Those Beautiful Locks!

I am always on the hunt for some nice doll hair. I really like the mohair and it is rather expensive for beautiful combed locks. If you buy it uncombed it is alot cheaper. I am curious as to the process of this combing the hair. So I have had a bag of raw mohair, uncombed, that has been sitting in my hair stash for about 7 months.

I get this hair from Sue at at Mohair Wig. She has really great doll hair and a real nice lady too -- always so helpful.




So I email Sue at Mohair Wig with a big 'ol SOS (she is always available on email so quickly, love that!). I ask her, "What do I do?". She told me exactly what I needed to do --'comb the hair' and gave me a nice long paragraph in email on how to do this and what supplies I need. I was short on the products and tools that she uses (i really don't have have horse sheen laying around -- LOL), but I gathered up some stuff I had on hand. I figure if I can do this, then maybe Ill order the more appropriate tools and supplies for the next time. So here we have some John Frieda Frizz Ease, a comb with a wide teeth end, and some moisture Redkin conditioner (ended up not needing the Redkin).




So I have to find each lock in the pile and comb comb comb, spraying with water and some frizz ease as I go. Lock by Lock I comb out all the little tangles and waste and bits and pieces of hay and little brown flecks. I started this at 6:30pm.

Now here is my pile, and I know there are 'locks' in there somewhere. I am a bit frightened by this messy hair LOL -- and I just can't really see how I am going to get pretty locks from this pile, but I go for it.



After about 5 locks done, I see I have a big pile of waste. I am not sure if this is supposed to happen but I keep combing the locks. I seem to have more waste than locks, but I keep going. This fuzzy stuff doesn't look like it should be in my locks and I am sure this pile of waste is normal. I email Sue to verify this and she said "yes" and as I get better at this I will have less waste. She said I am doing good - so I keep going.



So here are some of my locks as I am progressing. Not too bad and think I am doing this correctly. Only my fingers are getting tired holding the ends of the locks as I comb. I am now into the combing process about an hour and wondering whether I have the energy to do the rest of the hair in this bag. I want it done and over with! LOL So I keep going.



Two hours later, I am done and here are my beautiful locks. They are even shiny and a beautiful blonde. Wow, 2 hours to comb them. I have read online that this is tedious and long process and alot of work. I now have experienced this and fully understand the cost of combed mohair.



All in all, I would do this again. I may order some of that horse sheen spray to use and a proper comb. Its not so bad if you do the combing on as needed basis for each doll. It doesn't take too long to get enough for a small to medium sized doll. I really appreciate the amount of work that goes into this process. I hear that the goats and sheep are not combed before their hair is cut off and these animals like to go rub up against fences and other objects. Now don't you think a sheep and goat salon would be great?!! They can be shampooed, blow dried, and combed before the sheering process!

I think I will try to dye the waste and use it in my felting!

Quite a process to get those beautiful locks! So, if you have some raw bulk mohair, I charge $20 an hour, send it on over to me! ;-)