Cheap Monster High Hair

[Flern]

Am I the only one to find that the hair on the Monster High dolls to be.....cheap?

Well, if you see where I am coming from I grew up in the 90's and early 2000's. The dolls that I played with back then such as Barbies and Bratz had a pretty thick head of hair. Their hair wouldn't fall out as easily when I brushed it or put it up. Now I have an Abby doll and a Lagoona doll to do photo shoots with and I find that their hair is very thin and they don't keep a good shape. Heck, on the Lagoona doll I can see a little hole on her head were a strand of hair use to be. It's like the glue isn't strong enough. These dolls are not cheap so shouldn't the hair stay on better?

[Erailea]

Chances are they've gone the same way as Transformers - the toy maker is using cheaper materials to keep cost of production down so they can try and maintain the toys' current (or near current) store pricing.

[Queen Harley]

The problem with monster high dolls is they're generally made in two different locations. China and Indonesia.

Indonesia and China dolls are made different. China dolls are rooted in a similar fashion to older barbie dolls, While Indonesia dolls have their hair held in heavily with glue. The easiest way to tell the different between the two is when you squeeze the head. If it feels soft, it's a China doll. If it feels hard(like there's something inside the head) it's an Indonesian doll.

Indonesian dolls are more notorious for defects over China dolls because of quality control. They're known for glue seepage, which is basically the glue leaking out in a grease like substance. Also, because the hair is glued in, if enough of the glue has leaked out or wasn't added, it's easier for the hair to come out. Sometimes it's bad enough that the glue will have already started leaking before the doll is even out of the package(which is why sometimes you see grease spots on the back of cardboard the doll is attached too.)

If you're having leakage issues or hair is missing from the doll. Contact Mattel's customer service. They're actually pretty good about helping out their customers. Usually they're willing to either send out a voucher for roughly the original retail value of the doll, or in some cases send you a replacement or replacement part(like for broken limbs)

Also, if you don't want to replace the doll but what to look into rerooting. I know several people tend to go to dollyhair.com and buy hanks of hair to reroot their dolls.

So yeah, when you're buying dolls. Try to make sure you get ones that are made in China instead of Indonesia since China generally has better quality control.

[Flern]

Queen Harley

The problem with monster high dolls is they're generally made in two different locations. China and Indonesia.

Indonesia and China dolls are made different. China dolls are rooted in a similar fashion to older barbie dolls, While Indonesia dolls have their hair held in heavily with glue. The easiest way to tell the different between the two is when you squeeze the head. If it feels soft, it's a China doll. If it feels hard(like there's something inside the head) it's an Indonesian doll.

Indonesian dolls are more notorious for defects over China dolls because of quality control. They're known for glue seepage, which is basically the glue leaking out in a grease like substance. Also, because the hair is glued in, if enough of the glue has leaked out or wasn't added, it's easier for the hair to come out. Sometimes it's bad enough that the glue will have already started leaking before the doll is even out of the package(which is why sometimes you see grease spots on the back of cardboard the doll is attached too.)

If you're having leakage issues or hair is missing from the doll. Contact Mattel's customer service. They're actually pretty good about helping out their customers. Usually they're willing to either send out a voucher for roughly the original retail value of the doll, or in some cases send you a replacement or replacement part(like for broken limbs)

Also, if you don't want to replace the doll but what to look into rerooting. I know several people tend to go to dollyhair.com and buy hanks of hair to reroot their dolls.

So yeah, when you're buying dolls. Try to make sure you get ones that are made in China instead of Indonesia since China generally has better quality control.

Hm, So that's why there were wets spots on the cardboard when I first got them. I managed to reroot the hair that was missing. Thank you so much! This was really helpful! ^ ^

[Flern]

Erailea

Chances are they've gone the same way as Transformers - the toy maker is using cheaper materials to keep cost of production down so they can try and maintain the toys' current (or near current) store pricing.

Yeah, but it seems toys are more expensive now than when I was a kid and the toys back then were made better.

[Jolted]

Hello! May I suggest a reroot if you find the hair to be thin?

Here are some examples of dolls that I have rerooted: dA


Here's a great video that shows the process of doing it:
Youtube Demonstration

And here's an example of how to home make the reroot tool instead of ordering one offline:
Reroot Tool

You can purchase hair from offline and, in some cases, Sally's Beauty store (I've used extensions for rerooting before.)

[Flern]

Jolted

Hello! May I suggest a reroot if you find the hair to be thin?

Here are some examples of dolls that I have rerooted: dA


Here's a great video that shows the process of doing it:
Youtube Demonstration

And here's an example of how to home make the reroot tool instead of ordering one offline:
Reroot Tool

You can purchase hair from offline and, in some cases, Sally's Beauty store (I've used extensions for rerooting before.)

Wow, making your own reroot tool sounds kind of easy. Thanks! ^ ^

[Aha]

The weak hair is really my only complaint about the doll line (the web series on the hand, I have a nice long list of issues with). The hair does tend to fall out easily. I might be a good idea the reenforce it with a little bit of decent glue if you are going to be handling them a lot.

I didn't know about the Indonesia thing, but that explains why one of my Draculaura's hair looked greasy when I took her out of the packaging.

But if you want cheap, look closely at some of the EAH dolls hair. It took me forever to find the two pack that didn't have an Ashlynn that looked like she was going bald. They really skimped on the amount of hair for some of the dolls. Bleh.

At least it's no where near as bad as the two MH knock offs I found at a dollar store for three bucks each. The backs of those dolls' heads are actually bald. But what do you expect from a cheap bootleg?

[Flern]

Aha

The weak hair is really my only complaint about the doll line (the web series on the hand, I have a nice long list of issues with). The hair does tend to fall out easily. I might be a good idea the reenforce it with a little bit of decent glue if you are going to be handling them a lot.

I didn't know about the Indonesia thing, but that explains why one of my Draculaura's hair looked greasy when I took her out of the packaging.

But if you want cheap, look closely at some of the EAH dolls hair. It took me forever to find the two pack that didn't have an Ashlynn that looked like she was going bald. They really skimped on the amount of hair for some of the dolls. Bleh.

At least it's no where near as bad as the two MH knock offs I found at a dollar store for three bucks each. The backs of those dolls' heads are actually bald. But what do you expect from a cheap bootleg?

For me it would be the hair and the paint job. I found out that they easily chip by the joints of the arms. I guess I could repaint it. Other than that the dolls are pretty cool. I love how the fingers are spread out and not just stuck together like most dolls. It makes the dolls look realistic (As realistic as you can make teenage monsters, anyways) I also like how the arms and hands can be detached to make putting on clothes a little easier.

[Aha]

Flern

Aha

The weak hair is really my only complaint about the doll line (the web series on the hand, I have a nice long list of issues with). The hair does tend to fall out easily. I might be a good idea the reenforce it with a little bit of decent glue if you are going to be handling them a lot.

I didn't know about the Indonesia thing, but that explains why one of my Draculaura's hair looked greasy when I took her out of the packaging.

But if you want cheap, look closely at some of the EAH dolls hair. It took me forever to find the two pack that didn't have an Ashlynn that looked like she was going bald. They really skimped on the amount of hair for some of the dolls. Bleh.

At least it's no where near as bad as the two MH knock offs I found at a dollar store for three bucks each. The backs of those dolls' heads are actually bald. But what do you expect from a cheap bootleg?

For me it would be the hair and the paint job. I found out that they easily chip by the joints of the arms. I guess I could repaint it. Other than that the dolls are pretty cool. I love how the fingers are spread out and not just stuck together like most dolls. It makes the dolls look realistic (As realistic as you can make teenage monsters, anyways) I also like how the arms and hands can be detached to make putting on clothes a little easier.

Yeah, the clothing is so form fitting on them that the hands kind of have to be removable if you want to be able to change them without ruining either the sleeve or the doll. I like that it means you can change out hands to suit your needs, so long as they are the right color(or you could just repaint them, I suppose.)

I don't do to much with the few I have out, so I haven't noticed any issues with the paint around the joints, but I can see it being a bit of a problem for some people.(I was under the impression that the color was mixed in the plastic before it was even molded so that it is that color, but I guess not.) Still, it's not enough of an issue to make me not want to buy them when I can. I love the overall design of most of the dolls and for the most part they all look good.

Though occasionally I've noticed that the lipstick will have smeared off the dolls onto the packaging. This has been happening a lot more in recent months. I work for a toy store, so I see the dolls almost as soon as they are put on the shelf. In the last few weeks, I've seen close to one doll per assortment box that is like that. (A scalper once came in right when we opened, bought up all of the Heath/Abbey two packs that had just come out except for three that had smeared off paint. Pissed me off something fierce for the rest of the day.)

[Flern]

Aha

Flern

Aha

The weak hair is really my only complaint about the doll line (the web series on the hand, I have a nice long list of issues with). The hair does tend to fall out easily. I might be a good idea the reenforce it with a little bit of decent glue if you are going to be handling them a lot.

I didn't know about the Indonesia thing, but that explains why one of my Draculaura's hair looked greasy when I took her out of the packaging.

But if you want cheap, look closely at some of the EAH dolls hair. It took me forever to find the two pack that didn't have an Ashlynn that looked like she was going bald. They really skimped on the amount of hair for some of the dolls. Bleh.

At least it's no where near as bad as the two MH knock offs I found at a dollar store for three bucks each. The backs of those dolls' heads are actually bald. But what do you expect from a cheap bootleg?

For me it would be the hair and the paint job. I found out that they easily chip by the joints of the arms. I guess I could repaint it. Other than that the dolls are pretty cool. I love how the fingers are spread out and not just stuck together like most dolls. It makes the dolls look realistic (As realistic as you can make teenage monsters, anyways) I also like how the arms and hands can be detached to make putting on clothes a little easier.

Yeah, the clothing is so form fitting on them that the hands kind of have to be removable if you want to be able to change them without ruining either the sleeve or the doll. I like that it means you can change out hands to suit your needs, so long as they are the right color(or you could just repaint them, I suppose.)

I don't do to much with the few I have out, so I haven't noticed any issues with the paint around the joints, but I can see it being a bit of a problem for some people.(I was under the impression that the color was mixed in the plastic before it was even molded so that it is that color, but I guess not.) Still, it's not enough of an issue to make me not want to buy them when I can. I love the overall design of most of the dolls and for the most part they all look good.

Though occasionally I've noticed that the lipstick will have smeared off the dolls onto the packaging. This has been happening a lot more in recent months. I work for a toy store, so I see the dolls almost as soon as they are put on the shelf. In the last few weeks, I've seen close to one doll per assortment box that is like that. (A scalper once came in right when we opened, bought up all of the Heath/Abbey two packs that had just come out except for three that had smeared off paint. Pissed me off something fierce for the rest of the day.)

I think I might be moving the dolls a lot for poses because I would like to take photos of them. (I know, sounds lame) I have had no trouble with the lips yet.

Your job sounds awesome, btw. Sorry for the jerk that took all the good dolls. sad

[Aha]

Flern

I think I might be moving the dolls a lot for poses because I would like to take photos of them. (I know, sounds lame) I have had no trouble with the lips yet.

Your job sounds awesome, btw. Sorry for the jerk that took all the good dolls. sad

It doesn't sound that lame. I know a guy who likes to take pictures of his in different poses/clothing. I've even help him out a few times with it and given him ideas for photo sets. It's kind of fun.

It sounds like it should be awesome, but it's really not. The discount is crap, the corporate office policies are lame, the layouts are stupid and the hours suck. But it's a job and ten percent off is better than full price. I also get my pick of the new dolls that come out before anyone else does if I'm there the day they hit the shelf, so I put up with it.