Hey everyone! Madi here—with Cécile!
Whew, it’s been a minute! Sorry I went a little MIA these past two months!
Your comments wondering where I’ve been did make my day though, I’m so glad you’ve been excited for the next post! I love you guys!
I started my senior year of high school, and I’ve been busy with extracurricular activities, school of course, and working on getting my driver’s permit. I haven’t been able to do any of these things in three years due to chronic illness, so I am SO GRATEFUL to God that I can again!
In the midst of all these things, I didn’t want to stress myself out too much—I’m still not 100% recovered and I want to take very good care of my health and not overwork myself again—so I put blogging on a lower priority.
I hope to take things slow and steady, but I will ALWAYS be here! Posts are still a-comin’!
In fact, I have something SUPER EXCITING coming up this next week, so don’t miss it!
But for today…
I’m going to show you how to re-curl Cécile’s hair—or any American Girl doll with tight, curly hair! Such as Truly Me #26, #58, #85, #91, etc, or any of the CYOs with tight curls.
This will also work on dolls with larger curls or even waves, like Saige or even Lea. I re-curl Jasmine’s hair with this method a lot, I just do it with larger sections of curls!
You will need:
- American Girl Sparkly Hair Pick as needed
- An unsharpened pencil or paintbrush
- Water mister spray bottle
- Bobby pins (I like to use mini bobby pins since they fit doll hair a little better!)
First, here are some before shots of Cécile’s curls. They’re pretty flattened and droopy and could use a little fixing up.
What you’re going to do is spritz your doll’s curls with plenty of water. You will work one curl at a time. If your curl is tangly, go ahead and gently brush out the tangles with the hair pick.
Use plenty of water beforehand and then twist it in the direction it curls afterward so it keeps it shape!
When you’re ready to re-curl, take your pencil or paintbrush and wrap a curl around it in the direction it curls.
Wrap it tightly with no space in between, smoothing the curl down with your fingers and misting with water as needed.
I’ve only curled the end of this piece to show you how to do the ends, but when you get to the bottom of the entire curl you’re wrapping, wrap the end of it around itself a couple of times instead of in a downward spiral.
This will hide any dry, split ends, and keep the end of the curl looking nice.
See what I mean?
Once you’ve wrapped and smoothed the entire curl around the pencil or paintbrush, gently slide the pencil or paintbrush out, keeping hold of the curl in your fingers. Slide a bobby pin through the curl to keep it in place like this.
And you’re going to repeat for every curl around her whole head!
I ran out of bobby pins so I had to do half her hair at a time, LOL.
Lightly mist the curls over again with water for good measure. Let the hair stay pinned for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, gently take the bobby pins out and let down her curls!
What a cutie! Look how coily her curls are now!
Now that’s darling!
If your doll has pin curls like Cécile does you can use this method on those as well! My Cécile’s pin curls are pretty frizzy so I just kind of left them alone :’)
Style the curls however you like, and you are done!
It’s worth noting that the curls will loosen again over time, as we didn’t use any heat (such as a boiling perm) to set them.
Repeat this process as necessary. I do it whenever her curls need a little more bounce or have loosened. This picture was taken about a month later, when the curls have loosened due to styling and gravity.
I hope you’ve enjoyed! I’ve gotten a few requests of how to re-curl doll hair over the years so I’m glad I could finally post a tutorial!
Do any of your dolls have curly hair? How do you care for their curls? Chat to me below, I’ve missed you!
And if you try out this tutorial, definitely let me know! I would love to see pictures of your doll’s new curls, too, to share with the DWOD newsletter! Email me at madigrace@powerofgod.com.
That’s all for today, my friends!
I hope you’re having a wonderful week—I certainly am! I have a free weekend so I stayed up late and got up early to put this post together and had a lot of fun. ?
What’s NOT fun is this bad cold I’m having. Blech. ?
I have 58– my Lindsey, who I got last year, and I haven’t recurled her hair because I’ve been to afraid. The same with my Caroline, though I’ve had my Caroline for…well, nine years almost! I have my eye on Cecile— do you recommend her?
Lindsey is SUCH a cute name for 58! I hope you can try the tutorial on them sometime, it really gives the curls their shape back for a bit. And I sure do recommend Cécile! She is SO pretty, I am so glad I have her.
I found one on smalldollsinabigworld, but they shut down their site :(
Sounds like this tutorial would work though!I think I might make a CYO of Cecile, and minus the pin curls, it’s Cecile.
Actually, she just posted there again recently, within the past week! Try visiting the site again!
Ooh, you totally should! That would look SO cute. ?
Cuteeeee! Cecile looks amazing.
I’m glad to have you back! Oooooo, next week?!?!?!
Cécile says mercí!
Yessss!!! November 4 to be exact ;)
cecile is so cute! I’ve done this method with all the curly haired dolls in the doll fam! It worked pretty good, but Saige’s didn’t last long.
-Haley
Cécile says thank you! And yesss, doesn’t it work great? Same with my Jasmine, hers loosen easily.
I like how it turned out in Hollie’s hair (#55), but for some reason Saige’s didn’t work great.
-Haley
Oh, that’s odd! Especially since their hair is so similar from what I recall! One of my best friends in Texas has #55 but I haven’t seen the doll in years.
i always used a toothbrush to smooth out my cecile’s hair – i’d wrap one curl around a pencil, mist it, then smooth it with the toothbrush. this works too tho
That’s a great method — I have a really cute pink toothbrush that I only use for doll hair for this reason! It works great for smoothing out the hair leading into ponytails, but I should totally try it for smoothing Cécile’s curls. It would probably help with all the frizz. :’)
AHHH THANK YOU! HER BLOG IS WHAT LED ME TO YOUR BLOG, WHICH I’M SO GLAD I FOUND! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Yeah, I was like: Why pay 600$ on a sketchy sight for a used doll, when I could get a brand new one for 200$ from a pretty reliable sight?
OH YOU ARE SO WELCOME! ? HAHA YES. I always wondered if people would try to recreate historicals or GOTYs or TMs using the CYO thing. Some would be hard to do because of specific face molds (Marie-Grace, etc) or special features (Felicity’s pin curls, Felicity’s eyes) but one could get pretty close!
Thank you! Her blog is what led me to your blog actually!
Really! Oh my goodness, that is so cool!
Yaaay, Madi!
I actually saw this post earlier than this, but my eyes just glanced over it. My sister was like, “Hey, is that a new post?” and I just said, “Nah.”
*facepalms*
Heh heh, I think I know what the super exciting thing this week is…?
LOL, I totally have those moments too. ??
And YES you do you wonderful spy! ??
The only reason I saw it was because I was so desperate for a new post that I would check DWOD every day even though I never got a notification email.
So, y’know, either my mad spy skills or my deep desperation.?
THAT MAKES MY ENTIRE DAY… NO, LIFE THOUGH ? I’m so happy you wanted a new post!! ? Are you subscribed to the newsletter? I send out an email for each new post, so you will definitely get a notification that way!
Yes, something to know about me: If I love a blog, I LOVE a blog.
Hmm, I’ll have to check if I am subscribed. Thank you!
Awwww ?❤️ And of course! ?
I use this method too except I don’t have any dolls with super curly ringlets so I use the barrel of a Crayola marker. It works really well! I usually do a boiling water dunk once all the curls are in and then leave to dry after which helps the curls stay. But only dunk in the curls for like ten seconds tops, and protect the eyes!! Nice to have you back! I am so glad that you are starting to get back to normal living! ?❤️
ginnie / http://www.fakingitmostly.com
Oh wow, you are so brave! I have always wanted to try the hot water dunk but I’m terrified I’ll melt the hair, LOL! I’m sure that would help the curls stay much better. And thank you so much! ☺️ How are you? How have you been feeling? ❤️
I bought a #44 last Saturday whose hair was very messy. I used this method, except I rolled her curls around my finger, and her hair came out great. I used the Bobby pins to get the hair off my finger and set the curls in place. I was really pleased with how well her hair turned out although it took awhile to get them all done.
*me with two short straight hair dolls, reading this post carefully* yes yes write that down we shall never forget this while we’re failing another biology test *nod nod*
HAHA YES. Girl get yourself a curly haired doll. They’re so cute. ? GOOD LUCK ON THE BIOLOGY TEST YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FAIL
I might try this on Rebecca.
That would look so cute, and work so well with her curls!
And I can’t wait for the big thing!
I can’t wait to announce it!!
Would this work with dolls with straight hair?
You could always try. It might give them a slight wave, but it will not stay. I tried this on Molly’s hair and it gave her some cute waves but they definitely weren’t fully-shaped curls and didn’t stay.
THANK THE LORD ALL MIGHTY THERES A NEW DWOD POST!!
I need this……..so much more than you think. For 5 years Sadie’s (truly me 56) hair was being pulled, messed up and frizzed from my little 6-10 year old hands, and I only recently (about a year ago) decided to try some stuff. (All her flyaways make her hair really hard to deal with.)
Sadie
AWW THANKS SO MUCH FOR COMMENTING!
Oh man, I hope you’re able to give Sadie’s hair a little care! Cécile’s hair has a ton of flyaways that make it hard to deal with, too! :’)
Hi Madi,
Tina is a TM 61 so I do have to redo her hair every now and then. Since her hair is wavy, I haven’t had many curling problems. I use her brush to sort of straiten her hair in the spiraling direction of the curl and wrap it around my fingers. When Caroline came out I really wanted her, but I knew I would mess up her hair. I was just too young and I did not want to hurt my dolls. This tutorial is really helpful. Thank you! Have a great week!
Isabella
That’s so cool that you have 61 — she is such a gorgeous doll! That’s a great method of caring for her hair, too. I probably would have messed up Caroline’s hair when she came out as well. I wish I had her now though — she is so pretty. Thank you so much Isabella! I’m always so glad to see comments from you! I hope you’re having a super blessed week! <3
Thank you so much for sharing this helpful info! A coworker of mine just passed down Lanie to my daughter and her hair is a complete mess. I will definitely try this method but will use something a little thicker than a pencil because Lanie’s curls are not as tight. Can’t wait to try it out!
Michelle
Thanks so much for commenting! I hope Lanie’s curls turn out wonderfully — that’s so nice of your coworker to give Lanie to your daughter!
Cécile is beautiful. <3
Cécile says thank you ❤
Hi Madi, this is super helpful and I will be sure to use this method whenever I next curl my dolls hair :)
Thanks so much for reading and commenting, Hailey! I hope this method works great for you! :D
I don’t really care much for pin curls, especially on Cecile. I think AG made sure you can’t do pin curls so we can’t do exactly the doll, which honestly, marketing wise, makes sense
Pin curls are SO easy to mess up, too, in styling! My Cécile’s are pretty messed up. That is smart, though. I’m sure they’ve considered that when choosing CYO options. :’)
Thanks for the tutorial, Madi! It’s really helpful. I do something similar to curl my Nanea and Rebecca doll’s hair. I’m also hoping to get Truly Me 58, so this will be handy if I do.
Cecile looks gorgeous in all the pictures! Hope you get/got over your cold soon.
Have a great day!
– June
P.S. Also, can’t wait for the big thing coming soon!! :)
Thank YOU, June! Oh my goodness, 58 is soooo cute. I hope this tutorial comes in handy if you use it on her curls!
And thanks so much! This cold is still being super stubborn, LOL, this is not fun. :’)
I hope you have a wonderful day! <3 And the surprise is coming, like, so soon!! ;)
Hi! I have a lot of dolls with curly hair! Such as, Lea, Truly Me #61 a custom and etc. The way I curl them is I got a few curlers from Dollarama, get their hair wet with a spray bottle and then wrap some strands around the curlers. But not thick strands of hair because, if you do them too big the curls doesn’t comes out the way you would want. Though it depends on what curls you want! ~Brooklyn
Brooklyn! It’s sooo good to hear from you! I’ve never tried using curlers before, but I totally should. Thanks so much for sharing! Is Dollarama an online store? Thanks for commenting! ❤️
Hello. I’m new to your blog, and I think it’s very well done!! Especially the home page.
I’ve never thought of recurling dolls’ curls without heat. It seems to work well!!
Thank you so much for visiting, Eeshani! It’s so nice to meet you! This method works pretty well, if temporarily!
Hey Madi!! Sorry this is kind of late…almost a year, heh. Okay, back to your question, it is online but it is also a real store. We have it in a city near us.
Hahaha, no worries! Ooh, that is so cool!! Thank you!!
When do you think you might be posting again? Just wondering, no rush!! 😁😀
I’m actually working on a post right now! It will be posted sometime before midnight, hehe!!
Ooh! I can’t wait!! It’s so great your posting again!!