Mohair pet peeves.....

I belong to a couple of doll forums and every once in a while I come across questions or problems that people are having with mohair.

I so badly want to answer but don't want to appear to be "bashing" other processors mohair. 

I take mohair processing very seriously though.  Since this is my blog and I'm passionate about the doll industry, I thought I might just share and comment on a few of the problems I've heard of. 

Problem number one which actually turns into all of the major pet peeves I have:

 A customer (not mine) complained that when she first got her reborn doll, the hair was lovely and soft, but then it turned dry and a little bit coarse.  She knew the source of the hair;  from a popular seller/processor.   She wanted to know what product to use on the hair to "restore" it.

Many people confirmed that they too have had to "recondition" hair from this seller using products like Silken Child and other leave-in conditioners. 

I've seen many processors send hair with a thick leave-in conditioner on the hair.

Good quality hair does not require a leave-in conditioner to make it look and feel nice.  

Good quality hair doesn't even need to BE conditioned through the process.  

That said....

My process does include a conditioning step, but that is simply to allow me an easier time combing the wet hair to untangle from the dying process.  It is then rinsed twice so that no conditioning residue is left and nothing is applied to it after that. 

Back to the thick, leave-in conditioner.  

Yes, the hair takes amazing pictures when this thick conditioner is on it.

Yes, it looks all kept and nice when the customer receives it.

But it does not show accurate representation of the hair.  A pet peeve of mine.

I'll tell a story of a mohair trade that I did with one of my customers which will bring forth the other pet peeves:

 

The mohair I traded for was processed by one of the TOP sellers in the industry and was kid hair.  The person that I traded with realized that she just can't root with kid hair and desired some yearling hair, and I wanted to see the kid hair from this seller in person.  

The mohair arrived but was so laden with the leave-in conditioner that I really couldn't evaluate the hair.

So I decided to wash a small section of it.

And since I was washing it, I decided to test it for bleeding (a big pet peeve of mine...quality mohair should not bleed!).

And since I happened to be processing my own mohair that day, in the colors black (on the left) and chocolate brown (on the right) with the other suppliers hair (in the center) in chocolate brown. I decided to test all lots of hair.  All three locks of hair were soaking wet when I placed them on the clean, white paper towels.  This picture was taken after the hair began to dry.  I could already see some discoloration of the paper towel in the center.

This was the end result:  (click on the picture to see it full size)

So my question is...was it the thick, leave-in conditioner that caused the mohair to bleed, or was it that the mohair was dyed using human hair color dyes instead of mohair acid dyes?  

Human hair color dyes bleed as well as fade in the sun.

Only acid dyes and teas should be used to color quality mohair to be used for dolls.

Now I am curious what would happen if I placed the other sellers lock and one of my own in the sun for a time.  I think I will do just that and share the results in a few weeks. 

(The mohair from the other seller IS very nice mohair~it's very soft with a nice luster.)

So in a nutshell:

Quality mohair does not need to be conditioned, ever.

Photo's should be of the hair in dry form without conditioners added.

Quality mohair should not bleed.

Quality mohair should not fade.