Why is it bad to touch a doll's face?

Oh, is it? *touch touch*
Hrm. No, actually I also don't do it for the most part. Faces get all oily then and stuff starts to stick to them more. I see it on the far edge of their faces, where I only softly touch them to turn their heads. Looks ugly after a while.

 

I'll just add, its easy to move your doll's head without touching the face by gripping the sides of the head. That way you're only touching the wig and the face-up is safe

 

I always found this a bit silly tbh. I know it's kinda common sense, but never bother with it myself. My hands are generally clean and I never damaged a face up that way before. I think if we worried so much about everything, eventually we'd only touch dolls in gloves and store them in boxes.

 

I try to avoid touching doll's face because I don't want to dirty and damage face up with oily hands. I know I always wash and clean my hands before touching but it's natural that the oil from skin will come out every minute. So I won't be happy if someone just touch them on face.

 

I guess, expensive face-ups are the main reason. People are afraid to smash it. I don't usually follow this 'no-no' rule, may be because I do faceups by myself.

 

Well, if it was my painting, yes I would. Touch is one of my senses, I percive the world with it, as much as I do with my eyes and my nose and my ears, etc. To move a doll, to pose it, to apreciate the scupl, to cuddle it, etc. The list of why I would want to touch a dolls face is long.

So to answer the OP question, all of the damaging reasonse above.
If you do your own face up, then don't worry to much, you can allways redo it.
Treat things with respect and care and you should be safe.

My credo: do with your own things whatever you wish, respect others property and wishes/belives/etc.

And for all the dolly people who don't do face ups and are worried about their dolls painting jobs: Why don't you get a can of sealant, and spray a coat or two on your doll face, every 3-6 months/1 year (?). If you are never going to change the face up, why worry about the three tons of sealant you wont need to take of.
(I do not know the effect this theory has on dolls, I touch mine, I redo their face up every year or three, so I have no experiance with reactions of different sealants over each other, and of sealant withstanding time without yellowing, discoloring, etc. This suggestion is born out of my experiance and my own desire to touch my own dolls -If you are wearing of the sealant, renew it. Do it all at once and not little parts at a time. (If you try this theory, please inform yourselve first about how to do it, and what surplies you need.))

 

^OK, well, of course you are allowed to do with your own things what you wish. But I know I would freak out if someone went around in my house touching my dolls' faces and my paintings. Or lick them as taste is a sense too. (sorry, not meaning to offend or anything but I thought it would be funny to experience your doll with all of your senses.) I'm a strongly visual person, so looking at my doll's face is enough for me. And some of my dolls have pretty and expensive default or limited face-ups that I don't want to smear no matter what. To each their own I guess.
I guess for the people who have problems with their sight touching would be very important, though.

I don't think the problem would be solved with spraying the doll with multiple layers of sealant after touching it... That way the dirt and grease would only be left in between the layers and I know from experience that sealant doesn't even attach that well on dirty and greasy places.
Same with pantings. Dirt attaches very easily on greasy places and it would be a pain to get it off from a painting without ruining it.

 

You know, this is legit how I feel about some of my dolls with limited faceups. I'm horrified of touching their faces or anything even a piece of cloth touching their faces.

But, when it comes to my dolls I did the faceup on, for some reason, it feels more comfortable to just touch it with my hands. It goes back to what other people have said, "I did the faceup once, I can always re-do it"

 

There are definitely some people who are more than a little melodramatic about the idea of their doll's face being touched. I've read some accounts of people freaking out and doing a thorough inspection of their dolls while cussing out a person who happened to brush against the doll's face one time, for instance, as though--like you said--the whole doll was about to crumble away to nothing.

Yes, it's respectful to not touch the faceup on someone else's doll. But I've touched my own dolls' faceups plenty of times, and they haven't suffered damage from it. I'm not as intensive in handling them as some people may be, however, and I always wash my hands thoroughly first, but a single touch isn't going to destroy everything, it's going to be a cumulative effect.

 

Does anyone know anybody who is legit afraid to touch their doll, only wearing gloves and things? I've seen that posted once somewhere, when I was first looking at dolls. "Only handle your doll with cotton gloves or else the oils on your hands will eat through the sealant and resin" I pretty much went "lol ok" and shrugged it off.

I'd feel a bit bad for people who really don't wanna touch their dolls at all. I mean what's the point, if you refuse to touch them? I can understand being afraid to get them dirty, but touching them at all seems a bit overboard.

 

I found out the hard way how fragile a face-up can be. I knew not to touch the face, but one time when I went to brush some dust off of one of the eyes my finger came into contact with the paint and it now its slightly lifted away underneath. It's otherwise fine though because I always just move her head by the top and under the chin by the neck where there's no sealant.

 

Oh, no offence taken ^_^, like you said, to each their own.

About the coats of sealant, I was presupponing, that people would clean their dolls before spraying. Take a lightly humid, soft cloth to their face, get the greas/dirt/etc of, spray afret it dried. Water has been proven to not damage sealed face ups, and if used in smal, carfull amounts, it's highly probable to not have any repercustions.

I know how frustrading it is to have a factory face up rub of in the most idiotic places. That is why I started with face ups in the first place, my first boys paint lasted 4 months because I was overly touchy and the face up was not really sealed that well (I'm still overly touchy and his face ups last far far longer now)




In the end, generally speaking, it comes down to the old rule: Do as you want with your own, live with the consequences. Respect others property and be a lot more carful with it.
And try not to jugde, the value of something, here dolls, changes fom one persons view to anothers.

 

I accidentally scratched my doll Lemon's forehead, so I would be aware that things like that can happen.

 

The skin has natural oils that I think could mess with a dolls face up. I know of a friend that had a switch doll,and she accidentally wiped off half of his eyebrow (his face up wasn't sealed properly but still)

 

Understandable that especially people who have to send their dolls off for expensive faceups are careful with handling them!
I'm gonna play the hell outta my dolls though, I'm sure I'll ruin a faceup or two but I plan on doing them myself anyway so I prefer having to renew it over not being able to touch my dolls freely!

Other people touching it though uh... I dunno. I have a bit of an issue with "others touching my stuff" and I know my family is so rough and careless!
I wouldn't freak out about it but I'd probably keep close watch over what others do with my dolls.

 

You will have King Tut's Curse thrown upon you.


...All jokes a side it's because it could rub it off by accident, though I've touched mine by accident, knock on wood they're all good.

 

My thoughts are you can do what you want with your dolls. I try not to touch mine much just because I don't want the oils getting on my dollies face-ups, but if it doesn't bother you, that's totally cool too.

Just don't touch other people's doll's faces without at least asking first, even if you think people that don't are silly. I went to a meet where someone picked up one of my dolls by grabbing it by the face. It was a doll with a really nice, custom face-up and it freaked me out bad. I'm not the quick to anger type and I don't think I even raised my voice to the girl, but it really upset me. I don't really know why that would even be the way someone would think to pick up a doll.