Additional Information On Human Hair

The average human head has over 100,000 hair folicles! So, if you want a realistic, rooted head of hair, how can you possibly root that many folicles?

The answer is: you can't. And even if you could, you probably wouldn't want to, because it is very unlikely that you will get a single strand of hair in each root point. You will actually end up with multiple strands per root point (exactly how many depends on your rooting technique), and because of that, you will end up with too thick of an overall hair job if you root more than about 8,000 or so points. Furthermore, the situation would eventually be reached where more root points would weaken the vinyl to an unsatisfactory level.

So how, then, can you possibly ever get a realistic head of rooted hair?

Since you are not going to individually root over 100,000 hair folicles, with only a single hair in each root point, the way to get a realistic head of rooted hair is to compensate in some other manner so that the overall effect appears realistic. In other words, you need to create an "illusion" of realism by altering the rooting in some other manner.

The easiest way to create that illusion is to begin with hair that has different dynamics than real human hair. Our Premium Mohair (which is a type of goat hair) is an ideal hair medium for that. It has different hair dynamics than real human hair, and when you combine those dynamics with the naturally sparser rooting (of, say, maybe about 8,000 root points) that you are going to do, the overall effect appears very natural.

However, what if you want, say, an heirloom or keepsake baby, created with your real baby's hair, to be passed down through your family each generation? You'd be hard-pressed to find a parent anywhere who wouldn't cherish such a doll!

Or what if you want real human hair for some other reason?

If you really want human hair, the hair you want is the hair that is naturally the closest thing to the Premium Mohair. Ideally, you want baby-soft, never before cut, first-cut baby hair!

When a baby gets it's first haircut, that baby never again recovers from that haircut. The hair that grows after the first cut is going to be courser, and not as valuable for rooting. So, try to get the first cut hair, if you can.

If you cannot get first-cut hair, then of course, the next-best thing is to get the finest, silkiest hair you can find. Invariably, this means young hair! So, get the youngest hair you can find.

One thing we have found, is that we initially underestimated the amount of hair that a baby would need to have in order to cut it and root it. For example, the baby in the "Before" and "After" pictures below (a one-year-old at the time of the haircut) really only had enough hair to suitably root a preemie doll. And, the Anna baby below is a preemie, and we show the hair donor's picture later, too.

So, be careful that you do not underestimate the amount of hair that you are going to need!

Copyright (c) 2003 DP Creations, LLC