Washing and hair care for My Little Pony toys

For My Little Pony, I have a flat rough sponge (the type for washing dishes) to scrub off as much surface dirt as possible from their bodies.  I would first rub some soap over the body of the pony and then use my sponge scrub over it.  After that, I would rinse away the water and check for anymore dirt to scrub off.  Repeat the soap-scrub-rinse-check for remaining dirt process until you are satisfied that you have removed all the dirt that you can.

Next I would wet the hair of the pony and then rub shampoo onto its mane and tail.  This process can remove quite of a lot of the dust and dirt that had settled onto the hair.  There is no need to use a brush or comb at this point.  If the hair is tangled, just leave it for now.  Rinse off the shampoo and then apply conditioner to the mane and tail.  This is when you use your pony comb or brush to remove all the the tangles easily with the aid of the conditioner.  When you are done, leave the pony with the conditioner in its mane and tail for at least 10min to 30min, depending on how ‘rough’ or tangled the hair is.  Finally, rinse out the conditioner and comb or brush through the mane and tail to ensure that they would later dry tangle-free. 

Bring your pony to the place that you wish to leave it to dry, to carry out the subsequent steps of hair styling there.

If the pony originally has a straight mane and tail, then comb or brush the mane to curl against the neck, and position the tail to just curl around a hind leg.  Leave the pony to dry with the mane and tail in these positions. 

For ponies with original curls, you need to use pens to double up as hair curlers. Use pens with ‘handles’ or pens with caps that have ‘handles’ at the sides.  You will need some pens with ‘handles’ that ’lie flat’ against the pens and pens whose ‘handles’ leave a slight gap from the pens.  The pens you use depend on how ‘thick’ the pony’s hair is.  Prepare some clothes pegs as well. 

Use your pony comb or brush to stretch out the entire mane of the pony and then use the pen handles to clip onto the entire edge of the mane.  Then curl the mane around the pen, in the direction of the original curl, towards the roots of the mane.  Use a clothes peg to clip onto the pen where the mane has been curled around, to secure the curled mane in place.  Use another clothes peg to clip onto the base end of the pen to help keep the pen in position and not let the wet mane uncurl out of position.

Place the pony on its side, with the side of the curled mane facing up.  Use another pen to clip onto the tip of the tail, then curl the tail around the pen till you reach the tail root.  Use a clothes peg to clip onto the pen where the tip of the curled tail is, and another  clothes peg to clip onto the part of the pen where the tail root is.  Position the clothes peg onto the table surface such that the tail is kept tightly curled as much as possible without shifting out of position. 

Leave the pony to dry on its own or under a fan.  In Singapore’s hot and humid weather, it usually takes a few hours to dry completely.  I usually leave my ponies overnight in my balcony and check them the next morning.  Before removing the clothes and pens, feel the hair to check if it is dry, if not the curls will not stay in place.  Un-clip the clothes peg from the tail first, then slip the edge of the curled tail out of the pen ‘handle’.  There you get a nicely curled tail.  Next un-clip the clothes peg from the mane, then slip the edge of the curled mane out of the pen ‘handle’.  There the mane is beautifully and tightly curled up. 

The quality of the G1 My Little Pony mane and tail is so good that they will stayed curled up indefinitely, as long as no one disturbs those curls with their fingers or through rough play like tossing the pony around.  The above hair styling technique works for the G2 My Little Pony too.  However the manes and tails of the G3 My Little Pony are too thick, too long and too ‘heavy’.  The curls rarely stay in place, hence most of my G3 ponies are given straight hair styles. 

Last but not least, after the washing and hair styling process, keep your ponies out in the open to let their insides dry out completely before you keep them back into storage.  You need to note that water would seep into the ponies through their hair roots and their tail roots too.  Yucky stuff like mould would develop inside them if they were not allowed to dry out completely.  My Little Pony come with metal tail rings inside them to secure their tails in place.  When the tail rings get wet, rust tend to develop over time unless they are dried completely. 

I would see if I could include some photos for this post in the near future to make these washing and hair styling tips clearer and more visual.

Come back again tomorrow to know about ‘curing’ tail rust in My Little Pony.