Do you change the look of your dolls?

How often do you change your dolls up? Do you leave them made up for good?

 

When I got my first doll, she was like my house model - I made lots of different wigs and outfits for her and changed them often, redid her faceup a bunch of times etc. Eventually though, I settled into a style I liked on her so much that I no longer wanted to change her, and that's when I decided I couldn't be a one-doll person. Each of my dolls since then has gone through a development phase where I change their eyes, wig or outfit and sometimes add to the faceup from time to time until I find their perfect "look". Some have come together very quickly, some have taken years. I pretty much leave them alone once I'm happy with them, but about half my collection is still in development and have tons of work to be done, so I don't ever get bored!

 

I rarely change the wigs and eyes of my dolls. But when I get a pretty dress, I change it.^^

 

The character of my bjd’s stay the same with eyes and wigs....but the clothes and accessories often change!

 

I prefer static hair and eye colors. Once a doll's image has come together, I become fairly hesitant to constantly change it. I want them to look a certain way, so I feel like it is not necessary unless I am upgrading to a better color or quality.

 

I change my dolls looks via eye, wig, and clothing changes usually every other month. All of my dolls have 'stories' and their personalities locked in place, however I change them up because it is fun and keeps me from randomly buying new dolls too much. One of my dolls has two different heads and multiple character profiles depending on how he is dressed (wig and eyes included). . . he changes looks A LOT.

 

Except for my 1:3 dolls, I change clothes & wigs a lot. The 1:3 dolls stuff is inaccessible right now plus they all need restrung before I can really play with them. They're also just about perfect as they are & I hate to mess with that. Right now my Little Fees are getting the most play time.There are fewer of them so easier to keep up with everybody The slim minis get changed at least seasonally. A couple of them keep the same wig as those wigs are perfect for them. I have too many clothes & wigs to not change the dolls.

 

My most dramatic doll change started with this:


I got her at someone else's suggestion, and I wasn't bonding with her. Then I dreamed of a doll with a particular appearance. Since I didn't care for how this girl looked, I remade her into something closer to the dream doll:



I'm much happier with her now.

 

When I get a doll, they have a character and general look picked out. They may "cosplay", but in the end they have a "natural" eye and wig chosen. I might buy a new one I feel comes closer, but it will be in the same style. As for clothes, they have general styles, but those can get pretty broad and I do like the idea of dressing them out of character sometimes.

 

Typically, I have a random weirdo "play" doll who basically assumes whatever personalities/designs I want to experiment with at any given time. Though this has mainly been my trend in other hobbies, it's undoubtedly going to continue in bjds. It's fun, and it saves me the drama of pining after a doll because of a certain look. If I can replicate the look on the play doll, maybe that gets it out of my system. Or maybe it cements my decision to move forward with getting the new doll. At the very least, it spares the other dolls from my creative impulses.

When I have a doll that is set into a certain role, I don't feel that they should stay that way forever. Often, they'll stay dressed or arranged in the same thing for a long time just because I REALLY like whatever I did. But I never consider any doll's look to be permanent. I know myself too well.

 

I am so reassured by reading how different people have different relationships with their doll. It was good to know there are people having the same experience as me. My pukifee ante, named Pi just doesn’t ‘like’ wearing anything other than a loin cloth ! I had all sorts or plans for him as a little boy with cute clothes, but now I know he is actually a lot like Mogli in the jungle book. He is so at home going shoe less and dressed in his loin cloth and having adventures in the wildest part of my garden. I love his character to bits. That’s him as my avatar.

 

I swapped my dolls clothes, eyes and wigs all the time!

 

I personally don't change mine because they are more cutesy little art pieces that decorate my room rather than full fleshed out characters. I keep my impulse buying/indecisive mind happy that way! Otherwise I'd be constantly changing the character and just blah...

 

I personally never change my doll’s style. They stay the same and I’m happy with that. I like order and uniformity, so I guess that makes me a dictator lol. But the only time I really changed a doll is when I did a faceup, and a day later wiped it all off because it didn’t fit the character!

 

I have a nice roster of MSDs to rotate through when I want to change things up. Some of them have set looks and all I do is change their clothes and accessories, but three of them are meant to be more playful and changeable so I've been able to somewhat make them over without too much effort just by swapping eyes/wigs. It makes it more fun for me to have dolls that are meant to have a flexible look vs the ones shelling very definite characters.

 

I change my dolls looks all the time. They are all cosplayers or actors or whatever--with a basic character, but will play whatever roles I wish them to play.

Some of them are more stable in looks than others. Some rarely get changed. But that's mostly because I just haven't found another outfit or look for them.

 

Once I figure out a dolls style and I feel that it suits them I don't change it, and I get them more things to compliment that particular style. Sometimes it takes me a bit longer to figure out the right hair, eyes, clothes and even faceup for a particular doll.

I might have a vision of ash brown hair and and put a wig on the doll that looks how I wanted it to, but no matter what I do, it just does not suit the doll, if that makes sense. Then I stick a different wig maybe a blond one, and the doll seems to come to life with personality. Or I think I want the doll to look like a bit of a nature lover, but no matter what I try it's just not suiting the doll for me, then I put on a black shirt, and suddenly want to make some gothic/emo boy and the look of the entire doll pulls together, and I get a feel for the dolls personality.

Once I get them set though and it feels like a found how the doll should look, I keep the style. They have lots of clothes, but I pick things that suit their style when I change them.

 

One of the reasons I initially got into this hobby in the first place was to explore my love of fashion styles (once I’d finally reached an age where I’d tired of cosplay and reenactment, and just wanted to dress for simple comfort myself.) With my BJDs I could create a fantasy world where any style or era could happily coexist…thus becoming like a fashion laboratory for me. And what a wonderful ride it’s been! I’ve gotten to explore so many fascinating styles, from historic to fantasy to Harajuku street fashions, and everything in between! So to answer the original poster’s question: how did I solve the problem of a character not wanting to wear a new style? Well I simply created a new character who would, and bought a new doll (of course!)

 

Once I've decided on a character for them, they don't usually change at all their style (I change their clothing from season to season and that's all).
Still, as I write stories about them, things can happen that modify them slightly.
For example, I had my current MSD girl with long hair at the beginning. At a certain point in her story she went bald and now her hair doesn't grow well so she has an asymmetrical cut. When that happened to the character, it happened to the doll too.