The horrors of mohair

[Vertefae]

Has anyone ever worked with raw mohair? It's nasty, smells AWFUL (and this comes from a farm girl) and tangles SO easy when it's wet.

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Next time I say I have a great idea.... by Vertefae, on Flickr

However...

there's nothing quite like it when it cooperates!

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Going to be worth it.... by Vertefae, on Flickr

This is just tucked under her hat, I still have to get her a scalp to actually hair.

[YellowCat]

Been there, done that and failed.  I tried rooting (knot method) a doll with mohair, got 1/4 of the way through and gave up because it looked awful, the hair was all sticking up like an afro.  Now I'm going to root a wig cap with it since that will give me a bit more control over it.  I figure I'll just sew the cap to the doll's scalp when I'm done.

Btw, how did you get yours separated into such nice sections?  Mine just wants to be a big ball of fuzz?  I want curls and waves, but not dust bunny-like fuzz.

[Vertefae]

After I washed it twelve thousand times... Okay actually like 6, I let it dry and started gently pulling the longer pieces out. Then combed and combed while lightly spraying with water so it didn't poof!

[NoDivision]

She's going to look great! Mohair can be a challenge for sure.

[Alicat]

I did a loose lambswool one a couple of weeks ago, and though it was a pain, it turned out fabulously! I was picking loose lilac fibers off everything for a week, including out of my mouth!  lol!

[xkelpiex]

No wonder mohair wigs on etsy are so expensive!

[Flaileigh]

The mohair was purchased direct from a farm and not pre-washed? So, yeah... Wash it. Wash is well. It might've just been sheared from the animal and directly bagged. I had to do that with sheep fleece and it was full of dirt, twigs and poop. I also tried a re-root with unspun mohair, too. Gave up just like YellowCat.

[YellowCat]

Did you use any shampoo or conditioner? 

Sorry for the dumb questions.  I'm going to try and start over tomorrow.

[aellos]

Haha, now I'm GLAD my mohair order never came in from Dollyhair way back when. But I knew it took a lot of work.

I do like how it looks on her.

[Dludnerad]

The main problem I have with mohair is carpet beetle. I used to make mohair bears and the ones who sat on shelves had all the hair eaten off their little butts! (and this is with insect repellent methods being used...)
Now I'm paranoid about the wig I bought for a doll. I keep searching the thing each week. It's like looking for headlice

Mohair does look great though. The Blythe (?) doll pictured looks beautiful with her curly do.

[Vertefae]

Did you use any shampoo or conditioner? 

Sorry for the dumb questions.  I'm going to try and start over tomorrow.

I did. I used Dawn to wash it and then used a cleansing conditioner and rinsed that as well. Then dried and started combing I hope that helps!

I loved reading everyones responses! I think waiting to let it dry before combing really helped.

[YellowCat]

While doing some searches last night I found a really cool tutorial on making mohair doll wigs.
But we're not allowed to link to other forums here are we?

Since it's okay, here's the link:
http://www.dolls-n-daggers.com/Dolls/Forum/index.php?topic=2358.0


I'm giving it a try right now.

[butterflybuttons]

Yellowcat, If the site has a pg13 rating like ours, it's fine to link to

[Vertefae]

that is the COOLEST tutorial ever!!! I'll be keeping that and trying it out with my extra pieces.

[NoDivision]

That's pretty similar to some other tutorials that I've use, but the liquid latex is new. Not a bad idea!