many of you have studied the usages instructions that should come with your doll. Sometimes, these instructions are usefull, but far too often they are just rubbish.
This post will provide a Doll Cleaning Guide and assemble Best Practices Advice.
Always keep in mind: Only a clean doll will be safe for your health. If not properly cleaned and dried, especially TPE dolls can grow mold. Mold can be hazardous and will be hard to remove. So don't wait for the damage to occur, take precautious measurements on a regular basis. It can be a tedious effort, but you don't want your doll to smell like dead rat, right?
The downside of doll cleaning: As posing, cleaning causes strain and can cause damages on your doll. So you need to find the right balance between a sufficiently clean doll and too intensive cleaning that might harm her.
As always, your feedback & experiences are welcome!
The following 10 step guide is easy to follow and provides the baseline procedure. However, depending on your doll, you might want to add additional steps, or skip some steps. This guide does not apply for plush/fabric dolls!
Step 1: Go shopping.
Not all useful accessories come with your doll, and not all are available in every household. Before cleaning day, you might want to go shopping and get:
- a removeable plastic or stainless steel nozzle for your shower,
- a hot air blower with a narrow nozzle,
- a device to measure humidity and dampness,
- tampons in different sizes, and
- a speculum to spread open the body cavities.
- a towel,
- plastic bags and rubber bands,
- a mild hand soap,
- a disinfectant like isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol),
- baby powder or cornstarch.
For cleaning, you can put the doll in the shower or in the bathtub; or you can try to make her sit on a robust bucket (one without sharp edges). Sitting has the advantage that gravity makes excess fluids to rise out ouf the body cavities by itself.
If you have to carry the doll between different rooms, open the doors at first. Some prefer to put the doll on a chair with wheels for inhouse transportation. If you want to use the bathtub for doll cleaning, remove the clothes horse from the bathtub first Make room, you are gonna need it! Put the things you are going to use (cf. step 1) within reach. Prepare a place where the wet doll can dry, e.g. a table or a mattress.
If you can remove the head from your doll, do so right now. Clean the head separately. Protect the neck bolt with a plastic bag and rubber bands.
If you have a doll with standing skeleton (Jinsan or Lifanou style, with screws in the soles of the feet), protect each foot with a plastic bag and rubber bands.
Avoid any fluids to enter the inside of the doll or the skeleton will rust and mold might grow!
Step 3: Clean with water.
Cleaning the doll might be easiest in the shower or in the bathtub. Make her back lean on the wall so the neck bolt faces upwards. Screw the nozzle onto the shower and insert it carefully into the body orifices. Flush out any fluids with low water pressure. If you use too much water pressure, you might loosen the TPE plug in the back of the vaginal orifice of TPE dolls. Wash the doll's skin with tap water and a soft cloth or sponge; if necessary, you can use a mild hand soap. Avoid anything that easily dissolves oil. Dish soap is a no-go!
A speculum (or even better, multiple specula in different sizes) is useful to spead the body cavities open without using a third hand.
Step 4: Clean with disinfectant.
Prepare a plastic enema with a disinfectant, e.g. mix some isopropanol with tap water.
Inject the nozzle of the enema into the body cavities and spatter the disinfectant until it rinses out.
Let it work for at least a minute. Repeat with all body cavities.
Step 5: Clean with water again.
Repeat step 3. You don't want residue disinfetant to remain in the doll's body cavities.
Get the doll out of the shower or bathtub, especially if you are using electrical devices for drying.
Step 6: Measure moisture and dampness.
Get an idea about moisture and dampness inside the body cavities. You can use a mesuring device for humidity.
Shortly after washing your doll, there any air inside the body cavities will be saturated with water. You will measure a humidity close to 100%.
Step 7: Dry the body cavities.
You will never get all the humidity out of your doll without some help. You can use tampons in different sizes, an aquarium pump, and a hot air blower - anything that helps to get humidity out of the body cavities without harming the TPE or silicone skin.
Insert tampon…
… and let it soak with water:
Repeat, until tampon comes out almost dry:
If you use a hot air blower, put a narrow nozzle on it to focus the stream of warm air.
Above is a hot air blower with attached narrow nozzle.
Most temperature controlled devices have a hairdryer-like setting at 50°C. Do not heat your doll above that, especially if she is made of TPE.
TPE starts to deform at about 120°C. Unless you want to remodel you doll, dont melt her with hot air!
The more complex textures the body cavities have, the more complicated it is to get them clean and dry without causing tears during cleaning and drying.
In regard to hygiene, inserts rule. They can be taken out, turned upside down, easily cleaned and even replaced if necessary. Dolls with built-in vagina might be more realistic, but they require significantly more effort to clean.
Step 8: Measure moisture again.
Measure humidity again, until it equals your surrounding room humidity. Taking multiple humidity measurements will give you an idea how log it takes to succeed in drying.
You don't have to repeat these measurements every time; just do it a couple of times to get an idea how long it takes to get the doll dry from the inside.
Also, don't forget to use your nose. If the body cavities reek musty or stale a couple of hours after cleaning, there still might be too much humidity inside.
Step 9: Let dry on fresh air.
After getting your doll out of the shower, dab her skin surface dry with a soft towel. Don't rub!
After that, let her dry on fresh air. The best position is spread-eagled. Turn her around after a couple of hours.
Step 10: Powder the body.
Last but not least, powder the dry doll with corn starch or baby powder. Make sure she is really dry, or you can start again with the cleaning - wet powder is messy.
Sandro