Frizzy Beach Ball Rehair

[SparkleSkye]

I’ve recently come into possession of a G1 Beach Ball with extremely frizzed up hair. She’s from the sunshine pony set, so the white streak is meant to turn purple in sunlight, which mine sort of does but not very vibrantly. The problem is I’m not sure there’s any hope to tame her factory hair into anything presentable, but there’s no replacement hair on the market that turns from white to purple in sunlight.
I’ve also heard that heat will ruin sunshine hair, so boiling or using a straightner is out of the question, but I can only find one source on that and no one else agreeing or disagreeing, and I’m hesitant to test it myself.
Should I go ahead and rehair with a normal white? Or keep the frizzy mess of her factory hair?

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I did actually just buy some hair from MyLittleCustoms, it's the closest thing to the UV activated white to purple. The color is slightly off, but it will work in a pinch.

[emily_katie]

I have never worked with that sort of hair and im not too familiar with beachball, but could you not heat treat her blue hair and just plait the white section to keep it out of the way? you can sort of see on my signature that my mirror mirror has a small plait at the front of her mane, that's because that section of her hair was really frizzy, unfixably so

[aintnobuffalo]

(Moved from Customs to Pony Coral due to closer to restoration than customization question. You may find additional info by posting here.)

[Sukey]

I found a Beach Ball at Goodwill many years ago and I made the mistake of flat ironing her hair and it melted Still upsets me that I did that.

[Shaiyeh]

There is colour-changing hair, like tailrustedleaf said. Here's a link!
https://www.mylittlecustoms.co.uk/UV_Colour_Change/cat635041_1275054.aspx
They also have thermal (saran) hair

Otherwise I like the plait idea ^^ It's cute! Maybe with a little bow at the bottom

[Noasar]

I think you should try and tame the hair rather than do a full re-hair. You will be amazed at what you can do with a bit of time, patience and fabric conditioner. You can also straighten it to get the frizz out, and then re-curl it. But like people have said, you can't really do that on the colour changing section.

[NightGliderSA]

Ahhhh, that's a pity. Beach Ball is such a lovely pony. But you cannot use heat on the colour changing strip of hair, not even boiling water. Sadly there is something in the make up of that colour changing hair that just lends itself to frizziness and it can really look terrible.

Here you will need to decide for yourself. My Little Customs in the UK do stock colour changing hair. Otherwise I have seen people just go straight for a purple streak as if it were permanently changed. Or you could stay with white, if that is what you prefer. Or you could indeed plait it and leave it if you like your ponies to keep their original hair. For some reason the extremely frizzed hair does not keep a curl for long in my experience. You are the person who will be looking at her every day, so ultimately the decision is yours.

Good luck with it and please share photos 

[BlushingBlue]

It is absolutely possible to tame the Sunshine ponies' UV reactive hair using the same basic method as regular nylon. I have done it myself on several occasions. The trick is to use LOW heat and a LOT of patience.

1. Set your iron to whatever is just below the boiling point of water in your area. (~200°F for me in Denver, USA)
2. Wet the pony's hair and slather on some good, thick conditioner. The hair should be wet but not dripping.
3. Continuously run the iron over the hair in sections until the hair is damp-dry. If it sizzles, it's too hot!
4. Repeat 1-3 until your hands are pruney and/or you are completely bored out of your mind.

The important thing is to not rush the process. Trying to use higher heat to speed things along will just make things worse. I was a depressed college student at the time, so I spent 3-4 hours doing this per pony (going from complete frizzball to almost perfect). It may be more time-efficient for you to replace the hair with a UV poly. That wasn't an option for me back in the day -- we barely had cell phones!

On the plus side, when you successfully straighten Sunshine pony hair, a lot more of the lovely UV reactivity is able to come through. (Think how many little shadows are cast on a crumpled piece of paper versus a flat sheet.) You may find that Beach Ball's hair is more vibrant than it seems!

[Noasar]

It is absolutely possible to tame the Sunshine ponies' UV reactive hair using the same basic method as regular nylon. I have done it myself on several occasions. The trick is to use LOW heat and a LOT of patience.

1. Set your iron to whatever is just below the boiling point of water in your area. (~200°F for me in Denver, USA)
2. Wet the pony's hair and slather on some good, thick conditioner. The hair should be wet but not dripping.
3. Continuously run the iron over the hair in sections until the hair is damp-dry. If it sizzles, it's too hot!
4. Repeat 1-3 until your hands are pruney and/or you are completely bored out of your mind.

The important thing is to not rush the process. Trying to use higher heat to speed things along will just make things worse. I was a depressed college student at the time, so I spent 3-4 hours doing this per pony (going from complete frizzball to almost perfect). It may be more time-efficient for you to replace the hair with a UV poly. That wasn't an option for me back in the day -- we barely had cell phones!

On the plus side, when you successfully straighten Sunshine pony hair, a lot more of the lovely UV reactivity is able to come through. (Think how many little shadows are cast on a crumpled piece of paper versus a flat sheet.) You may find that Beach Ball's hair is more vibrant than it seems!

I can second this technique!

[kissthethunder]

Guys, do NOT use heat on G1 mlp color change hair! It will ruin the color changing properties

[Noasar]

Guys, do NOT use heat on G1 mlp color change hair! It will ruin the color changing properties

Sometimes it’s already bust anyway and doesn’t change colour. I’ve done it on a very very cool setting and it’s smoothed it out. Not perfect but much better than before and the colour change has still been there. Cutting out the colour change section and replacing it is surely damaging the pony more? I just kind of feel that if original hair is uncut it should be left where it is and tamed the best it can?

[kissthethunder]

Guys, do NOT use heat on G1 mlp color change hair! It will ruin the color changing properties

Sometimes it’s already bust anyway and doesn’t change colour. I’ve done it on a very very cool setting and it’s smoothed it out. Not perfect but much better than before and the colour change has still been there. Cutting out the colour change section and replacing it is surely damaging the pony more? I just kind of feel that if original hair is uncut it should be left where it is and tamed the best it can?

I'm not suggesting cutting the hair or anything. I'm just saying based on my own experience even when your careful you can really damage it. Also, on the Beachball I did the frizz returned after only a couple months, it just bounced back.

I'm throwing this out there so the owner of the pony can make their own informed choice about their pony no matter what it is.

[Noasar]

Guys, do NOT use heat on G1 mlp color change hair! It will ruin the color changing properties

Sometimes it’s already bust anyway and doesn’t change colour. I’ve done it on a very very cool setting and it’s smoothed it out. Not perfect but much better than before and the colour change has still been there. Cutting out the colour change section and replacing it is surely damaging the pony more? I just kind of feel that if original hair is uncut it should be left where it is and tamed the best it can?

I'm not suggesting cutting the hair or anything. I'm just saying based on my own experience even when your careful you can really damage it. Also, on the Beachball I did the frizz returned after only a couple months, it just bounced back.

I'm throwing this out there so the owner of the pony can make their own informed choice about their pony no matter what it is.

Sure thing - maybe plaiting it is the best thing to do then.

I sold my Beachball and can’t find the photos of her - she looked mint in the end but she was channelling some serious early years Hermione Grainger when I first got her.

[BlushingBlue]

Guys, do NOT use heat on G1 mlp color change hair! It will ruin the color changing properties

A low heat is perfectly safe for Sunshine pony hair. (Not making any claims about any other color-change hair!)

For example, here are two ponies I've personally worked on. Their white stripes were frizzed from root to tip when I got them.

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Sorry for the bad lighting. It's been storming here all day.
Mainsail took most of an afternoon and is "done". The ends of her hair are still a little rough, but you can't really tell on display. I did this 17 years ago, and her frizziness hasn't returned at all.
Waverunner is a work in progress. I only messed with her for about an hour. I don't have as much free time anymore.

Here they are after a hit of UV (from a flashlight, because rain)

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Mainsail's hair works perfectly after literally hours of being heat-treated. The straightened parts of Waverunner's hair change easily, but the parts that are still crinkled don't. So heat ≠ death for UV hair. The hair can lose its reactivity if it's too damaged, but adding gentle heat afterward won't make that any worse and might actually help enhance what is left. Using melting-point heat is going to make things worse, but... of course it would?

DoctorWhooves63, if you want to give restoration a whirl, I say go for it! If Beach Ball is already to the point where you're contemplating a rehair, what have you really got to lose?