I decided that I was going to try to use up all of this baby brown hair by HP Babylocks. It is not my favorite hair, especially for the price. Now, it does come in a large quantity. I think that I will end up getting 4-5 dolls out of it, but I would have rather payed less and gotten less hair because I ended up not liking it. Anyway, I forgot to take a picture of her rooting map. I always draw on the rooting maps in chalk. I generally root with a 42g or 43g crown needle when I am using mohair; a 46g crown with alpaca. When using crown needles, the barbs are on the end of the needle along the edges of each side. Crown means there is one barb on each side for a total of three barbs.
You need to hold the hair so that you are rooting from the end of the bundle that was tied off. Try not to have more than 20 hairs (I am giving you a beginner’s tutorial just to get you started, this is NOT monorooting) pinched in your hand. You are going to hold the needle so that the 7 is perpendicular to the hair. The top of the 7 should be pressing against your index finger if you are right handed.
You should see that the flat of one of the sides of the needle (at the tip) is facing up. Place the point at an angle less than 45 degrees to the head (90 degrees is straight vertical, 45 degrees between that and the surface of the head). The needle shaft should line up perpendicular to the hair you are holding. You are going to gently, but firmly press the needle into the vinyl across the hairs. This is the punch. You should catch at least one hair in the barbs during the punch. The punch should take about a second - too fast will bend/break your needle or break the hair off.
You can move the needle and punch again in the same area, not the exact same spot. You can do about 3 punches in a small area if you wish. Once you have finished punching, slide the hair in your hand gently back. The rooted strands should stay attached to the doll head and not come with the bunch. If you grip too tightly, you may pull out the hairs you just rooted! If you suspect you are having this issues, check the ends of the hairs for any with sharp bends. This is an indication that the needle caught the hair, but it came out of the head for some reason.
So, on to Leah...I went with a center-part in the front and in the back. I started in the back on the nape of the neck and worked my way toward the crown. I did not go for the wispy look this time, so I actually began rooting right where my chalk guidelines ended.
Then I filled in the top of her head. and worked my way down to the sideburns. Lastly, I filled in the sides.
I have been asked several times how I amble to keep the hair smooth and tangle-free during the rooting process. One way is to partially wrap the head with saran wrap. I wrap the already rooted portions of the head while leaving the area that I am working on free. Another thing that I do is that every time I take a break from rooting, I spray the hair with water and comb it. I then leave the hair to dry while I take a break. When I am all done with the hair, I do one final styling using a spray bottle, a toothbrush, and some flexible hold gel or curl enhancer. Once my final style is dry, a gentle brushing will soften the look.
