Thoughts on Mohair and Wool Doll Hair for Felting

I ordered some doll hair online last week, and it arrived yesterday. Some of it is really nice, and with that all added to the other colors that I had . . . it's a pretty good collection! Mom picked up a bag full of several kinds and colors of natural doll hair at a thrift store several years ago. This was before I was even felting, but she figured it would come in handy. It sure did. We used it on the little felt dolls that we made (pipe cleaner bodies wound in embroidery floss with wool felt heads and clothes). These dolls were all about three inches tall, so they didn't use too much hair. We ordered two more colors online, but that was the end of it . . . we thought.

The majority of the hair was 100% wool from a company called All Cooped Up. It comes in "braids" around a piece of string. As soon as you pull on the end of the wool it comes off of the string and you have what looks like wavy hair. This stuff is really nice, and the colors really look like human hair (except for their "blond").

There was one long piece that was not wool, but we weren't sure what it was. Turns out that it is mohair. I used that for the first time on the Posey Hornbeam doll, and it really looked like real hair. Mom was sold, and it did look great. She and I were on the hunt for more at the fiber shows, but nobody seems to sell hair colored fiber at the shows. Although, we were able to get two packages of Mohair locks. Those are really nice, and I was able to use the darker color on the Mrs. Hood doll.

So, we thought that we would look up some places online that sold mohair doll hair. We found a place and ordered some straight black mohair and a 36" braid of honey blond hair. I can't wait to try it. I also ordered some new wool braids, and those look great. As beautiful as the mohair is . . . I still like the wool the best!

Mom and Elizabeth have talked me into making a set of dolls based on antique figurines of the Commedia Dell'Arte characters. This is actually pretty fun, as I love the novel Scaramouche, and have wanted to make some of the characters anyway. The first one is going to be Pierette. She's started right now, but she would be way too embarrassed if I posted any pictures of her as she appears in her present state!