Recently, I was shopping for a little boy doll for my granddaughter, and had a difficult time finding one. There just aren't too many to choose from. My granddaughter loves her one and only boy doll, and thought he should have a brother. I agreed.
I felt a little sad that there were so few dolls available for our little boys to identify with. After all, our boys enjoy imaginative play just as much as our girls, and they can benefit from having a "little buddy" to hang out with.
On a recent trip to a thrift store, I found an Our Generation doll for only three dollars, so I decided to purchase it to turn into a boy doll. Our Generation dolls are inexpensive eighteen inch dolls to begin with, and this one had badly damaged hair, so I didn't feel too badly about altering it. I'm not sure I would use an expensive American Girl doll to make into a boy, unless I found one second hand and in poor condition.
To start the makeover, I chopped off most of the hair to get it out of the way.
Next, I cleaned the doll well. First, I used rubbing alcohol on the face and arms and legs; then I used acetone nail polish remover to scrub away some of the doll's lip and cheek color. I did not remove all the color -- I just toned it down a bit. You may find you need to scrub quite a bit to remove the color. Your doll will still look pretty, but I haven't seen a little boy who wasn't pretty, so I didn't worry too much.
Using a fine paint brush, I used acrylic paint to color in heavier, more "masculine" looking eyebrows. Don't worry if you mess up. You can always wipe it off and try again. Next time, I may try drawing in the eyebrows using a brown micron pen. You may want to add a few freckles while you've got the pen or paintbrush out.
I then washed the hair. I would recommend washing your doll's hair
before painting the eyebrows, so you won't have to worry about messing them up. I used a blow dryer on low, and tried to shape the hair in the direction I wanted it to fall. You will need to work with the original doll's part, or risk exposing widely spaced hair plugs, if your doll's hair is rooted.
The hair was then trimmed a little more with scissors, then cut using hair clippers and a one inch attachment. I wanted to give the doll bangs, but since the original doll did not have bangs, the hair did not want to fall forward, no matter how much I tried to coax it with the blow dryer.
For a cute "little boy" tee shirt, I found this sweet little preemie size onesie from a thrift store, and cut the bottom off. The baseball is a plastic candy egg from the Dollar Tree.
So easy!
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