Update on deflocks! DONE!!

[Sugar]

Hi again!

Since I found my camera (yay!), I wanted to post some photos in progress of the deflocking of SS Truly and SS Satin-and-Lace.  Really, I wish now that Id waited to take before photos - they were both really mangy and discoloured, especially when compared to my other SS ponies.  Here's Truly, who gave me the least trouble of all.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

You can see she's pretty smooth looking, though she still has glue in places and some flocking too.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Her NDS is a bit tackier, but coming along well.

Truly and Satin were done with Oxiclean (the powder kind made to a rough, granullar paste with some water) and hot, hot water, and a lot of scrubbing.  I used my bare hands on the first day (not recommended unless you have tough skin like me) and exfoliating gloves on the second for extra crud removal.  I'm planning a third day of scrubdown, and maybe some Jasco or acetone, depending on what I find at my local Walmart.

Here is Satin, still highly crudded.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

I love her colour underneath all that fuzz!  She seriously looked like dust kitten before.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

And here's the other side.  Still kind of tacky/fuzzy in patches, but sooooo much better than before.

Both ladies had serious tail rust, so I removed and am in the process of de-rusting the tails.  Both had no pink loss (yay!) and both tails, after detangling and conditioner, were even retaining what appears to be some factory curl.

All in all, a lucky find even with all the work involved, and I feel a lot more optimistic about deflocking now!

[Shenanigans]

Looking good so far! I'm in the process of deflocking a Shady and that glue is stuuuuuborn!!!!! I wish they had made flutter wings as resilient as the flocking glue I think I'm going to get some Jasco or something. Hot water and scrubbing just aren't doing it for me

[shockponie]

I need to try this with a Bouncy... Yours look beautiful!

[Sugar]

@ Shenanigans:  Good luck with your Shady!  It's strange how flocking can be so easily rubbed off some ponies and so rough to rub off others.  Truly's head came so clean so fast, I was all like, hey, this isn't hard at all!  So I dumpted Satin'n'Lace in too, and regretted it pretty quick.  Where she wasn't mangy, it was as though the bath fluffed her up like a big ol' towel!

I hear you on the flutter wings!  Before I lost them (and half my herd) when I moved, I had one remaining mismatched set of flutter wings left - and I wasn't even rough with my ponies!  They practically snapped just looking at 'em...   But such pretty iridessent colours.... oooooo...

@ Shockponie:  Thanks! All the credit goes to the young person who previously owned them.  Under the grubby fuzz and detangled, they're actually in pretty darned good shape.  Hmmm... There's a children's book idea in there somewhere...

@ anypony in general:  I picked up some Goof Off today, and if another day or so of soaking and scrubbing doesn't do it, I think I'm going to give it a go and keep you all posted.  Carefully, wearing gloves, outdoors, and upwind of what I'm working on!  I hear that that stuff is po-tent...

[ashes]

Nice pics!  It gives me some motivation to finish my Truly that I started deflocking, oh, around 6 years ago.  It's tough work!

[celticowgirl88]

They look good I've got a Lickety Split that I can't seem to get past a stage similar to your Satin-n-Lace. I'm pretty frustrated because I really want to get my Paradise and Shady done too... 

[hathorcat]

Great progress! Good luck getting those last annoying bits removed!

[Sugar]

@ Hathorcat:  Thank you!  Your advice and photos of your deflocks really helped.

@ Celticowgirl88 & Ashes:  Don't lose heart!  Its a long hard slog but its worth it.

I gave my deflocking process a bit of a break tonight, gonna probably break out the Goof Off tomorrow, when my DS can play in the yard while mommy plays mad scientist with the ponies, provided it dosn't rain...   Will keep you posted!

[kiwimlp]

They both look great so far.  SS ponies always look so nice and bright without all of their fuzz

[TimeDance]

Ugh, deflocking is such a grueling process. Working on a Paradise myself. Been working on her forever lol  Good luck finishing your ponies.

[Sugar]

Thank you all for encouragements!

Yesterday was promising storms, so I got outside for a bit anyway to start in on Satin n Lace.  She was the worst off so I decided she could get the tough stuff first.  What a difference an hour's work of Goof-Off and scraping did!

Before:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


And after (just the body; head's the same):
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Still not entirely there, but close, oh so close!  I focused on her forelegs and rear left leg, held her by her right hind leg for most of it.  Most of the scungy fluff has gone, just some little bits here and there.  She's really smooth to the touch, and though I'm a total perfectionist (at least when it comes to cleaning - spelling's another matter!) an am going in for more later today, she looks a treat better.

For anypony who's contemplating similar actions, here's what I did.  I sat out of doors, first off.  The smell wasn't so bad - it kinda reminded me of those big felt markers we sometimes got to draw posters with in school, must be the xylene or toluene or some petroleum byproduct - but I sure as heck wouldn't want it indoors.  I had gloves ready in case I needed them, but my skin must be leather 'cause it did nothing when a bit got on me.  I started applying the Goof Off with Q-Tips, but once I got accustomed to how it worked, I started dribbling it right onto the pony.  Scraped with a wooden coffee stirrer, and the fuzz and glue came off just like shaving.  Or Veet, if anypony's ever tried that.   Anyway, I had an aluminium pie shell with me to collect old Q-Tips and coffee stirrers, and the whole of it is in a bag outside and waiting to go to tthe local ecocentre for proper disposal.  Once I add today's stuff to it too.  And Satin-n-Lace got a good scrubdown with dawn dish soap to get rid of the sovlent smell.  She doesn't smell as nice as my old ponies do, but still... worth it to get rid of the fuzz, and come to think of it, she smelled kind of musty/gross when I got her from the thrift shop anyway... Maybe fabric softener sheets will be the next step after deflocking?

[hathorcat]

Wow you are nearly there on her! Amazing!

[Sugar]

Soooo... I finished those deflocks, at least as finished as I can get 'em, and here they are.

First, Satin'n'Lace, who looks very shiny under the flash photography, but not so bad IRL.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Her mane and tail stayed rather on the frizzy side, which is why I braided them up - my usual strategy with mine own frizzy hair.  If it doesn't take to the defrizzing-by-braid, then I'll prolly rehair (shudder at prospect).
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Gotta give thanks to rainbowstars, the acetone (well, acetone-based Sally Hansen nail polish remover - stinky but not so bad as all that) really did the trick to get rid of the stubbornest flocking & glue.  Tho you can't see it in this shot, even the bottoms of her hooves came clean (wow!).
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


And here is Truly, looking really peace'n'love with her braided forelock.  Peace'n'love actually kinda goes with her cutie mark, no?
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

She's rather shiny in the flash too, but not as badly as Satin.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

I just love the hippie vibe she degages, and I think I may fiddle up a flower necklace or some rose coloured shades to complete the image.
visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Thanks for following the saga, and good luck to all your deflocking projects!
Pony hugs,
Sugar Lightning

[scarletjul]

They look gorgeous! 

[Sugar]

Thank you!

But I've gotta say, thank goodness I was on staycation.  I don't know how long they would've taken if I had been working too.

Anyways, it's a lotta work, but they don't look like they have mange anymore, hallelujah!