MH Repaint [pt.2]: Getting Started

AAAAND HERE WE GO! Alright! To get started we first need to get rid of her hair and factory paint! I started off with cutting her hair, you can still see the yellow and pink strands of her original hair which I wasn't able to really cut any shorter but I'll have to remove the glue inside of her head anyway.

In order to get those stubbles of hair left on her head I had to get her head off her body. I used the boiling water method and let her soak for a good minute or two to really soften the peg and vinyl head so I won't break the prongs which holds the head in place.

PLOP! And there goes her head! Unlike the normal Monster High Doll Heads the 17 inch ones are made of a more sturdy vinyl so getting the head off wasn't easy but by carefully pulling (pulling, not wiggling!) I finally got it off and the prongs are unscathed! Now I can go in with some pliers and remove the stubbles from the inside, this process had proven itself a bit difficult however, most of the stubbles wouldn't budge so I had to go on with the next step which was to cut the head open at the back to be able to put some eyes in later.

Using an x-acto knife I followed the seam line where the original mold was fused together. I didn't cut all the way through because I wanted to create a flap, this way I can exchange or re-position the eyes anytime I want. Now that I have better access to her hair stubbles you can see that the hairs were individually glued into the head, getting this out without cutting the head open would be pretty difficult, I struggled even though I had the head open, sometimes those strands just didn't want to come out but I got it eventually.

I forgot to take a picture of removing the factory paint of her face and hair. Getting rid of the factory paint usually is done easily with acetone, but buying acetone in Germany is a tad difficult, you can't really get them in shops. I know you can get them at DIY stores or the pharmacy but the ones I went to didn't have any there so I resorted to Revell Painta Clean. Usually used to clean paint off brushes it has the same properties of acetone and is a substance called butanone (Methylethylketon). With this removing the factory paint was easy but be sure to use it in a well ventilated area because it does have a very strong smell which can cause headaches, I thoroughly washed the head with dish soap afterwards because otherwise the surface will get sticky and smell heavily of butanone.

In the next part I'll be cutting out the eyes!

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And of course a special shout out to FairyPrincess Couture for the tutorial on how to remove a MH 17 inch doll head and fumsmusings for the tutorial how to cut holes for inset eyes on MH Dolls!

#OOAK #Repaint #GooliopeJellington #MonsterHigh #xactoknife #removinghead #hairstubbles #boilingwater