How to achieve original curl?

[daffodil101]

Not sure if this has been discussed before or if there are tutorials out there, but I'd love to figure out how to replicate Hasbro's original curl style in my G1s.  I'm pretty good at ringlets, and straight-hair styling, but that natural curly look that so many ponies had eludes me.

Has anyone figured it out? 

[LadyLuckyLeaf]

Usually ponies that had factory curl still have a little left. I like to condition and let the conditioner sit, gently comb through, rinse. Then, scrunch the hair into the curls it wants to go into. Let it dry.

Now if there's really no curl left at all, boiling the hair helps the nylon become pliable. I bet fat hair curlers would achieve the right look, alternating the direction of the wave you're creating.

[gabumon]

isn't factory curl determined by how the fibers are cut as they come off the spool?  it's my understanding that they don't actually do anything to curl it, they just root the hair at a certain angle after the bunch is cut.

EDIT:  just saying I don't know for sure how the factory curl is made, just wanted to put this theory out there.   

[daffodil101]

Yeah I've wondered about the alternating direction thing, LuckyLeaf!  My attempts haven't come out very convincing so far.  I usually end up with a ringlet on one side, then an awkward cowlick ringlet loping off the other side of the head.

Do you think winding the hair clockwise on one roller, and counterclockwise on the next would give the right effect??

A couple more thoughts:
-     To get a more messy, 'natural' look, I've tried curling, say a whole tail, then when it dries, separating it into a few curly strands.  But it always looks too perfect.  You can tell that I wrapped it around a thick pen and set it with hot water. 

-     I've also noticed factory curls often sit quite high, don't drop the full length like a loose ringlet curl does.  Would wrapping the hair around a roller, over itself, rather than along the length, maybe prevent the drop??


Please everybody weigh in here! 

Post Merge: August 18, 2015, 04:19:39 AM

gabumon--  are you saying the hair is already curly when they put the plugs in the pony??  That's a really interesting thought.  I'm not sure how it would translate into the type of curls you see in mint factory ponies... on one hand, the 'perfect' coiffed ringlets wouldn't be a problem, but would it just be a tangled fuzzy mass?  Has anyone tried rooting a pony with pre-curled hair?

[gabumon]

 I imagine the hair comes on a huge 300lb spool (can you imagine!  I'd love to see it  ) and because it's wrapped around the spindle it's already curled in one direction.  And if I was designing a manufacturing process to production 100K toys I'd use the pre-curl to my advantage, rather than processing each pony individually after being rooted.  So I'd arrange it so the hair was cut and layed out for the "rooter" workers so that it is easily to keep the wave lined up as they insert.   Just a guess, I don't know for sure.

[kissthethunder]

There's some very knowledgeable pony members here who know a lot about the pony creation process! Keep the thread active they may come and weigh in

[aquamarinemolly]

I've been wondering about this since I first started collecting! You'd think by now there would have been a factory tour, or a "how ponies are made" or something to give us some insights. I asked a more seasoned community member once, and she said that it was such a long time ago that no one at Hasbro remembers how it was done. The design v factory disconnect has gone through so many personnel changes that the factory curl secrets are lost...

[Taffeta]

I don't know the answer, but it is worth saying that most ponies that begin with curly hair end up with a different kind of straight hair than the ones who are rooted straight from the start. Cherries Jubilee is a great example of this - also the Long Hair vs Short Hair Firefly and Medley, Bow Tie, Applejack versions. If you look at a long haired version of one of the latter ponies, or a first release Cherries Jubilee who's lost her curls, you'll find that it's not just that the hair is longer but it's also a tad rougher in texture and doesn't lie as smoothly.

It may be that something is done to the hair in the factory to make it curl. They always advised not to brush pony hair when wet because curls come out that way. I know this happened to my Strawberry Fair at my friend's house - she went to Jess's house curly and came home straight I have since recurled her and it worked well, but I have no clue how she originally looked, it's been too long.

Some people do manage to get the formerly curly hair ponies very straight and almost natural looking. You can still generally tell though...which suggests some factory process or something in the fibre of hair used.

Example for comparison:

Spoiler

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First release Cherries Jubilee with curly hair...

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First release Cherries Jubilee whose hair is beyond help xD (curls lost, now straight...ish)

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Straight hair Cherries Jubilee (Second edition)

It's easy to tell that the middle picture was once the first type, not the second, and that must be something that goes right back to the factory and their production process.

[reanna-mator]

This is all really interesting. It's a small thing but it may be that the specific source/method of factory curls are something lost to time and now open to experimentation/speculation? I'm not super picky about replicating factory curls when it's been lost but I do try to keep them, if I have a pony who still has their natural curls.

[BlushingBlue]

As a disclaimer up front, I don't know how ponies in the 80s were made, but modern doll hair rooting is done on massive sewing-machine like contraptions that root and cut the hair at the same time. The hair is not pre-cut, nor is it hand-rooted. There is indeed a huge spindle of hair fiber feeding into the machine, like gabumon said, but that's not how the curl is formed. Otherwise the first dolls off the spool would have quite straight hair, and the last dolls would have very tightly curled hair. Here's a picture of a rooting machine:
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Again, I don't know how ponies' curls in particular were made, but there are a couple of methods I know of to achieve non-straight doll hair:
1) Pre-curled hair. The spooling is obviously different from straight hair, but I'm not sure if it requires different machining or not. This might be the root of the textural differences Taffeta mentioned, if the curling is done on the hair manufacturer's end.
2) Post-rooting pressing. Think enormous industrial crimping iron and you're not far off. The procedure I'm familiar with is more for wavy hair though, not curls, but maybe there is/was an industrial curling machine too?
3) Hand-styling. It seems almost impossible for so many ponies to have been given a personal touch, but if you're a factory worker who does one thing for 8-10 hours a day, you get Exceedingly Efficient at it. I suspect this is how ponies were given their forelocks, at least. (Here's a youtube snippet showing a rooter in action on a Barbie-ish doll with curly hair, plus styling afterward: https://youtu.be/W2_FF1paBew?t=1m36s Warning: a little disturbing on a few levels.)
Whether one or any of these methods was used for MLP is anyone's guess, but I think the process is really interesting!

ETA: I've fallen down some sort of doll factory video rabbit hole. Here are a few more clips of hair rooting, if anyone's interested.
Vintage! Looks like the doll hair rooting process hasn't changed much since the 60s. With bonus demos of rotomolding and stenciled paint application too! Bonus: a Monster High ghoul weirds out Mo Rocca, and Barbie goes under the needle!

[banditpony]

I need to read this thread closely! The post in front of mine is intreguing.

could crimping of been done between coming off the spool and rooting. Curls, no clue.

[hathorcat]

Yes, hair will have been curled or crimped on the reel and prior to a pony having been given her hair - it would have been produced by a different manufacturer and supplied to the factory ready for use. Production processes work most efficiently when everything is put together of finished materials rather than individually created.

As to the original question - to create hair on Candy Canes as per orginal release you need some wide foam rollers and you need patience Because you need to separate the hair very accurately to get the stripes just right. Its possible but its footery.

[Lady.Arachnia]

I have no clue how...but I'm going watch this treath closely because I want to get into rerooting ponies myself!!!

[gabumon]

As a disclaimer up front... (Here's a youtube snippet showing a rooter in action on a Barbie-ish doll with curly hair, plus styling afterward:
Whether one or any of these methods was used for MLP is anyone's guess, but I think the process is really interesting!

ETA: I've fallen down some sort of doll factory video rabbit hole. Here are a few more clips of hair rooting, if anyone's interested.

Wow! I didn't know they used a "Rooting Machine!"  i thought it was hand-done.  So I guess they just have this machine that gives a pony two lines worth... probably in one pass!  Cool!

and....    OOOOH that lip spray implement is nightmare fuel!!!  But that’s how they do paint apps!

[CoonhoundBetty]

There's some very knowledgeable pony members here who know a lot about the pony creation process! Keep the thread active they may come and weigh in

OT: I didn't know you were on the Arena!! We are still loving your seapony picture in my daughter's bathroom