (Pic 4), to make sure you dont have too much hair. Trying to place too much hair in the head can cause the holes to split into the next hole, leaving you with one big hole and its not really fixable! Too much hair can also distort the head.

Once you have placed your first tuft of hair in, it should look like pic 5 :) You are on your way!

As you go along, you may want to add in other strands of hair color, or if you are rehairing an original set of colors, be wary of when you need to change to the next color. (Pic 6)

After a while you should have finished hairing the head (Pic 1) It will look a bit messy at this point, but dont fret :)

Push all the hair down like in pic 2 just to make sure you havent missed any hair holes.

Start heating your glue gun, once warm start pressing the glue inside the head (Pic 3), aiming for the top of the hairline first and working back towards the back of the neck. Dont go too crazy as the glue is really hot and might melt the pony's head. Do it in parts if you have to. You can, if you are unsure, use a butter knife or something to spread the glue inside the head while its still hot, but careful you do not burn yourself.

I think i use almost a whole stick of glue sometimes just inside one head. (Pic 4)

Lay the pony out after the glue has cooled and gently begin brushing the hair to clean out anything loose. You will get a bit of balled hair, its nothing to worry about unless you pull out a whole plug of hair. This is why i use a lot of glue.

Once brushed your pony should start looking a lot nicer (Pic 2)

Gather your pony's hair up and work out the length you want the mane. See pic 3 on the length ive made mine. Snip it roughly, you can clean it up later, but always cut carefully!

The left over hair you cut from the mane can be made into the tail :) (Pic 4)

Lay the new tail out and remove some of the hair from it (Pic 5), trying to use it all will be too much and you will never get it in the hole thats made for the tail. You may tear the hole too if you are trying to thread in too much hair. Place a cable tie underneath the hair in about the middle and fasten it. (Pic 6 and 7)

Thread the cable tie into the hole (Pic 8), followed by the tail, you dont need to pull these very far through, just enough so that it does not fall back out. (Pic 9)

Trim the mane and tail to your liking, use my pics to see how i have done mine.

Style the hair how you like, i washed my pony's mane and tail and just styled them straight. Feel free to look at my other instructables to see how to style hair. :)

Finished! Please feel free to ask any questions you might have, and if i have made an error in my instructable let me know so i can ajust it.

Also feel free to message me with requests for new instructables. Thanks for the support! :)