Doll-safe weather?

Well, I live in Korea and I think the weather is relatively similar to Japan, and I do a lot of shooting outdoors. I've shot for about 5 hours in 30+ degree environments, but I've never felt that it had a catastrophic effect on my dolls, although I'm probably a bit desensitized to it. In my case, the main thing I worry about is makeup, and I've never had any problems with my makeup from shooting (in 7 years). However, issues such as cracking makeup coatings are said to be affected by humidity, and it seems to be fairly unclear how and when this happens, so if you want to be careful with your dolls, I guess it's worth being careful. Oh, and I've had the nagging problem of my head magnets falling off after repeated outdoor shoots when it's really cold...

 

Tangentially related: I need to ship a head to northern Europe for a repair, and because we've got a similar situation in Italy, I'm putting that off until September. I don't want the head to potentially sit in the sun in 40°¢ temperatures. Does anyone have experience with shipping dolls around in hot climate like this? Did you suffer any damage?

 

@Honooko you said yellowing isn't your concern, but some other kind of heat-related damage is. about 6 years ago now, i put a whole doll body out in the sun on purpose, in temperatures and humidity just like what you're describing, for hours at a time. i was doing it specifically because i wanted the resin to become more yellow to match a head. i can tell you that years later, that doll is in perfect condition. the yellowing stopped as soon as i stopped putting her out in the yard in direct early August sun, and since then her color has remained stable and so has everything else about the resin. nothing has warped, softened, become brittle, or any other kind of damage to the resin. based on that experiment, i feel very confident in saying that no heat exposure your dolls will get during an outdoor summer photoshoot will hurt them in any way. and it took many hours of direct full exposure to change the color of my doll's resin, so you're correct in thinking taking your doll out for pictures will not be enough to yellow it. i'd say you're good to go, enjoy your summer photoshoots!

@lutke my birthday falls in the hottest part of summer where i live, and over the years a very large number of my doll purchases have been purchases i made on the secondhand market as birthday presents to myself! so more of my dolls than not have been shipped in the end of July/beginning of August, and i've never had a doll arrive damaged because of it. this includes dolls with faceups-- face paint/sealant has never arrived damaged either. my daughter used to do faceup commissions years ago, and she never had any issues with summer shipping either-- nobody's heads ever arrived damaged to her and they were never damaged by her sending them back with completed faceups in hot weather. again based on my experience, i think you're safe to get your repair done.

 

I have a few experiences

There was a white skin Soulkid that I got second hand on here recently. The seller said there was some yellowing already (the doll is about 7 years old). While she was in transit from Canada, it was insanely hot much of those two weeks that it took to get here. I don’t know how hot it was in Alberta or in the western part of the USA (she was processed through customs in California), but the north eastern part was brutal, 100F (over 36-37C) and extremely humid. I think for the majority of the two weeks it took her to get here, she was sitting in shipping facilities awaiting the next destination rather than being in the back of a hot vehicle.

I was very nervous about potential damage because of the heat. As far as I can tell though, there’s been no yellowing damage from the transit. The doll was whiter in person than I had expected (though I don’t have anything to compare).

Many years ago I had also ordered a doll from Luts and she had shipped during another brutally hot July. No damage to the doll or head — both are the least yellowed of all of my dolls.

I don’t want to say that there is zero damage that happens with hot temperatures during transit, but if there is, it seems to be minimal. UV rays seem to be far worse for resin than above average heat. That said, I never leave my dolls in places like hot cars or storage facilities.

Lastly, at the old place where I used to live, it was in a high rise facing the west that would absolutely bake every day as the sun set. No AC for 3/4 of the year, and many months it would get stifling in there, even in winter. Here I do have a comparison — my (old) Volks dolls are all the exact rate of yellowing as other (old) Volks dolls I’ve seen in person, some of which were kept in cool places and in boxes by their owners.

 

@thedarkeststar13 @Leenah Thanks a lot for the information! This helps me a lot. I want to get this sorted out as soon as possible so I'm more confident about sending her off in August instead.

 

I don't have any information regarding dolls and high humidity and heat. I do want to point out that it's recommended to apply sunscreen at least 20 minutes before going outside, and that might be why you got a sunburn even with sunscreen. At least that's the information I had been given for my son who tends to take after his dad and burns easily in the sun.

 

If your main concern is the UV, then the damage most likely to be related to UV exposure would be yellowing. However, most dolls now are made with UV inhibitors in the resin mixes, so the colors are more stable and the yellowing or fading will be more gradual. Resin by its nature will oxidize or yellow over time, and pigments used for the colors also break down over time and at differing rates. Taking your doll outside for some photoshoots every now and then shouldn't be enough to cause any significant or rapid change to the coloring, though she may yellow more quickly than if you just kept her in a dark room and never took her outside. Even then, it's something that would happen gradually over years.
By the time the doll gets to you, the resin should be fully cured, and if it wasn't, you'd know pretty much immediately on opening the box. UV rays won't impact that.
MSC is usually affected by high humidity when it's being applied. It can cause it to not adhere or cure properly if it's sprayed and left in a high humidity kind of environment. That usually shows up either in crazing, where it gets micro cracks, or chipping more easily. Crazing you might see after a sharp change in temperature (think pouring a hot drink into a cold pitcher or glass). chipping can be a little trickier to tell if it's because it was sealed in high humidity or from rough handling, but from my own experience, dolls sprayed in high humidity the sealant chipped even with more careful handling and when i wasn't carrying them around, but I also sprayed them in the middle of summer when i knew it was more humid, so I knew it was a risk. It's mostly on a couple finger tips and not the whole body that I blushed. Depending on which MSC was used for sealant, it may also yellow more quickly with sun exposure, but I think most artists use the UV cut, which helps prevent or slow that process down, just like the inhibitors used in the resin mixes now do.
I wouldn't take your doll from the direct heat and humidity of being outside right into a super cold environment, or leave her sitting in a hot car all day, but taking her out with you sometimes should be fine.

 

The only instances of MSC cracking I've heard about have all been because a layer hadn't properly dried before the next one or because of humidity while the faceup was in process. UV exposure might yellow the sealant but that will happen over time anyway as it's essentially a layer of plastic and that fast with modern supplies it's also not. A sealed and properly dried faceup is pretty sturdy!

It's good to be cautious but unless you're leaving your doll outside in the sun for days, some outdoor photoshoots will be very unlikely do have any effect. I assume your doll will be covered while travelling to the photo locations as well so that leaves even less possibility of anything happening. I would monitor the UV level for your own skin's sake, though - sometimes the levels are so high we need more sunscreen and covering up than we think we do.

In any case, if you have some great summer photo opportunities, don't let them pass! Unless it's durational time-lapse photography in the baking sun your doll will be fine and you'll have some lovely images, too

 

I'm from Australia, where the UV index is much higher on average than most of the world (we're right below the hole in the ozone layer), and I noticed when travelling to Europe and Japan that the sun outside felt much less of a burning heat.

I take my dolls outside for photoshoots, often for 2+ hours in and out of a bag as I walk around to different locations, and haven't noticed any yellowing or faceup damage because of it.

I moved house early this year across Australia during summer with my dolls packed in the boot of my car, travelling through 40°C weather without constant climate control (the dolls stayed in the car for the week-long journey) and there was no yellowing or faceup damage.

I have also lived in houses with no climate control (why, landlords?!) during 30°C+ summers and not noticed any damage to my dolls – I keep them in the darkest, coolest places possible.

I agree with other people above – doing faceups in high humidity is more of a risk of cracking/damage, and by nature resin will oxidise over time.
The only yellowing issues I have with dolls are second-hand ones where I have no idea how the original and/or other previous owners stored and handled them – I have 2 secondhand 2019 Volks dolls in PS White, and one is much yellower than the other.

Hopefully you can get some nice summer photos of your girl!

 

I agree wih cobaltconduct. Time goes by, and the dolls will age anyway, so if you have an opportunity for nice photos it's not worth it to let it pass by over these concerns. Having photos and good memories is always worth it.

 

One thing to consider about the doll being in high heat is the type of eye putty you use. It can melt, and I've seen it happen. It's been over a decade and it was that really gooey green stuff, though I'm not sure exactly what it was, it came with the doll. The white poster tack doesn't seem to have that issue. It didn't damage the doll itself, but it did drip down the neck into the stringing.

 

idk if this is the exact same thing but I had a humidifier in my room when I was sick and I worried how much it would affect my dolls.

 

@isamomo I know that a humidifier can shorten the lifespan of electronics, so I assume that anything sensitive to humidity will be affected. But I've asked something similar and the takeway was that doll clothes will suffer far more than the dolls from high humidity. It's very humid where I live so I just throw a couple silica packets where I store my dolls and doll stuff.

 

Good to know, I had it going for a week so I was afraid it might mess something up. Luckily it's not an ongoing thing anymore! The only thing i've had constantly running over the summer is my window unit ac but no humidifier besides when I was sick.

 

And on the topic about eyes - the eyes might yellow too, depending on the material. Resin eyes yellows far faster/easier than resin dolls (unless the eye-artist uses good materials).