Seeking help: discoloured doll hair - can I fix it?

[Loona]

Hi there,

apologies for opening this topic here and not in the Dollhouse - the reason for this is that I am asking about synthetic hair discoloration, and we have more hair experts around in the Customs section. I feel the fact that the particular hair in question is on a doll is secondary in the current situation, however, if you feel this topic does not belong here, please feel free to move it to the Dollhouse.

I'm turning to you for help regarding fixing a flawed wig belonging to a doll I recently purchased. The doll in question (a Pullip Snow Miku) arrived to me with parts of the wig discoloured/yellowed. The discoloration only affects parts of the hair, in particular the top of the head, and slightly also the pigtails, as if the source of discoloration was coming from the top&the back. A stripe where the earmuffs used to be remains unaffected (but one of the earmuffs' white part also shows yellowing).
I wasn't aware of this, nor was the seller, who is lovely and seems helpful, but she also doesn't know what we could do. My first thought was light, so I asked about light conditions in the glass cabinet where she was stored (I knew she was stored this way), but the cabinet was apparently standing in a shadowy spot of the previous owner's bedroom, and the doll didn't get exposed to the sun. Another possibility I had in mind was a chemical reaction... probably the glue used to secure the wig was seeping out, causing discoloration? Hovever, how did it seep down the pigtails, our out to the outer, white part of the earmuffs? The fact that only the top layer of the hair is affected (so if I "dig" into the hair on top/back to check the hairs closer to the scalp, there is intact hair beneath) makes me believe it is not the glue though. Whatever the cause may be, the hair (and the earmuffs, but I am more concerned about the hair) is yellowed, and a gentle partial shampoo-wash sadly didn't change anything. Have you ever seen something like this, and do you possibly have any recommendations on how to fix it (other than changing the wig...). It would be nice if we could fix her up especially because she was a limited edition doll, and there are only so much of her available.

Here are two pictures to demonstrate the discoloration (on the first pic, the bottom of a pigtail is pulled closer to show the colour difference; on the second pic you can see the band of unchanged colour where the earmuffs were while she was on display):

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[Loona]

Bump - I'd still be lookin for advice regarding this girl. Any recommendations on where else I should ask around would also be greatly appreciated!

[Loa]

Hmmmm. I'm gonna suggest you talk to DGRequium.

[NightGliderSA]

Short answer: I really don't know.

I have a pony tail that has gone a similar colour (It's Wigwam's) however I haven't started working on it yet. He came like that, so I have no insight into what happened to him either. I am planning on smearing whitening toothpaste on to it and leaving it to soak in dishwashing liquid to see what happens.

However my situation and yours are very different. For me it is just the tail of a pony who is already bait - he has ELLA enthusiastically written up each leg in indelible ink. His tail is also exclusively white. Or rather offwhite in this case. Whereas you are dealing with a rare item. Doll hair can be more finicky than pony hair as well as it isn't always made of the same material and so can react entirely differently to that which 'works well on ponies'.

Good luck, I hope you find a solution!

[banditpony]

Perhaps you can ask on this doll forum? There's pullip owners there, so if it's an issue w that particular wig they would know.
http://forums.dollymarket.net/index.php

[Loona]

Thank you for the tips everyone! 

I also had the idea of contacting DGRequiem, or even Klein, but was afraid that they are too busy and I'd just be a disturbing factor from out of the blue. Maybe I'll give it a try regardless.

Thank you for the forum tip banditpony! Now that I checked, I do know about this forum already, I found some advice and useful pictures there several times in the past, but I never actually registered - maybe this is the right time to do so. I'm just wondering how active it is, and if people would see my post, but if I never try, I will never know

(edited due to correct a typo)

[Loa]

I don't think either of them would mind you contacting them!

[Loona]

Thank you! I just sent an e-mail to both of them.