Second Chances Doll Restoration

Second Chances Doll Restoration Welcome! I restore American Girl dolls to give them a second chance at love from another child or c

Permanently closed.

Each doll is lovingly cleaned, limbs re-strung, and wig restored or replaced, and then they are available for adoption. I also provide these services for dolls that belong to members of our community through my doll salon.

First commissioned non-AG hair restore ❤️It’s so interesting the differences between AG hair and other brands. This hai...
04/24/2021

First commissioned non-AG hair restore ❤️
It’s so interesting the differences between AG hair and other brands. This hair smoothed a lot easier, only needing a wash and condition and a very careful detangling before going into hot rollers. It felt like a flat iron could ruin it so I didn’t take the chance. Her mama is a sweet little girl and I’m really hoping she’s happy with her new hair do 😊

This pretty girl goes to her new home tomorrow! I’ve learned so much about these early girlies. This is a 1989 slate-e...
04/22/2021

This pretty girl goes to her new home tomorrow! I’ve learned so much about these early girlies. This is a 1989 slate-eyed Samantha.
Her wig required a full restoration to bring back the shine and donor wefts sewn in to replace hair where it had thinned over time.
I re-attached the torso cup for her right leg to the torso fabric, also restringing all 4 limbs as they had to be removed for proper access to repair.
She had a pink spot on her face that I treated with 10% benzoyl peroxide and was generally dirty so she was cleaned up.
I’m so grateful to the master restoration artists who have helped me to learn how to properly restore these older dolls ❤️

This cutie is Truly Me 21! She has the sweetest pin curls by her face and beautiful curly pig tails. When she came to ...
04/18/2021

This cutie is Truly Me 21! She has the sweetest pin curls by her face and beautiful curly pig tails. When she came to me her hair was defying gravity and the texture was the worst I’ve ever worked with. It was super fried and damaged. After a meticulous flat iron treatment, it was still way too gritty-I wanted to get it smoother. So I phoned a friend and her suggestion of using fingernails to really straighten the hair before putting it through the iron, tiny sections at a time, made a really huge difference (see pic 2 as a comparison). Then I let her sit for a week because I wasn’t sure my curlers were small enough! Today I finally got her set in hot rollers, curled her little pin curls over a dowel, and put it in pig tails. Last step was to pin the curl shape I wanted for her pig tails and let it dry. I’m super excited about how she turned out!

Local repair! I was hired to repair Samantha’s stitching and add color to her face. She’s the first fortune cookie Sam...
04/15/2021

Local repair! I was hired to repair Samantha’s stitching and add color to her face. She’s the first fortune cookie Samantha I’ve seen in person, just lovely! After a few hours of work she is ready to go back home ❤️

Tonight I added wefts from an older Molly wig to a 1989 Samantha whose wig was extremely thin. As you can see in the le...
04/14/2021

Tonight I added wefts from an older Molly wig to a 1989 Samantha whose wig was extremely thin. As you can see in the left pictures, the stitching for rows of hair remain, but the hair is gone. I took apart the donor wig and went through Samantha’s wig, sewing in wefts where hers were bare.

Weft replacement is a labor of love. I spent 2 hours to replace 6 wefts 😬 But for someone’s childhood doll or other older Pleasant Company dolls, I think it will be nice to have the option to fill out a thinning wig rather than having to re-wig ❤️

This girlie arrived last night and I’m excited to work on her! So far I’ve disassembled her, cleaned the vinyl, washed ...
04/08/2021

This girlie arrived last night and I’m excited to work on her! So far I’ve disassembled her, cleaned the vinyl, washed her wig, and restored the hair to straight. She has a highlighter pink mark on her cheek that’s getting some sun time for spot removal right now and then I’ll set the curl back into her beautiful hair!
For the stitching on her torso, I have leather needles coming that I’ll use to replace the original stitches in the same holes with some natural unbleached thread.
Her neck string was in two pieces, so I ordered several different types of flat braided cord to hopefully find a proper replacement for her original flat neck string.
Outside of those issues, she’s actually in beautiful condition and I’m excited to put her back together once she’s finished! 😍

Another hair restore. This is a local person’s childhood doll. I’m so glad I was able to bring her childhood doll back...
03/28/2021

Another hair restore. This is a local person’s childhood doll. I’m so glad I was able to bring her childhood doll back to her original glory ❤️

Wig restoration is just so cool!This 1987 Kirsten is from eBay. I knew her hair was messy, but when she arrived I found...
03/28/2021

Wig restoration is just so cool!
This 1987 Kirsten is from eBay. I knew her hair was messy, but when she arrived I found out why-fabric softener! Please don’t ever dunk an American Girl doll’s hair in fabric softener. This used to be a blogger recommended method to soften a wig, but while the upfront result seemed silky and soft, over time it leaves the hair attractant to dirt, grease, and makes it resistant to detangling.
Poor Kirsten had locs 😬
I washed with Dawn to clarify and get that softener out. Then shampoo and conditioner to add some moisture back into the mix, making sure to rinse completely so nothing is left behind on the hair.
Then we detangled one loc at a time. There was a little hair loss which is a bummer, but no chunks and she’s still got plenty of hair so that’s good!
After detangling I did a damp low temp flat iron. This made such a huge difference! Pretty much all of her hair was fried, down to the bangs.
For her bangs, I used boiling water with a toothbrush on a curling rod to reshape them. The top knot bangs still don’t have the curve at the end that I want, but the bang damage smoothed well and the bangs under the top knot are great.
All this is a great example of how we can save any wig that isn’t cut or missing massive amounts of hair! And I’m learning that missing hair can even be fixed by sewing in wefts from a donor wig 😍
If you have a doll whose hair needs a refresh, please send me a message! I love doing hair restoration!

☘️🍀 Happy St Patrick’s Day! 🍀☘️
03/17/2021

☘️🍀 Happy St Patrick’s Day! 🍀☘️

Truly Me 21 got a hair makeover! It was so damaged. I gave her a wash and condition, detangling, heat restoration, and...
03/01/2021

Truly Me 21 got a hair makeover! It was so damaged. I gave her a wash and condition, detangling, heat restoration, and then permed her curls back in. She’s as adorable as everyone says she is!

Recently I realized that sending dolls out for eye swaps and then finishing them at home would likely reduce my frustrat...
02/17/2021

Recently I realized that sending dolls out for eye swaps and then finishing them at home would likely reduce my frustration and increase my creativity. I sent heads without wigs to Doll of a Kind with the eyes that I wanted for each and yesterday they came back to me. She did a beautiful job with the eye swaps!
I did the stain removal, restringing, neck strings where needed, and wigs. I intentionally sent several different face molds to see how they turned out.
The Jess mold up front is my favorite! She has Aqua blue eyes and golden sunshine hair. I plan to give her pin curls and a subtle curl to the rest of her hair and keep her as my Elizabeth.
I was most excited to receive the red head, a Marie grace face mold with pleasant company Felicity eyes with soft brown lashes. Now that she’s here, I’m not sure she’ll be staying.
Everyone else will be for sale. Please remember when you purchase a doll with a new wig or eyes or both, the cost of materials is a lot higher. I’ll likely try to take some really nice pictures outside with outfits that fit each doll’s personality sometime very soon!

1987 Pleasant Company Samantha (left) and late 90’s Pleasant Company Samantha (right). Both before she was retired but ...
02/16/2021

1987 Pleasant Company Samantha (left) and late 90’s Pleasant Company Samantha (right). Both before she was retired but they are so different!

Address

Mesa
Mesa, AZ
85212

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Second Chances Doll Restoration posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Second Chances Doll Restoration:

Shortcuts

Share