Fernando after his hair treatment:
I’ve had this doll named Fernando since I was a little kid. I like him because even in Brazil, a dark-skinned doll was a rarity in the 80s. And a male doll that you know is a male doll (anatomically) was even more of a rarity.
My mom saved him for years after I left Brazil in 1997. When Mom moved to Canada in 2007, she brought 1 toy that each of her 3 kids really liked, that she had saved. Mine was Fernando.
Fernando has been through some things… Firstly, despite his baby looks, he’s well over 30 years old.
Secondly, my daughter loved giving him baths when she was little—something I happily encouraged, because it’s a great playtime activity and helped keep her occupied when I gave her baby brother baths. Unfortunately, all that water damaged his eyes. His hair had been pretty severely matted since he came to Canada (and likely before then).
Anyway, I finally decided I’m going to attempt to restore him.
Step 1: hair
Step 2: eyes
Step 3: Make or buy some clothes, 'cause the kid’s been naked for almost 10 years, lol.
I forgot to take “before” pictures of the hair, but here’s some in progress ones. First, I washed his hair with hypoallergenic, mild shampoo. Then I worked A LOT of conditioner into his hair. It looked like it made it worse, but it worked to help brush out all the matted parts. Not only was the hair matted, it had a lot of lint in it… but don’t worry, the white parts in this picture is just the conditioner.
I let the conditioner sit for a few minutes, and then I spent a lot of time carefully brushing the hair out with a wide-toothed comb. I can’t remember since I got him so long ago, but I think his hair was always textured. Before the conditioner and brush out though, it was matted. He looked like he was trying to have dreads and failing miserably, lol.
After combing the hair, I rinsed off the conditioner and let it air dry for a little bit. This is what he looked like at this stage:
After a little bit of air drying, but while the hair was still damp, he got a bonnet for 24 hours to help reshape the hair. The “bonnet” was a mini nylon sock that I had in the house.
And voilá, hair restored (I’m pretty sure…)
Next step will be plucking out his eyes… wish me luck, lol
