Restoring tornado-ravaged wigs

[binaryeclipse]

Hey all,

I'm sure most of you have heard about the storms that hit Moore, Oklahoma earlier this week. My best friend's house took a direct hit, and we have been salvaging what we can from the rubble. Fortunately we've been able to recover a number of her ball-jointed dolls, as she has a lot invested in her collection. We've also found some of the wigs they were wearing when the tornado hit,  but sadly they look a lot like this:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Some we may simply discard, but a few of them are limited or full-set wigs that would be difficult to replace. I'm hoping maybe we can clean them up.

I came here because I know a lot of you guys have extensive experience with synthetic hair between dolls, ponies, etc. My first thought is to gently 'swish' them in a tub of lukewarm water and see how much of the debris we can knock loose. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

~Jenn

[Galactica]

How awful!  I'm so sorry to hear that your friend's house was hit!

Can your friend make an insurance claim for them? 

If that's not an option, I think the best thing to do would be to first try and get the loose debris out-  maybe starting at the bottom with a pick- carefully comb through the hair.  Then gently wash and condition (you will lose the factory curl) but then you can set them in curlers.   That would probably revive the original curl if the hair is saran-  if the curls don't revive you could try setting them in curlers and pouring almost but not quite boiling water over them.

[brightberry]

Oh gosh.  What a tragedy.  I hope she can salvage them.   

[Yuitsu]

Whats been suggested is good. She could also contact the companies, they might be able to help! They may even offer replacements, they like to look after their customers ime.

[Zombelina]

I am so sorry this happened to your friend, what a complete nightmare!

What Galactica suggests sounds good to me as well--especially starting at the very bottoms of the wigs and working up, so as not to overstretch/pull the fibres as you extract the debris.

Best of luck, and sending you and your friend lots of dolly love. 

[Blitzn]

wow crazy.  How horrible. But that's amazing she was able to get her collection back.
Use cool or lukewarm water, and curl may be retained.  You can use mild handsoap or shampoo. You can use conditioner or fabric softener. I prefer soap and fabric softener as it washes out better and is supposedly better for artificial fibers. Then gently brush in sections starting from the bottom.

[LunaDehligt]

oh that dos not look good :O

[Roogna]

before you wet it, I would try to pick as much out by hand as you can.
also shaking it and hitting it against your other hand to jar some smaller loose stuff out

[Lyra]

Oh that is terrible sorry to hear that, I have no advice but best of luck

[MiRaja]

The wig you're showing above looks to be mohair? 

I've dealt with vintage mohair and it is a lovely but very troublesome material.  Picking it out with a comb or wetting it could ruin it all the more.  Best to be done with hand, but that will be quite tedious to say the least.  If you're super tedious, the curls can even be reset with vintage hair pins.  I've seen restorers do such work with the composition Shirley Temple dolls from the 1930's, which had Mohair wigs, so that may be something you may want to look into as far as mohair.

Goodluck!