The doll community has been talking a lot about the Chinese fashion doll brand Xian Xian lately. Unlike Integrity Toys, Mizi, Defa Lucy, and others, Xian Xian makes dolls that are affordable and doesn’t limit the number of copies available. This approach definitely deserves attention and support. The dolls are also sold nude, so you can order whichever outfits you like separately. In these photos, she’s wearing a dress by Xian Xian. I really like almost all of their clothing.

I ordered the doll from AliExpress. The box arrived badly damaged, but the seller had packed it well enough that the doll itself wasn’t harmed.

The face paint on my doll isn’t perfect, but it’s still quite good. The body, however, was disappointing. The joints are rather loose and move on their own when the doll is shaken. The plastic parts make a loud clacking sound when they hit each other, which suggests that the plastic isn’t very high quality.

I had looked into these dolls quite a bit, so I had no illusions about the quality of the hair or the rooting. I planned to reroot her using leftover saran from two previous projects. That’s why I chose the doll based on her makeup. Of the two dolls with this face sculpt, I preferred the one with dark lips.

Once I tied her original hair into a ponytail, I actually started to like it.

Now, a little about the rooting. The photo below shows just how bad it is. The sparse rooting is only part of the problem. What’s worse is how uneven the hairline is.

I also want to point out the molded hairline groove. As you can see in the photo, the groove is higher than the actual rooted hairline. This suggests that the Xian Xian designer understands what the groove is for: the groove slightly recesses the rooting holes along the hairline, making them less noticeable. But the factory apparently decided that the groove marks where the scalp should be painted, while the hair itself should be rooted below it.

It’s a pity, because this doll would actually be better if she could be purchased without factory-rooted hair.

I tried to fix the crooked hairline and filled in the rest of the scalp the same way Mattel does.

The head material is difficult to work with. It’s hard to make new holes, and the factory holes don’t shrink with boiling water like they do on Mattel heads. I broke a lot of rerooting needles despite making each hole with a thin awl first.

Here are a few photos of the final result.