Fixing Jupi?s Hair or How to Barrel Curl Your Baby
Featuring: Skia
When I first opened up Cosmic Jupi, I fell in love. Her makeup is amazing, her deep brown eyes are so lovely, her hair is deliciously purple-pink. But her hair is also? one tangled, horrible mess. The first day it was only barely manageable. The second day it was slightly worse, but not too bad. By Day 5, after being as careful as I could be with her, it was just? too much. I realized that by Day 50 it would just be one solid tangled chunk, at this rate. She was my very first Pullip, and I was so afraid of damaging her. But something had to be done. So she got washed, cut and curled.
And I didn?t destroy her! In fact, I love her more now than I did when she first arrived. I love her big thick curls, and they?re so manageable. I can touch her, play with her, pose her, just? yum.
So I decided to make this tutorial to help out any other newcomers faced with simply unmanageable Jupi hair (or any other tangled Pullip), because if I could do it, then anyone could do it. Actually, if I could do it, you could probably do it with your feet!
So here?s my Jupi, Skia, with her original hair:
Okay, awful. Something had to be done.
So the first thing I did was prep my ?lab? (i.e., the spare bathroom). I took off all of Cora?s limbs, because her hands have a real tendency to fall out, and I wrapped her nude body in a towel so she wouldn?t get wet. Then I grabbed Shampoo, Conditioner and Deep Moisturizing Treatment (all Pantene Pro-V, though I ended up not using the Conditioner).
My Jupi?s hair felt kind of crunchy, like someone had spritzed on way too much hair spray on her. So the first thing I did was soak her hair in hot tap water for about 10 minutes to loosen up whatever awful chemicals might be there. I?m sure you could skip this stage if you don?t have the crunchy sensation in your girl. Wrapping a towel around her body proved a brilliant idea as well -- it weighted her down enough that she didn?t fall into the sink when her hair was soaking wet.
Then I gave her a brief wash with the shampoo, very gently. I rinsed her very well, and then smeared the Deep Moisturizing Treatment on her hair. I left it on for a full hour! I kept her head titled over the edge of the sink, to keep the goopy stuff from getting on anything else.
Here?s the stuff I used, though I?m pretty sure any intensive conditioner would work. In fact, if I did it a second time, I?d buy a conditioner specifically made for color-treated hair.
Please Note: You can also opt to soak your girl's hair in fabric softener, or to use a combination of a fabric softener soak + conditioning treatment to deal with frizzies. Use whatever combination you think is needed, depending on how bad your girl's hair is or how comfortable you are with the different options.
After rinsing out the conditioner, I put more in (don?t ask why, I just did -- I'm sure you don?t need to rinse it out and add more, hee). Then I laid her down on a towel in the living room. I grabbed my fine-toothed combed and selected a single curl. I slowly began to pick it apart, and it took forever!
I made sure to apply lots of conditioner to every knot and tangle to loosen them up, and I used a plant spritzer to keep her hair wet. It worked very well, and I didn?t drip water all over the place from taking her in and out of the bathroom (I was watching a movie while I did this, so I did it all in the living room).
Here?s a shot of three or four (I forgot how many) curls brushed out:
As you can plainly see, her hair is smooth and silky until about the last? two or so inches. Then it abruptly turns into awful frizz! No matter how gently or how roughly I brushed her hair, no matter whether or not I combed my fingers through it and picked it apart with my fingers, or whether I brushed it hard and aggressively and just tore out the knots, there was still that horrible frizz! I?d actually noticed this earlier, when I was touching her hair, it was softer at the top and then the bottom was rough. From talking to other Jupi owners, I can say this doesn?t occur in all Jupi hair, but it does occur in a good number. I think it?s hit or miss, so if you?re lucky you might be able to keep her full length, if you?re unlucky you might want to think about a trim.
This same frizz appeared in all her hair, despite all my efforts, but the top started to look gorgeous.
Well, the frizz had to go. I chopped it off. I actually layered her hair a little, in the hopes that reducing the thickness would prevent further curl issues, but any cut to get rid of that frizz would be a good cut. Instead it didn?t do anything but give her a double-layer of curls (some curls are slightly shorter than others, but the difference is minimal), which looks really cute.
Then after she?d been cut, I grabbed the spritzer again, soaked her hair with it and divided it into little sections. Then I pulled out my rollers. They were very cheap at Walgreens!
I?d actually never used rollers before, so I kind of learned as I went along. If you look at the end pictures, the curls on Cora?s left side are looser and less lovely than those on the right, because I started on her left and worked my way to her right. I guess I got better as I went along! I plan on redoing the curls in about a month, so she can have tighter curls all the way around.
Rollers are easy! You just grab a section of the hair and roll. Then you just snap it into place. Voila! Doesn?t she look cute?
I did my curlers vertically because I could fit more on that way. I don?t think vertical vs horizontal makes much of a difference, her hair is so long and heavy.
I left the curlers in for about 16 or 18 hours, then slowly took them out by unrolling them. This left some of the curls messy, so I just gave them a quick twist with my fingers and that fixed it.
From the front she looked so lovely, I?m so proud of her.
In the back you can see her big fat curls. I love pulling on these, stretching them out and watching them bounce back into place! The curls on her top layer of hair are actually shorter, because I layered her hair, but you can?t tell when she?s sitting down.
Skia absolutely loves her new look! And, of course, I do too. I feel so much better after giving her a wash, cut and curl. I feel like she?s really mine -- no one else has a Jupi exactly like her. This also helped me bond with her so much, something which I still have to do with my Mercu.
It?s been exactly one week since I fixed up her hair, and her curls show absolutely no signs of unraveling! They?re as good today as they were the first day.
I hope this helps any other new Pullip owners! Remember, if I could do it, me being the Queen Destroyer of Barbie Hair as a child, you can do it.
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