Rerooting Misadventures

I finished the reroot, thanks to my impatience and obsessive tendency to want to complete my projects as soon as possible. I ran into a few problems though, and I would consider my first reroot as a failure… I definitely learned a lot from it though, and I’m confident I can do better next time (… If there is a next time D:). Here are some things I learned and noticed:

• Next time, I will poke the holes and the rows closer together. In the scalp I finished, placing the holes 0.5cm apart, and the rows about 0.75-1cm apart resulted in a very sparse reroot. There’s too much of the scalp showing through the hair. I tried to fix this by creating new rows between the already rooted rows, and then using the knot method to insert more plugs in the noticeably bald areas.
• I also found out that the holes that make up the thatch line should be placed less than a millimeter apart! 😦 Hence, all the gaps in the thatch line of my “finished” reroot.
• Next time, I might look into getting a blank scalp with holes pre-punched into it. It would definitely save me some time.
• Next time, I will extend the thatch line so that it reaches the very top of the scalp. I think the plugs in the part line can hid any sparse areas considerably.
• I ordered 5 hanks of 38” long saran from Dolly Hair. I probably could have gotten away with 4 hanks, because I cut the 38” hanks in half, and used the lock and loop method. So the scalp’s resulting hair length was about 9.25”.
• Rerooting one scalp with saran using the lock and loop method took me about 3 weeks to finish, and it was something I worked on a little nearly every day.
• It cost me about $40 (scalp and saran hair, including shipping) to reroot one scalp.

So sad D:

My Thoughts on rerooting with Saran

Pros

• The quality of the hair is closer to real release’s scalp, rather than a fake scalp. The saran has a sturdier feel to it.
• You can control how thick you want the scalp to be.
• You can pretty much make a scalp any color you want, including using thermal color-changing saran.
• It’s about $15 cheaper than buying a fake scalp on eBay, and wayyyy cheaper than buying a saran reroot on etsy (though, considering how labor-intensive rerooting  is, I get why a custom reroot cost as much as it does).
• It’s something to do while watching a show.

Cons

• It takes a long time, and a ton of patience. You’re literally poking about 11 – 12 rows of holes in a spiral, spaced less than a centimeter apart every which way, then separating the hanks of hair into plugs, then pushing a crochet hook through a barely there hole in plastic, then pulling these plugs through every hole. I half thought it might have just been better to buy a fake scalp.
• It’s hard on the hands! (my poor, poor hands)
• That chance of failure though.

I’m a little ambivalent about rerooting with saran. Granted, the hair on fake scalps can be hit or miss (too thickly rooted, too long, uneven bangs, off in color), but for the most part, I feel like it might have been better to just purchase one and style it. I think I might be feeling this way moreso because my first rerooting experience was less than stellar. The next time I do a reroot, I will most likely use alpaca fiber and the knot method.

>_< Rory will just have to wait for a new scalp!