Do you wear gloves when handling your dolls?

Cotton gloves tend to absorb oils from your skin while letting your skin breathe so you can hold and play with your dolls longer without risking smudging any oils into the doll resin apparently. Latex or rubber gloves don’t let your skin breathe and just smudge around any oils you get on your doll, meaning you have to clean them more often due to dirt and possible staining. I just play with my girl normally since she’s not too expensive and I use her for a lot of clothing testing(getting to making clothes like a pro lately) for one in the higher end of costs I’d wear gloves though...

Most faceup artists also wear gloves while working on the doll faces to help keep skin oils from getting a faceup messed up, there’s nothing more annoying than seeing a fingerprint stuck under a layer or five of MSC...:/ the gloves are also useful for deliberate smudging of stuff like blush and shadow....

These are my opinion though, I’m not sure about any other reasons. :3

 

I personally don't wear gloves to handle my doll cuz I like to play with him, I only use one when I'm doing faceups so I don't get pastel everywhere. But people like to wear them so they don't get oil/dirt from their skin on their doll but it's just personal preference really!

 

I don't wear gloves, I like to feel their skin. I just wash my hands before I touch them.

 

I think it's mainly doll customizers who wear them I don't do it myself, as I don't touch the face which is the most fragile part, and I make sure my hands are clean. But it's obviously great to be that cautious !

 

Is fine to use both two gloves. Face up artist and doll artists use those two because it pretend your hand from harming. The products you uses for bjd are often super harmful, so cotton gloves helps alot

 

I know I'm supposed to wear gloves while playing with my dolls but I cannot stand wearing them. Even when I do a face up I tend to not wear them I just try to keep my hands pretty clean. I just find them pretty uncomfortable.

 

I don't wear gloves when handling my dolls but I always wash my hands before touching them. But my doll is also always wearing her bodysuit to protect her from staining

 

I know from a brief search that it is not normal practice here on the forum at least, and some only use it when putting wigs on their dolls for example.

I, personally, have permanent all-year round exfoliative keratolysis (i constantly have superficial blisters on my hands that I remove daily) and infrequent flare ups of psoriasis. So I've chosen to use gloves because frequent hand washing aggravates both conditions

I've opted for thin cotton gloves in a size that's easy to get on and off so it won't be too tedious getting myself into the habit.

But does anyone else use gloves on a regular basis, or simply always?

 

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I don't use gloves to handle my dolls personally, I just make sure my hands are clean of any dirt/sweat/oil/etc before I handle them But I can completely understand you wanting to wear them to prevent aggravating your conditions.

The only time I wear cotton gloves to do anything is when I'm dusting things (BJDs included!) because I have a pretty bad dust/dust mite allergy so I need to avoid getting it on my bare skin (and inhaling it, so I wear a respirator as well). So I guess you could say I do wear them to handle my dolls, but only when I clean them.

 

I don't use them because I don't like "not feeling" my dolls...I don't know if that makes sense xD I like to work with my hands a lot, so I like to actually touch and feel them. I constantly wash my hands anyway. The only time I put gloves is to do faceups AND with the heat of summer and I can't stop sweating.
But if you have a condition in your hands is understandable.

 

No, but I always try to wash my hands first when possible to avoid excessive oil contact. Anything beyond seems too impersonal!

 

Do you ever take them outside with you? What do you do throughout the day in that case? Wipes? I'd love to take my soon to be 2 boys to a meetup, but I'll be roping my friend with perfectly normal hands into carrying one of them around for me, but how quickly do they grime up? I'm not a neat freak by any means but natural oils leaving residue behind and me being a newbie has me a tiny bit anxious anyway.

It does! A lot actually! My first instinct was to pet my floating head when I unboxed it, so I'm assuming we react to them like we do babies, craving physical contact.

I definitely get why you would in the summer! Especially if it's very hot. I'm glad the cotton gloves I use are very breathable so they'll be bearable when it gets hot (I hope)

Yeah that seems to be the general consensus! I better not give in to the temptation of taking my gloves off once cause I'll probably not want to put them back on

That is very true. You do feel like being a bit more careful when you're wearing gloves . I also use gloves at work and they do lower your sense of grip on things, so I am wayyyy more careful filling up goods than my coworkers! If you want to get gloves, I suggest thin cotton gloves you can most likely get at any beauty supply or drugstores depending on where you are in the world.

 

The only time I take them outside is just in my backyard. I don't live anywhere near where people host meetups so I don't have any experience taking them out all day unfortunately I took one of my tinies to a miniature world place for photos once but since he was so tiny I just carried him in my hand. As far as keeping them clean during the outing, I'm slightly obsessed with keeping my hands clean so I carry/use antiseptic hands wipes with me but I wouldn't want to handle a doll immediately after using one, I'd wait for my hands to dry first.

I don't handle my dolls for extended periods of time (only long enough for a photoshoot, change their clothes/wigs/etc) but I wouldn't think they'd get dirty that quickly, and if you're worried just give the areas the resin has been handled a wipe over with a magic eraser when you get home to get any residue that may be left on them off and of course try to avoid touching their faces so the face up doesn't get damaged. I have done the latter and one of mine does have blushing slightly wearing off on his cheeks, it doesn't bother me personally as he's quite old but it's certainly something I'm more cautious of now that I've been in the hobby longer.

 

I didn't use to but now, almost always. Sometimes I take one off to do the eyes or wig while holding the head steady with the gloved hand and forget to put the other one back on before moving them, but then I try to put it back on again. I used to just wash my hands before doing it but I always have this feeling like my hands are sweaty or just generally greasy and it freaks me out, so I try to always wear them now. I don't really like to handle my dolls without them. The only times I do it on purpose is if they are already dressed and I won't be touching their resin.

I just have this panic at the moment I'll ruin them with excessive skin oils or something so yeah, I try not to touch them at all without my white cotton gloves on. Plus, I wash my hands excessively as it is, I don't wanna make my eczema and very dry skin worse by washing them more than I already do. I'm trying to work on it, but it's hard so yeah gloves ftw over here!

 

I guess wipes really are the way to go and they are wearing clothes after all so I guess just asking her to wipe her hands if she needs to rearrange his arms or head won't be too much.

Yeah I really need to finish researching what magic erasers to get, they're not easily found here so I have to order them in. And yes, people always caution about faceups, which I'm thankful for because I constantly think about it now and my first floating head is still bare atm

Oh I'm sorry you feel like that that must be frustrating to deal with. But then it's good the gloves help you interact with them without panicking or anything. Especially if you already wash hands a lot, I used to do that when I handled money and it's like no amount of hand cream can soothe that dryness

Honestly, if it calms you down and keeps your hands safe then team white gloves is the way to go! Keeping those babies pristine

 

I don't wear gloves but I always wash my hands. The people at Dolk made me wear gloves though when buying Akemi. I'm thinking about getting them after all... Although I also think that because nobody wears gloves here almost it can't hurt so much?

 

No, but I always thoroughly wash my hands before picking one up, I never touch faceups (move the doll’s head with a pinch of the temples over the wig, pick up a floating head by the head cap and neck hole area) and I try my damnest not to have to touch blushed areas. Body and finger blushing tend to rub at the joints regardless of contact with my fingertips, though, so I have accepted their lifespan is not as long and redo them every 3-5 years. White gloves for general play would cut into my enjoyment of my dolls, but I am especially conscious of my fingers without them.

Since I see them recommended so often, I just want to point out to anyone who may not know that a magic eraser is a microfine sandpaper. You shouldn’t be in the habit of using it on sealed surfaces unless you’re trying to remove an especially stubborn mark, but even then be aware that a few too many strokes WILL remove a faceup or blushing. I would definitely try a soft, clean damp cloth and perhaps a mild soap before reaching for a sanding sponge. The only sealed areas that might not stand up to water would be glossed areas such as lips or the PVA glue used to hold in eyelashes.

 

I only wear gloves when I'm giving my dolls faceups or I'm putting lashes on them. I'm pretty careful not to touch their faces unless it's absolutely necessary. I wash my hands at home and when I'm out with them, I have my purse which usually has both wet wipes and hand sanitizer. But that's what is comfortable to me.