Hair styling tips

Tips and techniques for styling your Makie hair.
From french braids to curlers, this is the place for you

From Tati:

Today we'd like to share this cute red wavy number.

Wavy but not quite mid-'90s crimping - how did we do it? Eh? As it turns out Kanekalon hair doesn't really like dry heat treatments but can be shaped under wet heat. Think sauna, think jacuzzi… mmm. In this case we dipped a plaited wig into a very hot, but not boiling glass of water and held it there for 30 seconds. We then let it dry for a few hours on some tissue paper and finger combed it out into this fiery mane.

From Polkfil:

If you want super straight hair, try using a steam iron on a low-medium heat setting, lay the hair on a board and putting a cotton hanky (you know, the things we used to use before tissues) over the top of the wig it and iron smile - do this in sections.

Also, winding hair around pipe cleaners and putting over a steaming kettle for several minutes, then allow to cool and dry makes lovely bouncy sausage curls smile You can use this method with all types of curling (using cheep curlers from the salon works too)

a tip for above, if you don't want to wet the dolls hair you wrap it in plastic wrap tightly before dunking. You can make some lovely 1930's style finger curls this way.

If you want a style that is set in place like a beehive or spiky mohawk or something, gum arabic is really good for setting the hair to a hard rock style :-D

Jakaherbie says:

Kanekalon hair can be really “pouffy” one tip I was given that works great for making it flat and straight is to run the rooted hair (hair only mind you) under the hot tap - it takes a while but works great.

For curly I either plait, rag roll or make small rollers out of something suitably sized for the curl size I want and boil perm - again hair only ( not whole head) it takes seconds but is very effective as long as you allow it to dry before removing curlers.

Boil perms work well with Kanekalon, Nylon & Saran -Hope that helps!


Personally I find Gum Arabic a pain in doll hair (I normally use PVA as it dries clear and is easier to remove), as I like to change styles on occasion and it's not easy to remove… But for a stylized wig I guess I wouldn't mind it!

I suggest you try a solution of half water and half liquid Gum Arabic as a tester and add more if necessary… Sorry I cannot point you to a “How to page” as most of the how to's on Gum Arabic I know of are how to get rid of it and my personal knowledge of it is as a painting medium, sorry I cannot be of more help.

Monkfish says: watered down PVA or tacky glue makes a great hair gel. Use one part water to two parts glue and run through doll hair. It'll wash out if you want to change the style.

Got2bglued is also meant to be very good for some crazy hair styling.

Some links:

Chignon style

Plaits/braiding hair

Makie Afro!



Take one Makie Lab "bouncy wig" (would work with any of the curly wigs) Place it onto your doll securely.



Now, get them scissors ready to chop chop chop.



Make sure you cut small sections at a time (the hair naturally falls into thick curls, cut one curl at a time so any mistakes are easier to cover up)
Cut in a slightly rounded shape to create the desired curved puffball of hair.



Now fluff that hair up with your fingers, shape it, snip any bits that are too long and make the final adjustments to the shape.

when you're happy, voila, an afrolicious style for your Makie.