Edit 7/2/14: I’ve had a couple requests for help when it comes to terribly tangled manes – and now I have a tutorial for that! You can find it here!
With the very recent release of Princess Twilight Sparkle at Build-a-Bear, and my very very recent (as in, this afternoon) purchase of Twilight Sparkle and her buddy Spike, I figured I may as well get all three of my Build-a-Bear ponies together for a picture – they’re some of the nicest quality ponies I’ve got in my collection, and I do love taking pictures of my ponies! However, when I took Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash off the bed in my office, I noticed their manes were a little less than perfect looking… Pinkie had a few knots in her mane, and Dashie had some flyaways and looked a little messy. I figured it might be a good idea to brush and detangle their manes – and then got the bright idea to post a photo-laden tutorial of the process here! (Granted, this idea hit me halfway through Pinkie Pie, but still…)
So, without further ado…
How to Detangle Pony Manes
First things first, you’ll want to pick up a wig brush (or at least a brush with metal bristles) and some wig detangler. I use an old American Girl doll hairbrush, and recently picked up some Brandywine Wig Detangler off of Amazon for detangling the wig that goes with my Pinkie Pie costume.
Have a look at Pinkie’s mane – I’ve brushed it a small amount at this point, but you can see it’s still kinda messy – even for Pinkie!
So, let’s start with detangling Pinkie’s mane. As you get started, you’ll want to work with the hair in sections – if it’s easier for you to do, split it off into little handfuls with ponytail holders – NOT rubber bands, they’ll snag the hair and break it when you try to take them out! – and work with one section at a time.
Start at the very end of the section of hair you’re working with, and spray a little bit of wig detangler on the ends. Brush the very end bits gently until they’re tangle free, then spray a little more detangler (only a pump or two) on the rest of the section. Work your way through the section of hair carefully, starting at the bottom and brushing larger parts of the section until you can brush from top to bottom with ease. Repeat with the other sections until you’ve finished!
The tail is a similar process – mine had kind of bundled itself into a tangly curl-thing, so I sprayed it liberally with detangler and then split it into sections. If you have a really tangled section of hair, spraying it first will definitely help you split it into smaller sections without breaking the strands of hair.
From there, it’s the same process as detangling the mane – spray the ends, brush the tangles out, then spray a little more and work your way up the section!
If your tail loses some of its curl, you can twist the tail up into a tiny bun, then secure it with a ponytail holder and leave it overnight – when you undo the ponytail holder the next day, Pinkie’s tail will be nicely curled. You can do the same thing with her mane, if it needs a little more curl – split hair into sections, twist each section into a bun, and then secure with a ponytail!
Once you’re done, Pinkie’s mane should look a bit more lively! Next, we’ll go over Rainbow Dash’s hair.
Dashie’s isn’t quite so bad, but there are still some flyaways. Her hair’s a bit easier to deal with, since there’s no curl, and the process is the same. Separate, spray, brush, repeat!
Here’s the after picture – definitely looking a little neater. I did a little bit of work on Twilight Sparkle next – even though I just brought her home today, sitting around in a pile of mostly deflated Twilight Sparkles didn’t really help her hair much…
Twilight’s process is similar to Rainbow Dash. You might also want to spray her bangs with some detangler and smooth them out, to help weigh them down, as Twilight’s bangs are done up in a topknot before they get stuffed and it makes them VERY bouncy.
Here’s Twilight’s after shot – definitely better looking than when she got home. It’s wonderful, what a little wig detangler and a sturdy brush can do!
And there you have it – how to detangle Build-a-Bear My Little Pony hair! It doesn’t take too terribly long, and makes your ponies look really good!
Edit: This post has been featured over on Equestria Daily, and has made this my most popular post yet!
Thank you, all of you, who’ve stopped by from Equestria Daily – I hope you’ll stick around, like the Facebook page, and read more crafty nerdy stuff here! 😀
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