ive come to a conclusion after yet another disasterous attempt at rooting my second doll. it seems ive got two choices.the first is use my old rooting needle and tool which is very easy and very comfortable to use. its also very very strong. problem is you can only root several hairs at a time and you can see holes where the needl went in.
so i tried the rooting needle thats got no handle ,just used it as it is. sure better for micro rooting,but the needles are so long i broke all five in one evening after only rooting about ten hairs.
why do they make the needles so long? its no wonder that they snap. ive ruined my head. i dont think im ever going to get the hang of it.........sue
I"m sorry you are having such a hard time. I broke about 30 needles on each of my first two heads. It can be incredibly frustrating. If your vinyl is hard you can use a rice sock (put about 1/2 cup of rice in a white sock and close the end (I just use a rubber band but don't actually close it until after I've heated the sock). Put a bowl or mug of water in the microwave and your sock rice next to it on the turntable (if your microwave has one). Heat for about 1-2 minutes. Take out the sock and close it with something like a rubber band (the rice will be very hot) and put it inside the head you are working on. This will soften the vinyl and make it much easier to root.
I personally bought the mushroom vice and 3 barbed crown rooting needles from hunnybuns nursery (a Secrist distributor). The 3 barbed are much stronger and they are more likely to bend then break (which is good because I find the breaking a bit frightning as I don't want a piece of needle flying at my eye!) They also don't leave holes in your head! You'll also find that the heated head is less likely to show holes, too.
As for your doll -- if the head is ruined you have two choices that don't include tossing it -- put a wig on it instead of rooting or put on a cute little hat and chalk it up to learning! BTW my first two rooting jobs wear hats all the time!
I have been told by rooting experts that "micro-rooting" and "ultra micro-rooting" is all about putting 1 hair or only 2 hairs in each hole and being sure the hole is small. But since these needles are said to be "filed" or shaped/cut a certain way, that they are supposed to work better. I also don't see how they will work any better than say a 43 guage. The guage size of the needle is the thickness of the needle. The number of barbs has to do with how many hairs go into one hole at one time. Also if you only want 1 hair in each hole, just tweeze the others out. It's time consuming but worth it (IMHO).