Ultra late doll reveal! American Girl Marie Grace Gardner Doll Review and Customizing her wig!

Hello again! So this is an older post that I thought I had scheduled, but apparently I did not. Here is one of the additions to my collection and my experience customizing her!

Tada!~ 

Meet Marie Grace Gardner!

I chose her because I liked her face mold and she was being retired. The other two I considered were Julie and Ruthie, it was a difficult decision!

 Attempting to remove the hairnet on this particular doll was somewhat of a challenge because the hair was knotted into it lol

And here she is out of the box with her curls and braids flowing freely.

A view of the two overlapping braids in the back.

and the length.

Now, about customizing her wig, I knew when I ordered her I wanted to change her hairstyle because, when researching dolls, I came across some other blogs that had done so successfully. I can appreciate that her original face-framing curls were likely a popular style of her time period, but I wanted to try something different. So off the curls went!

Following the cutting of the curls, I straightened her hair using very hot water and then a hair straightener on one of the lowest settings. Knowing that water can cause extreme damage to the doll and her eyes, I was very careful when rinsing her hair. If you are interested, you can find videos and other resources that describe and illustrate the process more fully. 

Using the various techniques, I was able to remove most of the kinks in the hair:

As you can see, there are some slight waves that remained... but those have relaxed some since these photos were taken last year.

The view from the back.

with the addition of a simple bow to compliment her new dress n.n

It's the new Marie Grace Gardner!!

Marie Grace is my first and only attempt to customize an American Girl doll. I'm happy with how it turned out but I'm reluctant to try other, more involved customizations like eye swaps. I feel like it would be difficult to get them just right.

I think of the American Girl face molds she has one of the prettiest!

Till next time!