To Match or Not to Match?

All my dolls are hybrids and none of them match perfectly (some... are pretty bad matches actually). It's not teeeeerrribly important to me but I do appreciate the nice bonus when it does, usually when a head is lighter it's easy to blush to match anyway. With some dolls, try as I might, the head and body belong together too well to change them and I just suck up the labour of occasional photoshop colour correction because I know I wouldn't be happy with any other combo. With some I don't even do that, they're just resin ragdolls

I normally buy second hand so it's even harder to maintain a match than buying parts new but I'd always rather go through the trouble of finding a body I like more than accepting a body that matches better. I handle and pose them a lot so I want to be able to enjoy that experience to my best liking, plus they mostly have clothes on anyway so it's not so obvious.

For collectors that buy new, I think hybriding has become a lot easier now that some companies offer resin matching and small artists tend to offer "common" colours that are easy to match with others that make their products in the same tones (Mia Pink/White, Luts White, Soom Tawny etc) - especially if the artists only sculpt and cast heads and need to make sure there are bodies that can go with them. So in many cases, there isn't even a need to settle

 

My collection has been mostly hybrids in recent years and I also hit the mismatch wall (one doll head went through 5 bodies in 2 years, and I was so distraught I just couldn't keep it).

Now I just plan on paying the upcharge for having a company match the resin headcap to a body (this is crazy expensive, but it does work), or more commonly I just won't buy some things even if I love them if they won't come in "standard" colors (usually Volks, Mia, Soom shades at this point).

As has been noted in other hybriding threads though, even if you match something to now over time it will likely yellow differently and eventually mismatch. The most reliable thing you can do is have old heads and old bodies and match them after they have mostly done the yellowing they are destined for. I have had some luck with older dolls and matching like this.

But even if you have a doll that was made at a single time by a single company I have seen bodies and heads yellow at different speeds anyway. So honestly, it's just a big slow roulette spin. I try to enjoy whatever I have now and worry about tomorrow when it occurs.

 

Yeah I’ve also gotten to the point where I prefer not to hybrid if I can avoid it. I have a fair amount of hybrids (at least 7?) in my collection and my usual default is to airbrush spray the head to match the body. That tends to work pretty consistently for me for color matching but it’s such a hassle to even find a body that *might* work for a head. If I can, I much rather just buy a full doll that I know will work together.

 

I've become a little more relaxed about it now. At first I struggled if something wasn't a perfect match. But then someone on this board (agh, don't remember who!) pointed out that skin on people in real life are different colours depending on body area so that helped me get over being perfectionist about it.

Also I've found that some of the full dolls I have/had had the head and body be slightly different colours or yellow differently so have had to accept that as part of the BJD doll world! In fact i've had a couple of heads/bodies pink fade or yellow over a couple of years to the point they ended up matching.

But it depends on how big the mismatch is or how noticeable it is. If it is too noticeable then it will bug the heck out of me as i'll hyperfocus on it so that's no good. So yeah, i'm very picky about it but can deal with it if the head and body have a small colour difference!

 

I do think some companies are known for having inconsistent resin batches -- Soom in particular is notorious for not matching their own resins over the years. It's gotten to the point that some Chinese companies who do resin matching now specify which year of, say, Soom Tawny they're using as reference, and there's a quip going around that "the company that doesn't match Soom skintones is Soom itself." I think Dollzone had this issue too.
In other cases, the company might have changed resin formulations over the years. I'm aware that Dollstown/Dollshe and Switch both did this, and while their resins are consistent, their older dolls before a certain date don't necessarily match their current ones.

So if you're buying from a company that's known for having inconsistent resin, or had a resin colour change at some point in their history, you have to account for this.

I hybrid a decent amount, and I do care about matching. Undertone to undertone is most critical to me. Normal/white skintones generally fall into pink undertone or yellow undertone, tans tend to be more red or more yellow. When they age, they should stabilize to that base colour. If you have a hybrid with the same undertone, head and body should end up similar in colour over time, even if the colours are a bit different when they're new. At least, this has been my experience with having old dolls and hybrids: they might yellow at different rates, but should maintain the same undertone colour throughout. So I ask about undertone (yellowy or pinky? greyish or more saturated?) when I do my research.

I also agree with the statement that wherever possible, you should match age to age -- so if you're buying an old doll, buy it an old body too, since both would've stabilized to their base colours. Otherwise you'll have to wait for the new part to "catch up in age" to the old part.

If I'm satisfied with the undertone match, I'm more relaxed about the resin colours being a bit off, especially if the doll is new. I plan to keep my dolls for the long term, so I figure they'll age to a match anyway. As for prioritizing a body I like vs a perfect resin match ... so far I've been quite successful at hybriding, so I haven't had to make a tough choice between both qualities... yet... ^^;;;

 

I was more lenient with that in the beginning. As long as it somewhat matched, I was more or less okay with it. Somewhat being everything from "slightly off" to "I can hide it somehow with wigs, clothes, face-up?".
The longer I've been in the hobby though, the smaller my tolerance has gotten. Maybe because most of my dolls are some shade of brown, and I like translucent resin too, but that makes hybrids already 150% harder than white skin for example. Maybe it's also because I am tired of searching for a proper fit, the stress of maybe buying a body that once was a perfect match and then it turns out they changed the resin color for this batch, the two parts possibly aging differently and starting out matching well and then suddenly not anymore at all.
I just wanna buy doll, unbox doll, be happy

So at this point if I really like a head, and the body it comes with is a) fitting in height and b) somewhat fitting in overall width for the character intended....I get it.
99% of the bodies are ripped anyway, so I give up trying to find ones that are truly matching my characters that are always dressed to boot.

 

I have at this point 3 hybrid dolls and I just deal with the resin difference. It's like when people put on make up - it's usually a lot lighter or darker than the rest of their body.

I still have one floating head because he is quite yellowed and I have yet to acquire an older body for him.

 

I have a lot of hybrid dolls, and I can usually match pretty closely. If there is a very slight difference, I will tolerate it. I'm pretty good at finding decent matches, though. I do a lot of research before I do anything though, so that's probably why.

 

My oldest doll was (and is) a hybrid from the beginning. I was at first a little concerned about matching but it's amazing what can be done by a good face-up artist. With an airbrush, you can even do more than a subtle tone change, though of course it will be more fragile than the usual face-up. As a result, I don't mind hybrids at all. I prefer them so in most cases cause they allow me to shell the characters better so I'll be happier in the long run.

 

Not very important at all because if you look at most people, their faces are rarely, if ever, the exact same shade as their bodies. so a bit of a mismatch in my dolls is fine with me.

EDITED TO ADD:
Even if a hybrid a perfect match to start with, the chances are high that the body and head (or whatever other parts, will yellow at differnt rates and in different ways I have a bunch of hybrids who started out with relly good colur matches but, fifteen-or-so years down the line the heads are a very different colour from the body. In the most extreme case, the head greened and the body yellowed, and when I gave the pieces a polident bath to reduce the yellowing, the body came out a pinkish fleshtone (not the original colour but nice neough and not YELLOW) and the head came out the colour of old putty. Attempts to dye the head to a closer match to the body, all failed so in the end i dyed both a tanned skintone to get them to work together.

Teddy

 

I prefer the resin to match or I feel I have to edit photos. It is funny as real peoples heads do not always match their body in skin tone.

 

I have a lot of hybrids, and the matches are very close. The thing that drives me crazy is when a head comes back from the face up artist dramatically darker than the body. I don’t see how that’s acceptable.

 

As long as it's in the same general colour and shade I'm fine. I rarely think about it unless I have reson to really look at it (like when cleaning off an old face up) so it doesn't bother me. I have several hybrids but only one has different enough colours to show up on photos.
She was a very near perfect match when she was new, but her head has barely changed at all, if anything she has yellowed slightly and is actually a little bit darker compared to new. Her body on the other hand has faded quite a bit and is much lighter compared to new. But, the body is right for her, so apart from some light blushing to lessen the contrast I don't do anything to fix it.

I also have a Dollmore Narsha, who is not a hybrid, but her most exposed parts have faded so much that her parts no longer match each other. So buying a full doll is still not a guarantee that it will remain completely even.
It's not a big deal to me. As others have noted, it's not like humas are all one solid colour all over either.

 

Up until last year I mostly bought full dolls but then decided to jump headfirst into some artist sculpted 75cm and it’s kind of changed my perspective. Was all for the heads+bodies having to match, but after all this time and having some fantasy Soom colors, not even full dolls that come together have parts that age all the same.

So I decided to not let a small color match get in the way of my enjoyment. Especially when the sculpting of the faces and bodies are so nice! Usually they’re all dressed up anyway so a small amount of difference hasn’t been noticeable.

Even with heads and bodies that are supposed to be collaborated between artists and doll companies, there can be a small difference between them with what I’ve seen so with some face ups and whatnot it all evens out. Like one of my guys’ head (light tan) and body (light light tan) are from the same artist but different batches and with the face I don’t feel like I see much of a difference unless I search for it.

 

Probably 75% of my dolls are hybrids. I actually like dyeing, so I don’t mind having to dye matches, but I’ve found that as long as the proportions are good, I just don’t care about the match that much. I can’t stand bad proportions, even on dolls that come that way, like I think Dollshe’s lady heads need a substantially smaller neck to look right, and look a little pinheaded on both 26f bodies. I have a resinsoul right now who’s getting modded for being bobble-headed (needs slightly bigger shoulders). Right now one of my most important characters is on a body that doesn’t quite match her, so I just didn’t take her out for photos in this incarnation, I’m waiting until I get her next shell in, which should all match, given that she’s a full doll. If her head doesn’t work for me though, it’s back to blushing to match for me.

 

I mean, you are comparing a completely bare piece of resin (not even sealed) to a fully blushed, sealed and painted face. Of course there will be a difference. Especially when you chose an artist that contours the jawline, or aims for a realistic look (which requires a lot of blushing). If you don't want that, you need to pick an artist that is more minimal in their approach. Or explicitly tell them that it's important that the lower facial areas are kept somewhat bare.

There's a reason why with real life makeup you are supposed to blend the neck as well Else you get exactly the same look. So if you want 100% nice blending, blush the throat and collarbone as well. That's usually enough for the illusion.

 

I've been terrified of hybriding, with the mindset that they must match but recently I had a floating head that insisted that he wanted a much loved, much older body that had yellowed quite dramatically (and the head was only a couple years old. And already has a faceup I love, so blushing/airbrushing to match the body isn't an option).

I've tried the denture tablets to lighten the body, but they haven't done anything. I don't want to try anything else and damage the body (which is essentially irreplaceable). And you know what? I'm okay with it. It's not Ideal, but it's not going to effect my enjoyment of him all put together. I'd much rather have him on this not quite perfect body (but perfect for him) than get him something that might match right now but isn't right in all the other ways. So I guess it doesn't matter to me as much as I thought it would xD