Hair Size Guide

 

We offer full length (38 inches) and pre-cut hanks of hair to suit all your customizing needs! 

"Length on doll" or finished length, is determined assuming that you are going to use one of the rerooting kits sold on this site.

Note: The hair rooted on the top of the head will be shorter than the hair rooted at the nape of the neck. The length on the doll is the AVERAGE length. If you plan on cutting the hair all one length, plan on cutting it approximately 1/2 inch shorter than the "length on doll".

1 4

Calculating How Much Hair You Need

Head circumference, hair width, strand length, finished length and rerooting technique all come into play while determining how much hair is needed to reroot a doll. To illustrate this, we will show you how we reroot a Barbie with one size 38" hank of hair.

Rerooting with a 38" hank

One size 38" hank can reroot one square inch of hair on a doll's head. Here is a photo of standard size Barbie with one size 38" hank of Acetate Doll Hair.

*Note that we will be using the reroot tool method which means the finished length of hair will be half of the strand length.

Doll Head Circumference

To figure out how much hair you need, measure your dolls head circumference. In our example, a standard Barbie has a head circumference of about 4 inches which means she has about 4 square inches of head to be rooted.

Hair Width

Since one size 38" hank can reroot one square inch of hair on a doll's head and Barbie's head is 4 inches, we must cut the 38" hank into 4. We now have 4 sections that are 9.5" long and enough hair to reroot Barbie's entire head.

At Dollyhair, we offer hair sizes of varying widths:

MLP: can reroot 1/2 square inches, uncut
38": can reroot 1 square inch, uncut
Barbie hanks: can reroot 4-5 square inches
Gene hanks: enough to reroot 5-6 square inches


Strand Length

Remember, when rooting the doll with a Rerooting Tool, you will fold the hanks in half. This means the finished length will be half the strand length. Since our strands are now 9.5", the finished length after rerooting will be 4.75"

Our full length and pre-cut hanks give you various length options:

MLP/38": 19" finished length
Barbie/Gene Medium: 4.75" finished length
Barbie/Gene Long: 9.5" finished length

Finished Length

Here is the Barbie after rerooting with one size 38" hank cut into 4. You can see that there is even some leftover hair because our hanks are very generous!

The finished length is approximately 4.75" long which is about hip-length for Barbie.

The hair rooted on the top of the head will be shorter than the hair rooted at the nape of the neck. The finished length on the doll is the average length. If you plan on cutting the hair all one length, plan on cutting it approximately 1/2 inch shorter than the approximate finished length.

Hair amounts for other dolls

For bigger heads

For dolls with heads larger than 7 inches, we typically recommend using size 38" hanks for maximum length and versatility. But you can also opt to use the pre-cut hanks to root your doll if you only need a finished length of 9.5" or shorter.

Example:
A doll with a 10 inch head circumference:
Option 1: 10 x size 38" hanks with a finished length of 19"
Option 2: 2 x Gene Long with a finished length of 9.5"
Option 3: 2 x Gene Medium with a finished length of 4.75"

Recommendation for Blythe dolls: 2 Barbie size hanks or 6 size 38" hanks
Blythe dolls have a head circumference of 8", but they have very high foreheads, so they generally need only as much hair as a doll with a 6" circumference head would usually need, unless you're one of those people who likes to root their plugs really thickly. Therefore, a Blythe doll will need about 2 Barbie-size hanks or 6 size 38" hanks, depending on the finished length you want.

Recommendation for Patti Playpal dolls: 8 size 38" hanks
Patti Playpal dolls also have head circumferences of 8", but since Patti dolls are so tall, most people prefer to give them long hair, and most people like to use the 38" hanks, which result in Patti's hair being 19" long after she's been rooted. If you want Patti doll to have 19" long hair, you will need to buy eight 38" hanks to reroot her.

For longer hair

If you want rooted hair that is longer than 19 inches, you can consider using the knot method for rerooting to maximize the strand length. While rerooting with the knot method, you don't fold the hair in half and simply knot one end of the hair inside the doll's head. This allows you to use the full length of each hank to reroot the doll. Obviously, you would need to buy more hair to achieve this, but the plus side is that the doll's hair would be longer!