How to Wash Saran Doll Hair

What is Saran Hair Fiber?

Saran is a very common artificially produced fiber that was very popular for doll hair in the 1950s. Saran is usually rooted directly into the doll's scalp. An individual Saran "hair" fiber is a bit wiry and strong. When there's a whole headfull of these fibers, they produce a very thick head of doll hair. Saran doll hair is very strong and usually in pretty good condition, even after all of these years. It's very easy to clean using regular warm water and dish soap.

What kinds of dolls have saran hair?

I'm going to focus specifically on the common 1950s vinyl fashion dolls like Ideal's Revlon (photo: doll in navy blue dress with red sash), American Character's Sweet Sue Sophisticate or Toni (first photo), Eegee's Debutante, Deluxe Reading's Candy Fashion Doll or other fashion doll's, Deluxe Reading's Darling Debbie or Sweet Janie or other grocery store fashion dolls, Dee & Cee vinyl fashion dolls, 14r vinyl fashion dolls (brunette doll in pink dress), Valentine Ballerinas, etc. There are so many different dolls, since each of these companies made more than what I've listed, but hopefully that's a start. Hard plastic dolls also had saran hair, like Madame Alexander Binnie or Winnie walkers had a glue-on skull cap with saran fibers rooted into it (see last picture above), as well as other hard plastic dolls like the unmarked hard plastic Mary Hoyer with a glue-on wig cap of blond saran fibers (see second to last photo).

I buy and sell vintage dolls, especially those from the late 1940s to late 1950s. Vintage vinyl fashion dolls, 16" to 22", make up about half of the dolls I purchase, fix up and resell. I've washed a lot of saran doll hair and had it come out looking just great every time. Of course, just washing it isn't enough to get it looking great, but I'll focus on the washing aspect in this guide.

What products do I use to wash Saran doll hair?

When I first started fixing up vintage dolls, I was nervous and worried about the best way to clean and restore vintage dolls (I didn't realize that some of them were really made to be tougher than we think...even after 50 or 60 years). I thought I had to have special expensive products to clean and fix up the dolls, so I purchased the doll hair care kit from Twinn Pines. It's great stuff but costs money, and when you have to deal in volume, you tend to look for cheaper alternatives...like regular dish soap and water! You can also use Windex (generic is ok), or liquid fabric softener (liquid is ok, too) to wash their hair. I find it's a lot easier and faster to just go to the kitchen, grab the dish soap off the counter and go to the bathroom with the doll under my arm. I use Dawn dish soap, since I've read a lot of different articles recommending it. I've also used generic dish soap and had the same results.

How do I wash Saran doll hair?

If you decide to use your bathroom sink, wash it out to make sure there's no toothpaste residue, germs, etc., (I don't know if it would actually make any difference or not, but I clean it out just to make sure) so it's clean to start with. I run enough warm water in the bowl so that if I turn the doll upside down and rest her head on the bottom with her legs against the side, the water will come up just to the hairline around her temples and ears. Sometimes the hair needs to be soaked for a while to loosen up really set in age-related dust, dirt or grime.

When you wash your dishes, you use hot soapy water to soak dishes to loosen up the grime, so I use the same reasoning on my dolls. I don't do water that hot, but more warm-hot. I put in plenty of soap, too. I can't tell you exactly how much, you'll have to add as much as you think she needs, depending upon how dirty her hair is.

Additional Information Added as of June 16th, courtesy of karen1234: 

When you wash the doll's hair, make sure she's upside down, otherwise water will get inside of her head through the holes in the scalp the hair is rooted into. There are metal components inside of her head which can rust, as well as water getting into her eyes which can cause clouding.

(Thanks so much, Karen! :)

Many times, the hair strands are somewhat clumped together in long ropes, so I use my fingers to gently separate the fibers. This is very important in getting the dirt out of the strands. It makes a big difference in how clean her hair comes out in the end and how much of the original color is returned. I find that if I don't do a good job in this area, after her hair dries, it looks dirty or greyish in certain areas of the strands, and then I have to rewash her hair, which I'm too lazy to do, so I figure it's better to get it right the first time. I'm pretty picky about having her hair come out as clean as possible, so when I style it the color is as vibrant as possible. It takes some time and patience and to go through and gently rub each group of strands from the scalp, going down the hair shaft, to the very ends, but it's well worth it in the end.

I've found that it's a big (and I do mean "big") mistake to just get in there and start scrubbing the doll's hair for all it's worth...a huge matted doll hairball after it dries. I actually brush the doll's hair as much as I can and remove as many tangles and snarls as I can before I wash it.

When I wash it, I gently scrub the scalp, especially the roots around the temples since a lot of residue gets trapped here and makes her hair look dark and dingy around her face. I found that you can use a comb or a toothbrush to scrub the root holes there and it really clean the stuff out.

How do I rinse the hair?

Once it's a clean as you think it should be, drain the water and bubbles from the sink. If there are a lot of bubbles left over, run cold water until the bubbles disappear down the drain. Run clear warm-hot water in the bowl and put the stopper in. Set the doll's head in and gently swish it around. Gently scrub the scalp, hair fibers from the scalp, down the shaft to the ends. You want to try to get all of the soap out.

When no more soap bubbles are visible, run clean cool or cold water in the bowl and do the same thing. You'll know her hair is completely free of soap when no more bubbles show up.

Be very careful not to get water in her eyes. It will cause them to cloud, which I don't know how to remove (yet). This will really reduce her resale value.

How do I dry the hair?

I just take her out of the sink, being careful to hold her head down so the water doesn't run into her eyes, wrap my hand around her hair and just squeeze it out as much as I can manually. I used a towel to do the same thing, too. I stand her on her head in the bathtub (being careful not to position her in such a way where the water could run into her eyes) and let her air dry. It takes 2 or 3 days. After a day or so, I separate the clumped hair strands so the hair will dry faster.

How do I comb the hair?

I use a regular comb to slowly and carefully remove any tangles from the ends, and work my way up the strands toward the scalp. I comb and recomb the hair until it's very smooth and shining. Now you can style it anyway you want. :)

A FAST RECAP...

Brush her hair out first

Use Dawn Dish Soap, Warm-Hot Water

Run warm-hot water and liquid dish soap in a clean sink

Hold her upside down so water doesn't get inside her head or eyes

Gently wash her hair so it doesn't come out a snarled hairball

Rinse in warm-hot water first, cool or cold water second

Squeeze out excess water by hand, towel second if you want

Let her air dry for a couple of days, then brush when completely dry

Be careful not to get water inside of her head or her eyes

...and that's all there is to it!

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Thanks so much.

Sherry

Victoria West Designs