a Pippa Wash and Brush up!
 

Here, for new collectors, are a few cleaning tips, Julieanne styleee.

 

 

Here are our 'victims', they suffer from general grubbiness and sticky-up hair.  (Sorry that they are out of focus)

Here's what you need: Kettle, toothbrush, soap/washing up liquid, 'hair tamers', small brush. Oxy is optional, more about that later.

 

 

Lets get SOAPY!  Give Pippa a dunk in some warm water and soap up your toothbrush with soap/washing liquid/shampoo.  Give her a nice gentle all over scrub, including her hair and then rinse.  Be aware that if your Pippa has fragile eyelashes or facepaint you may need to take care here.

 

 

Well, she is much cleaner now but her hair still has that kinked, sticky-up thing going on.  To cure this you have three options:

1) Steam

2) Boiling Dunk

3) Boiling Pour

or even a combination of all three.

 

 

Steaming: just waft Pippa over a boiling kettle, take care not to scald yourself.  This is a useful method for a generally clean doll who just needs a little refreshing.  I also use steam to relax the creases on delicate outfits.

 

 

Boiling Dunk: Dunk Pippa briefly into a jug of freshly boiled water.

 

 

Boiling Pour: Pour freshly boiled water over Pippa's head.

 

 

With the hair heated you should be able to comb or brush it nice and straight.  Once you are happy you might want to pour cold water over her to 'set' it (although I rarely do).  Next job is to keep it straight whilst it dries...

(Some collectors swear by hair conditioner but I personally don't bother, Pippa doesn't have human hair, just nylon. If anything perhaps fabric conditioner would be more appropriate - tee hee.)

 

 

Here are two examples of Hair Tamers which you can use to help Pippa's hair dry straight.  The plastic top is off a water bottle and the hair oojar is from Claire's.

Leave Pippa to dry, it wont take long!

 

 

OXY: For stubborn stains and 'greening' you can try a blob of oxy spot cream to bleach out the vinyl.  Apply a blob and leave for several hours (or even days).  To speed up the chemical reaction you can apply heat such as with a angle poise or leave your Pippa on a sunny window ledge. 

Remember that any bleaching will also affect facepaint and that it could fade out the vinyl colour on a darker doll such as Britt, Marie and Mandy. Unfortunately it doesn't always work.

 

 

The Results!

and

!THE DISCLAIMER!  please use this advice at your own risk!

Consider strand testing to be sure your dolls hair can stand boiling.  I never 'lost' a Pippa yet but I did have a VERY ugly incident with another fashion doll that I boil dunked...

Happy Pippering!

She looks much better now but to fully restore her she would need new eyelashes, fresh lick of facepaint and perhaps a few missing hair plugs replacing.

For this kind of work I recommend Tracy Farrant, or ask on the Pippa Club for other Pippa restoration experts.

   
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