Vinyl Doll Head Shrinking Tutorial: Quick method

[@QuietBloom]

If anyone has a doll head that shrunk wonky (waves hand wildly) all you have to do is plop it into boiling water and voila. I recommend letting it stay in the water until the squishiness wears off. That heat allows the head to recover from whatever squishing process happened during it’s drying off process once out of acetone. I am experimenting with switching the head between pure acetone into fresh water. I’m betting it will shrink up just fine with the water gently cradles it. Having said that, it occurs to me to warn you guys who compressed the heads during shrinking to give a more V shape. Don’t let the head get warm or it will likely return to its natural shape.

[@Ysckemia]

i tried : IT WORKED!! SUCCESS AT FIRST ATTEMPT! following your tutorial, i shrunk a Cerise Hood doll head. i even reshaped it a bit using an egg box as a clamp :D i let the head soak like one hour and a half, and it ended up with the same size than monster high dolls' wich was my goal. thankies! \o/

[@xT0K0x]

Thank you for this wealth of knowledge :) I know it's been years since you posted a video on this channel, but I would LOVE to see a video showing how to shrink a 17" Monster High head just because I imagine the result would be super dramatic and cool to see. Take care! ♡

[@MiddleRabbitDollArtStudio]

I just wanted to say thank you for this video! It helped me a lot when I was changing an Ever After High doll into Tina Belcher, from Bob's Burgers. I gave you a shout-out and linked your tutorial in my video. You are amazing and thanks again!!

[@p4ngolin]

Ive got a wonderful head that I got at a flea market (some kind of bratz knock off but good quality ?) but it's pretty massive. didn't know you could shrink them. I'll probably try that and put her on a MH body. that's great !

[@dirilidolls7356]

I hope it works out well! It's always safest using the slow shrink method if you just want to be careful.

[@unniedolls]

I wish I saw your videos some days sooner:) I just shrunk a doll head with this method. I didn't know too much about vinyl shrinking before. I think I'm lucky because my jar was smaller a bit, but the head wasn't crack up :D I'll be smarter next time ^.^

[@dirilidolls7356]

Oh good, glad it worked out for you! Yeah, it totally depends on the head, but it's less risky with the right precautions!

[@Frozenyogurt553]

just wondering would it work on the new Hasbro princesses ? just asking to make sure

[@yokhawanha]

you are the one who introduce me to shrinking vinyl head, i glad i found your channel. :)

[@selly8959]

I can't wait for any of these upcoming tuts. :3 I always have wanted to try this on one of those male EAH or MH male dolls.

[@dirilidolls7356]

Give it a shot! :D Especially if you have any bait dolls around to experiment with first. Even if you have all the information in the world, there's no substitute for experience.

[@15nanoseconds]

Hi Dirili. I decided to let my barbie heads take the plunge. Quite satisfying!! Thanks so much for your clear instructions. Quick question. If the doll head develops a split from removing the rooted hair, how I repair that section before I soak?

[@dirilidolls7356]

If there's a crack, you need to stick to slow shrinking. You can't really repair it before before shrinking, because anything you could use likely wouldn't stretch and contract with the head and might even melt and mix into the acetone, resulting in unpredictable results.

[@carriemaxwell4695]

this is fascinating

[@Dolleemixtures]

Honestly this vid is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this. My go to reference

[@Boots-ob8hh]

Awesome information and what a great voice you have for this! thanks for sharing and can't wait to watch all the other videos you've done. - Kari / RoxxDolls

[@Misslou2425]

So here...the hair was left on the doll for the soak. So it looks as if it is possible to leave the hair on the head for a soak 🤔...correct?

[@dirilidolls7356]

Yep! Most kinds anyway. It's good to pull a few strands of hair out to soak in acetone to make sure first. Some companies use kanekalon which becomes brittle when soaked in acetone. Saran and nylon seem to fine though.

[@mcarmentorresdelong9616]

Thanks so much. I have the rounded everafter head, so it's 70-30 acetone to water for slow method? This will retain paint on face right? Thanks

[@rosemaryr.long-morgan9704]

Sorry was on Mom's tablet ...Thanks again

[@dirilidolls7356]

After shrinking even more heads since then, I find that you can use as little as 10% water and still get the same level of safety and results. But to be perfectly safe, probably err a little more on the side of slightly higher water content like 12-15%. It's a little hard to eyeball it anyway.

[@RealSetsuP]

Quick question for you, what's your method for safely disposing of the acetone once you're done? Where we moved to, we're on well water and I don't want to mess up whatever we're drinking or cooking with.

[@dirilidolls7356]

You can actually leave it outside in the open to evaporate. Somewhere high enough that pets or children won't walk up to it and sniff it. Make sure to put it in a container that is not plastic and will not melt, and also make sure it's one you don't care about. You don't want to leave the jars you soak in out there, because sometimes it can be pain to get the residue out if it gets dried and stuck on the bottom.

[@RealSetsuP]

EXCELLENT and I totally should have thought of that :'D Thanks!

[@dirilidolls7356]

np!

[@Scereyaha]

Any luck with the Equestria girls line?

[@bikuchan4150]

Why was the example modified maddie hatter so short? Is that just how her body is?

[@crownedexalt]

maddie’s body is short

[@TheUniquekme]

Question: do you need to wait for the head to dry before the second soak? You did not say how long to wait.

[@adamcaffee3154]

This was very helpful. Thank you

[@WanderingWitch83]

You said in the video that after the first soak, the head could take anywhere between 3 days and 3 weeks to finish shrinking. How do you know when it's complete?

[@amberjohannes9817]

Can this work with dolls with inset eyes? Or only the ones with painted on eyes? Thanks 😊

[@lisawintler-cox1641]

I don't know if this applies to acetone, but in art school we found that if you let turpentine sit, the paint fell to the bottom and the turp became very clear--capable of being used again. If you pour off the acetone, leaving the ick behind, would the acetone still work?

[@Daystar311]

Can'twait to try this! Thanks so much

[@sailordora]

Perfect video. Thank you for the tips!

[@BloodyBraces]

Could this work on heads that are already repainted or would it mess up the paint

[@nonomom9952]

So the head in acetone goes humongous than when it dries it shrunk? I hope..

[@deadlycrma]

Have you tried this on the resin paint dolls?

[@vil8374]

So I tried head shrinking the longer way first but it didn't really do much I think I put too much water so I'm trying the long way came back just to make sure I didn't skip over anything that I needed to know

[@sayurikinomoto8029]

So is it safe to put the head with all hair?

[@Dafniforfree]

Ive recently purchased a 17inch monster high doll,do you think I can shrink it?Im thinking of using the slow method though...

[@Roseyredful]

How can you tell when i's done shrinking?

[@WhiteGumiho]

tbh... I want to see a reshaping tutorial.

[@dirilidolls7356]

ok, seems like that's coming up next then! One other person said the same thing.

[@sircharles7323]

Sorry guys, I am not into "shrinking doll heads", I see you are very creative and the results are awesome, but honestly I feel sorry for the poor dolls, seeing what is done to them. For me they are little creatures, so I hope their little souls are o.k. after all 😥😥👍👍😊😊❤❤.

[@roxaslove23]

I tried the slow method on a Barbie doll head and it didn’t work. I’ll try this method and hope for the best. 🤞🏻

[@takarabarnes9168]

Will this work with head pegs?

[@mehmehmeh6130]

Are there any temperature limitation when shrinking/drying?

[@centauri7055]

has anyone tried this on a G3 monster high doll? Im scared to attempt 😭

[@sibaibaiba]

IT WORKED TYSM

[@goblinwars5991]

The auto generated subtitles are always pretty bad :/ but thankfully your videos do a great job of showing the process clearly !

[@crowlark7919]

Has anyone shrunk OMG girl/LOL doll heads? They’re SO big and Very hard.

[@Z-thing]

This is very helpful! c: But you do the same thing as me in rl xD You give description before you show what you are actually doing. And then basically replay yourself while showing the actual proces. Thi makes your video too long and boring xD English is not my first lauguage, so when you started talking about "fresh solution" and things, I was kinda confused, but I got it when you showed it, and said it again. So I think you could just skip the description in the beginning or make it shorter c: Now the question xD What can I do to save acetone? (I am so cheap xD) Or maybe it's not worth it because when you buy 5 liters its like 6 zł per liter so 3 zł per 500 ml, and normally 500 ml is 10 zł XD (zł is mony like $) Ok it's not worth it xD But can I like keep the head longer in there instead of bathing it copule times?