Sadly, the Monster High doll family is one of the worst victims of glue seepage along with the sister line, Ever After High. Collectors have been trying all sorts of methods trying to save their dolls, but glue head is a very stubborn problem. The only easy and quick fix was putting baby powder on the doll's scalp to soak up glue, but this was more of a temporary solution because more glue is always leaking out. I tried a few things myself including Formula 911 solution by the brilliant Twin Pines of Maine, but to no avail. More of my dolls were leaking glue and smelling bad, so after I moved earlier this year, I decided to get serious about treating this problem. I looked online and found the usual tea tree oil, Goo Gone, cleanser sprays, etc. that I knew I didn't want to use. I wanted something safe for the face paint and effective in treating glue with no chemical smell. I happened to stumble on A Thousand Splendid Dolls You Tube channel to which I'd like to give my sincere thanks for trying something I never thought of... OXY CLEAN!! (or a reasonable facsimile, lol) I had great success with cleaning doll clothing with it, so why not doll heads? Well, I am here to tell ya, IT WORKS!! I have treated ten MH/EAH dolls with it and they have remained GLUE-FREE for six months now! Not only that, their hair is shiny, beautiful and smells fresh!! It did not destroy curls and it re-styles just great. Here are some of my girls, who were the greasiest and smelliest and now look AMAZING!
Left to right, top row- Sig Apple White, Swim Rochelle Goyle, School's Out Lagoona Blue, Ghoul's Night Out Clawdeen Wolf and Legacy Day Briar Beauty (in Sig's clothes).
Bottom row- TRU I <3 Fashion Frankie Stein, Skull Shores Draculaura, Sig Cedar Wood, Ghoul's Night Out Rochelle Goyle and TRU I <3 Fashion Clawdeen Wolf.
To get the results you want, prepare to be patient and persistent. I used a special small set of pliers to dig out some excess glue out before putting them in the Oxy Clean. I used a little wash tub, a scoop of Oxy (or the $1 store kind) and put three heads in for at least a day each time. Each of the dolls here had between four Oxy treatments and five or six in the worst cases. I shampooed them with Palmolive with Oxy dish soap each time they got another treatment as well as combing through the hair each time.
I left the photos pretty large, so the results can be seen in detail! Here are the three EAH girls. Poor Cedar was the worst. I left the tiny braid in during treatment and it even stayed in place! I was amazed at how Apple's curls held and Briar and Cedar are now sleek and shiny!
Just what is it with poor Rochelle's dolls that seem to leak so badly? GNO Rochelle was one of the first glue heads I tried to clean last year along with I<3 Fashion Clawdeen. They were so bad and nothing helped before the Oxy Clean that I thought I'd have to throw them away! GNO Clawdeen was easy, as she did not have a lot of glue to begin with, but SO Lagoona was pretty bad. She was leaking glue shortly after I got her and I kept her hair in one big braid for years!
I<3 Fashion Frankie was awful and another doll that was leaking glue for years. She's had the hairstyle I gave her forever. I did have to undo it during treatment. The other thing you can't really tell is that her hair has yellowed a little due to age much like what can happen with the Sig Werecat Twins. I really wanted to save SS Draculaura, because she is the variant with full fangs from the Target five pack. Swim Rochelle is one of my faves, but sadly was another very bad one, leaking since basically when I got her. She was the first doll I tried baby powder on, with no success. I<3 Fashion Clawdeen was an absolute mess. She was the only doll in this batch who actually lost a few hair plugs!
Lastly, here's a close up of Swim Rochelle's scalp, all clean and grease-free!
Again, I want to give a huge THANK YOU to A Thousand Splendid Dolls You Tube channel (also on Flickr) for the amazing Oxy Clean idea!
