How long did it take you to change your doll until you loved it?

I've only had dollfies since April, so I haven't had much time to experiment and customize my doll. But I find myself wanting to constantly change her appearance and what she looks like. I want to feel 100% satisfied but I'm just not there yet. Every couple weeks I decided to change her eye color, hair, and sometime even contemplate her faceup.

So my question is, how long did it take you to fix up your doll until you absolutely adored them? 

I bought my third Dollfie head recently just to figure out what kind of appeal I am trying to get and see what my style is. I'm just hoping I'll figure out what I like more quickly xx

This is a tricky one. For a couple dolls, their look was settled almost right away. For another, I've had her since 2014 and finally figured out her look December 2019 😅

A couple other dolls never found a set look. I switch their eyes and wigs regularly. My Yaya does this a lot because I like her in almost all styles. 

Yet other dolls I just couldn't find anything I liked so they were sold onto other collectors who would like them more. I don't like feeling like I need to keep a doll just because I liked her at one time. This will vary from person to person of course. 

Since you've only had her for a little while, and she is your first, part of the fun is changing out eyes and wigs (at least to me 😅). It's fine if you never stop doing it really. I learned a bit into the hobby that I should do what makes me happy and sometimes that's selling a doll fairly quickly and other times it means changing their look up regularly 😊

I guess it's something that's different for everyone. For me it's more about finding the look that belongs to them, which in turn brings out their character to me. I had trouble with Melty at first because she basically looks like Sakuya's little sister, and all she could wear when I got her were hand-me-downs. I struggled a bit figuring out what would bring out her unique charm that's different from my other girls,

It's an ok ensemble but it didn't bring out any of her character to me. It wasn't until I put this together,

and I was like oh. That's what she can do. My other girls have nothing on that. That outfit didn't define her look or character so much as it made me realize just how different she is from the others, which inspired what I could do with her.

Just trying different outfits & looks helps me steer towards their character. Like this is Sakuya and Yaya in the same outfit,

 

Sakuya is stunning and Yaya is a ball of sugar.

I've only been satisfied with the appearance of two of my dolls from the get go because I already knew what I wanted them to look like. I had a very vivid image in my head of what they will wear and their eye/hair color but for some of my other ones that has been a little more difficult to decide.

Besides, you don't have to stick to just one look if you don't want to! If you feel like changing them up every week or so I don't think that's a bad thing persay, unless you're just having a hard time bonding with the doll. You could look to Instagram for inspiration to make a bit easier on you to get an idea as to how x sculpt will look with what. I hope that you'll find a look you'll be satisfied with. ❤️

I agree with a little bit of what everyone has said so far.  It really is as much a matter of discovering something about yourself as it is about revealing your aesthetic preference as expressed through your dolls.  You also don’t want to underestimate how important it is to get a head sculpt and face-up that’s right for you in the end.

My most recent daughter, Horoki, had parts acquired for a specific look planned for her face-up using the cheerfully expressive DDH-04, and she came together very quickly and beautifully.   I knew exactly what I wanted and how to achieve it to my satisfaction.  Meanwhile, this also prompted a re-evaluation of another daughter’s look, Lynne - a DDH-07, who I had originally done up intended to emulate a favorite fictional character years ago, but just didn’t seem right anymore.  I ended up redoing her face-up (not laying down the initial sealant/basecoat just right the first time requires a ton of patience to undo it all later), eyes, and hair, the latter going through several iterations, until the look was just about right.  Now she feels truer to herself, and therefore to myself.

You may end up with one daughter who you love in specific styles or fashion, and therefore stays with some of the same looks for extended periods of time, while another looks good in anything so you find yourself having more fun changing her outfit and even eyes and hair more frequently.

The last thing you want is to feel like your daughter is trapped in a look that just doesn’t work for her, and therefore for you.  It can be hard because of how much investment our hobby/love sometimes demands.

Luckily for me I really love a lot of Volks limited sets, particular early idolmaster releases. I have never had the desire to change any of my girls.

I love all of my girls the way they are. That being said, I did do a little wig and eye swapping between them, but it was mostly just for fun. For instance, Towa's default wig on Saber (White Skin) was a hilarious sight.   However, I did replace Saber's default wig with a similar colored, but more manageable wig because I don't want it to get too messed up whenever I change her outfit.

I gave my only custom girl, Teri, a changeling-type of personality and so she's always changing her eyes, hair, and clothes, but it's ultimately all for fun and not too achieve perfection or anything like that.

23 hours ago, ArtCresc said:

You may end up with one daughter who you love in specific styles or fashion, and therefore stays with some of the same looks for extended periods of time, while another looks good in anything so you find yourself having more fun changing her outfit and even eyes and hair more frequently.

I totally agree ^^

In my case I bought all my limited fullsets because I love the character, and also love trying different styles of clothing on them. For my customs, they also love different themes. I love doll clothes so they can enjoy many styles ^^ they never get bored, maybe some of the floating heads a little neglected but never bored.

Some of my dolls have a better time “sticking” to what I put them in than others. My first girl has her first eyes and wig still and looks perfect in basically any outfit I put her in but my second girl is about two years old now and I’ve had her in like four pairs of eyes and constantly changing clothes. Only other one I’ve had real trouble with is Arle, my eighth DD and I can’t even figure out a name that works for her ^^;;

When I first got my Samus, it took me a bit to find what did and didn't work with what I wanted her to be.  Her first wig was terrible and cheap looking, and I didn't know how to pose her yet.  It took me a month or two to find a wig that worked, and many more months to work on posing before I felt like she was becoming who she was supposed to be in my mind and I was ready to share her.  Her new sister on the other hand I'm very happy with so far, but I'm still working on good glasses for her. 

Bonus pic of Samus when she first came home.  

My very first resin bjd was off topic for this forum (and DoA, for purely snobbish reasons, truly)--but I was so in love with her, and her possibilities, that I changed wigs and eyes on her almost every day for months. I also learned to sew doll clothes for her (so much easier than human clothes) and changed her into pajamas or nightgowns every night. You know why? Because I could! Her personality was always consistent, just her look changed. The sheer joy of putting together a new look when I wanted was AMAZING. I have only a few resin bjds and vinyl dolls who have settled looks, because for me half the fun is playing with change-ups. You only need a settled look if you feel compelled to have it so; don't feel you must because that seems to be the hobby norm. I say, have fun with changing her up when the mood strikes! Play with colors and styles! These dolls are so much fun! 

Rose says, "My hair and eyes have been changed 10 times, I love the attention!" Of course she does. 🙄

So I bought my DDDy Miko as soon as she was released as a new standard model and I had to enter the lottery to get her. So that was a long time ago. But I new I didn't like her original wig. I bought her a blonde, long wig and changed her eyes to blue ones. But now I put her back in her original eyes and do not like the blonde wig anymore! So I am thinking of buying her the short straight bob wig in a dark brown from the Volks site and I am thinking She will be perfect at that point. But Mashiro I got her solely because I saw someone else on the forum have her and I instantly fell in love with her red hair and gorgeous purple eyes! She has never changed. But I recently got her some new threads that are pastel pink and I feel they clash with her red wig. So now I am thinking to get HER a new wig too! I think that a single doll can satisfy someone for a time, but if and when you get bored of her look, CHANGE it! That is the beauty of these dolls and their customizability! Mine will forever evolve with my tastes at that current moment

I didn't do too much exploration in figuring out my girl when I received her. I think it was dictated by a custom face up I commissioned. I had bought multiple wigs and multiple pairs of eyes but there was one combination that stuck. I was actually kinda bummed I didn't feel a need to change her up more often. 

Depends on which girl. Sheryl just stayed Sheryl as I love her fullset, my 09 took a bit? As I couldn't really figure out any wig alternatives aside from the green one she had when she came back from her faceup. Miki kept her default eyes until a few days ago (So...5 months?) where I swapped them out for the ones that were just sitting in Akira's floating head. Still debating on her perm wig but for right now I kind of like her in Akira's default... (+ For OT dolls, SmD and Kano have just stayed the same since I got them. Kano partly due to a lack of alternatives on hand and Infinity could change but I'm just lazy haha) 

Ehhhh. Toobie is a clothes horse, so I'm constantly getting her stuff to wear and eyeing wigs. The only thing I'm absolutely in love with are her eyes. I don't see the need to change those. I recently bought an extra DD M-bust to mod that on Toobs, and I'm contemplating a face up.

She already has her Iconic default costume and the only way to make that better is to make it match a more game accurate bust.

12 minutes ago, lardroom said:

She already has her Iconic default costume and the only way to make that better is to make it match a more game accurate bust.

The difference in size between L and M is significant in terms of clothing fit. You’re going to have a lot of empty space unless you mod the outfit. 

It's been very case-by-case for me, though the ones that took me a while to fully settle into sometimes took even longer thanks to procrastination, Lol!

Fate, Nanoha, and Homura I loved right out of the box. I did end up changing both Fate and Nanoha's eyes, but in a way that was more about making what I saw in them more obvious, if that makes sense.

Agatha I loved since I did her first face up, but on the other hand, she's like how Walt viewed Disneyland: always a work in progress, never finished. That's frankly part of her charm for me.

Miku I liked initially, then gradually got disillusioned with over the course of two and a half years. Finally I wiped her, beveled her eye wells, and gave her a glamorous and kinda smug new face up, and fell in love all over again. It was like she finally looked the way she always felt in my head, if that makes sense.

Yuuri took about 2 months, but they were an intense 2 months. I knew when I got him he was gonna need work. I made him custom eyes, wiped his face up, did a test face up, wiped that, modded his eye shape, did another face up, trimmed his bangs, and finally got him glasses. Even then it took another year to realize I actually did have him right: for approximately his first anniversary I took him with me on a trip to Seattle and finally really bonded with him. Apparently Seattle is Yuuri Katsuki's kind of city, who knew?

Abby was a flipping JOURNEY. She was going to be Homura's head, then Homura turned out to be better than I thougbt she waa going to be. Abby's head sat in a jar for about a year and a half, and I almost sold it. Then I said, "You know what? I own this head. I can do whatevet I want with it." I sanded it some, did a really cute, unplanned face up, and realized "oh snap I need to buy an MDD body now."

Asphodel was nearly as accidental as Abby. I bought a pair of 01 heads from Balldylox, and in cleaning one up I just kind of. . saw? Felt? A character happen. I ran with that feeling, and wound up with a pastel dragon girl. Now I'm working on getting her a body and accessories to fully dragon-girl her.

Viktor/Vitya is a bit where Miku was a couple years ago: there's potential there but I'm tired of how hidden it is. Wiped him this weekend and I'm modding his eye holes a bit before giving him a new face up.

For Mai, I had a clear idea of what I wanted her to look like going in since I've already drawn her a bunch for my webcomic. The challenge was finding the right sculpt, wig and body type to match my expectations. It took a while to reach that point, but I'm really happy with what I've got so far and am thankful for the help I've received on this forum!

For Mai's little sister, Mochi, unfortunately, I'm not clicking with her yet even after trying 3 different wigs. I think it's the sculpt (Dollce) that's not working for me.

When I was originally planning to get in to the hobby prior to my webcomic, I was (and still am) enticed by both Ribbon and Coron's sculpt and am seriously considering one of the two (the head, not the DDP body) for this girl.

I also really, really like Arle, but there's no way I can afford her especially after how much I've emptied out already these past 2 months.