Two Lost Dolls // Restoration Part 1

What could be in these bags?

Along with a conglomeration of clothing (including Pleasant Company pieces), this week I bought two well-priced fixer-upper dolls! They are Historical Rebecca and #39. I have both these dolls, but I plan on fixing them up to resell anyway.

As you can see, they are pretty dirty and their hair is in a state. #39's has been cut, and Rebecca's is dry and matted.

 

Their bodies don't have a lot of shine marks or scratches, but they do have ink stains in multiple places.

39's face, besides being dirty, is actually in good condition. Her hair is another story.

 

Rebecca's hair is pretty bad. Although it may not be salvageable, I definitely wanted to try my best to rescue her locks.

She has lighter eyes than my BeForever Rebecca doll.

Some of the ink marks on Rebecca.

I started with Rebecca by taking off her head and removing her stuffing. I then tightened her limbs and cleaned them. I cleaned them first with baking soda, then a magic eraser. I washed her body in hot water with a little soap.

This is her hair after I've washed and conditioned it.

Then I dipped her hair in boiling water a few times. After that, I twisted the hair and trimmed the fraying edges. Next I plan to do a downy dunk. I'll see how that goes, and see if it's necessary to try the hair straightener method. As of right now, this is where Rebecca's hair is.

Next up, I set to work on #39's body!

She had these red marks on her wrists.

Also, something white was in her mouth. She also had a white mark on her forehead. I cleaned all that up and used a magic eraser on her body. She was DIRTY. I could literally tell where I had already swiped the eraser just by the color of the vinyl.

For the ink I found some 2.5% benzoyl peroxide. It's generally recommended to use 10%, but all I had on hand was 2.5%. I thought it was worth a try. I put it on the vinyl and wrapped plastic wrap around it. The bodies are now in the window sill.

I dipped 39's hair in boiling water too. Now, I'm not a hairdresser by any means. But 39's hair needed help. I decided to just even out what was already there, not change the style. So I trimmed around to even it out.

For the most part, her hair is actually still smooth. I'll check it after it's dry to see what else it needs done to it.

Well, that's all I've done so far on these two girls! I'm excited to return them to a happier state so they can be loved again!

Would you be interested in seeing what clothes I got too?
I'll be trying to clean and resell most of it.