Fashion Star Filly & My Little Pony How-To: Loose Ringlet Curls

Here is another 'before and after' that I was pleased with. I had a pretty nice looking Fashion Star Filly named Dara - who is this absolutely gorgeous emerald green color. Her mane looked fine and needed very little primping, but her tail looked like a matted mess. :(

With just a little bit of work, her tail is now in lovely silky loose ringlets!

Try it yourself! This is the method I use on Fashion Star Filly, My Little Pony and some doll hair:

What you will need:
- comb
- conditioner (an inexpensive or store brand will work just fine!)
- water
- markers or pens (pen for slender curls or marker for thicker curls)
- alligator hair clips

How to:
1. Wet down the hair with water - but do NOT get the tail wet all the way to the tail hole. Vintage My Little Ponies for example have metal washers that hold the tail in. If it gets wet it could rust and look quite unsightly. I don't know if Fashion Star Fillies have metal tail washers, but better safe than sorry.

2. Add a small dab of hair conditioner to the tail (or whatever hair you are working on) and work it in with your fingers.

3. Comb the hair gently and work out the tangles. If the hair is seriously frizzed and not just really tangled you will need to use a different method, because this won't tame really bad frizz. I will post a tutorial on how to do this later.

4. Rinse the conditioner out of the hair (again, don't get the tail hole wet). At this point you could just let the tail dry, but I like to style it and add curls.

5. Decide how many ringlet curls you want and how tight or loose you wan them. I decided on three loose ringlet curls. To do this I first split the tail into three sections.  Then I wrapped each section smoothly around a thick marker and clamped it down with alligator hair clips. If you want more slender ringlets use a slim barreled pen.

6. Now just let the horse (or pony, or doll) sit for 1-2 days (I usually leave it for 2 days to make sure it definitely dries and stays).

7. Remove the alligator clips and carefully slide the ringlet off of the marker or pen. Voila! Beautiful loose ringlet curls!

These ringlets won't stay in forever, but in my experience they last quite a while. I like this method because there is no risk of heat damage, it is fairly simple, and the curls look nice.

There are other methods that are more permanent but you have to use boiling water to permanently alter the shape of the hair (remember - it is plastic). I don't usually use the boiling method, but other collectors swear by it.