The Little Pink Brush on My Doll Shelf

The little pink brush sits on the edge of my doll shelf, right where the morning sun hits it. It is not the fanciest thing in the room. It costs less than a cup of coffee. But six months after I bought it, it is still the first tool I reach for when Lily's rooted hair needs attention. Every morning, after I settle Lily into the white wicker bassinet in the spare bedroom, I give her hair a few gentle passes before I do anything else. It is as much a part of my routine as my own morning cup of tea.

I am Marjorie Pruett. I am 66 years old, I taught home economics in Springfield, Missouri, for thirty years, and I did not plan on becoming a reborn doll collector. I started by sewing outfits for a friend's doll, then bought one of my own. Lily is a 20-inch newborn girl with a weighted cloth body and vinyl limbs, about five pounds, and I am careful with her painted vinyl and rooted hair. That is why a good brush matters more than people think.

I bought the Sophia's 18" Glittery Hot Pink Doll Hairbrush in the first week of March, from the same seller I buy most of Lily's things from. It arrived in a plain little package, and my first thought was that it looked almost too small to be useful. It is made for dolls, not people, and it is built for synthetic, wig-like hair. That is exactly what Lily has.

The handle is curved, which sounds like a small thing until you try to brush a wiggly 20-inch doll while she is lying in a white wicker bassinet. The curve fits your hand, and the nylon bristles are firm enough to work through a tangle without snagging the roots. The whole brush is 5.9 inches long, about 1.1 inches wide, and it weighs 1.6 ounces. I remember the first morning I used it. A few strands of rooted hair had wrapped around one of Lily's fingers while she lay on a folded blanket, and the brush worked the strand loose in less than a minute without pulling a single root. I keep it on the shelf beside the bassinet, away from the window, and it has held up through six months of daily use.

I have brushed Lily's hair almost every morning since March, and the Sophia's brush is the only one that has not pulled a single rooted hair loose.

Now, I will tell you what nobody tells you at a doll show: rooted hair gets messy. It does not matter how carefully you store the doll. The hair tangles, the part shifts, and the little wisps around the face look like they have been through a windstorm. One Tuesday in April, I lifted Lily out of the bassinet to show a friend, and the back of her hair was one solid snarl, the kind you cannot see until you turn the doll over. I tried a regular doll comb first. It worked, but it pulled. I tried a soft-bristle baby brush. It was too soft to do anything but smooth the top layer. The Sophia's brush is the one that actually works.

The bristles are nylon, and the handle is plastic, which sounds plain until you hold it. The curved handle makes it easier to grip and control, and the brush is made of durable materials that have survived being dropped on the floor, knocked off the shelf, and once accidentally left in the car on a hot afternoon. It still looks the same as the day it arrived.

I have also learned the right way to use it. If Lily's hair is knotted, I spray it with a little bit of water and work the snarl out gently, starting at the ends and moving upward. The Sophia's brush handles that better than anything else I have tried. The package says it is not good for dolls with yarn-like hair, and I believe that. It is made for synthetic, wig-like hair, which is what most reborns have.

I cannot promise it will fix every kind of doll hair, and I will not pretend I have tested it on every brand of reborn. I can tell you that it has been on my shelf since March, that I use it almost every day, and that I have not needed to buy another brush since. That is about the highest praise I can give any tool.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were sitting at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee, I would tell you this: you do not need a fancy brush collection. You need one good brush that fits your hand and does not pull the hair out of your doll's head. The Sophia's 18" Glittery Hot Pink Doll Hairbrush is that brush for me. It is not expensive, it is not complicated, and it does the job every single morning. I would also tell you to try it on the hair around the face first, where the rooting is the most delicate, and to keep the brush in the same spot every day, on the same edge of the same shelf, so you always know where it is.

I would also tell you to be gentle. Spray a little water on a knot, work it out slowly, and never yank. A reborn doll is a collectible art doll, and the rooted hair is part of what makes it beautiful. Take care of it, and it will take care of you.