Aquilla’s blog

If you have never done it before, removing your dolls head can be very daunting, but it really needn’t be. Removing BJD heads can be a bit of a struggle, but is quick, easy to do once you know how. While its not exactly the same for all bjd’s, their heads all open and work in a pretty similar way so once you know one, the rest shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

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Step 1:

Most modern bjd head caps are held together by strong magnets however some old bjd head caps are not. On most head caps though, its the same or very similar. Just hold the back of the head and gently pull the cap up and away from the lower portion of the head.

Once you have the head cap off, the inside of the head will look like this:

Step 2:

Next we need to pull the head up so we can see the elastic inside as illustrated. To do this I sit down on a chair, and put the dolls torso and firmly hold it between my thighs. Then, using my free hands, I grab the head and pull it upwards. [If you don't want to use your thighs, get a friend to help and hold the dolls torso instead]

Step 3:

Once you have pulled the head up to see the elastic, you need to put something between it so that the elastic doesn’t fall back through the body when you take the head fully off. I used a mechanical pencil, but you can use almost anything as long as it is sturdy and won’t break.

Step 4:

Using a pair of pliers, I grab the ‘S’ shaped hook and I twist and rotate it until it is no longer looped through the elastic. Make sure you hold onto the heal while doing this, otherwise the head could pop off and fall to the floor and could get damaged!

Now that the S shaped hook is removed, the head can be freely seperated from the body. You can also see here how wedging something into the elastic stops it from being lost inside the torso.

Of course, once you’ve taken the head off, sooner or later it’s going to have to go back on. So how do we do that? Here’s how.

Step 1:

You need to hold the head above the body. Now you will need something to put through the elastic to help you pull it back through the hole in the head. I used a special metal restringing too fr this, however you can also do this with some ribbon, and old shoelace, a bent wire coathanger or a giant paper clip to name a few.

Whatever you use, drop it down through the hole at the bottom of the head, then loop it through the elastic. Once you have your ribbon/lace/wire through the elastic, remove the object used previously to hold the elastic in place (In my case, this would mean removing that blue pencil)

Step 2:

Now, give an almighty tug on your ribbon/lace/wire until you can see the loop in the elastic on the inside of the head. You may need to hold the torso between your thighs, or ask a friend for help again to do this. Elastic can be tough.

Step 3:

Take the s shaped hook, and once again, loop it back through the elastic as it was before you removed the head.

Step 4:

Now remove your ribbon/lace/wire from within the elastic and the head and s hook should now look exactly like it did before you started.