In running a doll hospital, I've definitely gone through quite a lot of repairs and customizations. I thought when I initially started it, that it would be overwhelming as there are so many brands and types of dolls out there, how could I possibly learn to repair all of them? Well I was surprised to find, that really you only need to master a few skills, and that most dolls will fall under those skills 9 times out of 10, so here's a few summaries for dolls from 1950 to today.

The four basic skills you need for doll restoration are: Wig, Restring, Eyes, Cleaning, and Cracks or (WRECC).

Wig - Refers to the hair situation. Whatever type of hair material used, hair is a major component of repairing dolls to good condition. A bad haired doll takes the quality and beauty of the doll down and a doll can go from unloved to loved with a simple repair to hair. This goes for rooted hair dolls as well, if the rooted hair cannot be restored a wig can help that doll live a new life.

Restring - A doll with floppy arms or legs or that is completely disassembled cannot be played with or properly presented by a collector. Many dolls are strung, those that aren't use flanged legs and arms that "screw" into their armholes or legholes, but a flanged doll's limbs can only move up and down, whereas a strung doll has much more mobility.

Cleaning - So much of transformation on a doll can be solved by a simple deep clean. Sometimes that's all a doll needs and she's looking herself again. This can be face and body cleaning or just outfit cleaning. Keeping a doll clean shows you care about her.

Cracks - Cracks refers to breakage on a doll. This can be cracks at her pressure points such as around the arm and leg holes, at seams where she is welded together, drop type damage which occurs usually at the feet, or mauling damage where a doll's digits go into the mouth and are bitten off.

How you complete these restoration categories does start to feel very familiar even among different brands as you find that you don't need different cleaning agents, you don't need to learn a different restringing method, and eye and wig changes the process is relatively the same. Vinyl dolls always need a heat source whether it's blow dryer or boiling to soften the vinyl and remove eyes and are usually pryed out the front or if you can fit your fingers in the neck, pushed out from the back of their sockets. Wigs are always glued to the head. Once you master peeling off one old wig, you don't need to learn the process again for any other brand. Restringing has the same process from doll to doll on hard bodies - arm to arm and head to legs, the only thing that changes is the thickness of your elastic and/or elastic bands size. Repairing a crack on one doll will often be the same process on another doll provided you are working with the same material. Cleaning your doll and working through difficult stains and marks will often be the same from doll to doll.

So the good news is that you don't need a lifetime to learn how to repair dolls and we hope to cover most of the variances on tricky repairs in our Doll Forum as we encounter them.