Replacing and Making Manes

As with tails, there are two options for replacing a mane. One is to take original pony hair saved from a previous pony to fill the plugs. The other is to take craft hair to fill the plugs. The red hair on the left is from a real MLP (the Cherry Treats mentioned in the removing manes and tails section actually). If you look at the picture closely (sorry for the fuzziness) you can tell the individual loops of hair apart. The top of the photo has the loops and there are no (well, not many) loose hairs up there. Originally, the loops were inside the head and looped together in a manner similar to crochet so that they would hold each other in, with the very end secured with glue. In replacing the mane however, we don't have really neat machines to do this for us so we take alternate methods to replace the hair. What I have found works best in replacing manes using MLP hair is to take a loop of hair which used to constitute one plug of hair and tie it off at the bottom. This makes a tiny little loop at the bottom, a knot and then the two strands of hair coming out. In this manner you make the original MLP hair ready for restitching. If you are using craft hair, it does not need to be doubled. Simply tie a knot at one end and then cut off the other at a length slightly longer than what you want as a final product (as shown to the right). When making these single strands tie the first knot and then tie the next before you cut. That way you don't have to tie off the loose ends, wasting hair and time. I suggest 4 inches for the length of the hair when straight, and 6 or 7 when it is curly because that way you can have some room for error when cutting the hairs. Once the mane is installed, you can carefully cut it to the appropriate length and shape. And FYI for those who don't know, the average pony mane is 3 inches long.

The needles I like to use are doll needles. These come in lengths of 3 and 5 inches and they are just great because you can reach the holes without enormous effort. If you can't find these, ebroidery needles are the next best thing. The eyes are bigger than regular sewing needles, but the needle itself is not too wide. Any needle bigger than this (such as a tapestry needle) will not go through the plug holes easily, and if it does go through but you force the issue, it may end up ripping the vinyl between adjacent holes. To thread the needles is actually very easy, despite the many small loose hairs. This is because I use a needle threader. The kind I use is called a tapestry needle threader. This is pictured at the left. I like to use this instead of the regular wire needle threaders because the wires kept breaking when I pulled through the double strands. You insert the threader into the needle hole and then put the knot in the hair through the hole in the threader. Pull the threader and that pulls the hair through with it. It's much easier to thread the knot through that big hole than the many little hairs of the opposite end.

To stitch in the hair is the hardest part of mane replacement. Because of the shape of a pony's head, sometimes the distance to the plug hole is farther than the length of a needle. Also sometimes the plug may be at angles to the way the needle is. If you have one of the 3 or 5 inch needles, this is not a problem. simply insert the eye of the needle in through the top of the head, push it through and out the neck hole, then thred it and then pull it back out. It's really easy and saves your poor fingers. However, if you only have short needles, the solution to both of these problems is to press in on the vinyl of the pony's head, bringing the plug closer or putting it in the same angle so that the needle will go in straight. Sometimes both. This is what I call the hard part because sometimes it's hard to hold the pony head with one hand and get the needle in with the other. However, once the tip of the needle is in the plug, I recommend the use of a thimble (on the right) to push it through. This will save your thumb from much unnecessary pain and will push the needle farther. However, even with the aide of a thimble, you can only get the needle through a little bit, or even alot, but cannot grasp it, use tweezers (or needle nose pliers) to pull it the rest of the way through. It is in this manner that I have done all of my re-haired customs, and though it is time consuming, the results are well worth it. :)