Over brushing hair can lead to frizz and split ends, as does throwing all your GCs in a box (guilty) where they can shuffle around, get matted, etc. Just let it be.
Mild styling
To flatten a mane or make a tail hang a bit better, try wetting them with hot water, combing them straight, and letting them dry that way before you try anything more extreme. For the horses that have manes that keep flying away, try wrapping them with plastic wrap to dry that way. Since minis have such icky manes sometimes, this is also a good way to store them.
Cleaning
Start by washing your GCs hair with shampoo- I use Pantene, but it doesn't really matter at this stage. If your horse is second hand, you'll want to wash it's whole body- details for which can be found at the Cleaning page.
Note- the felt (non-GC) horses with rabbit-skin manes do not like getting wet. The glue under their manes turns white and the hair can take ages to dry, or get contaminated with the glue. But if it needs washing and has a mane where the white glue will stand out, the whiteness can be gone over with ink or dye.
Once the hair is dry, rinse thoroughly, drain any water that has gotten inside the horse (usually at the base of the tail), and condition.
Conditioning
Even if your horse doesn't have any frizz, you'll want to condition his mane and tail afterward. Just put it in, brush it through so the hair detangles, then rinse well (very well), and let dry.
Here is a quick post on the difference conditioning makes.
For horses with frizz:
Grand Champions take to conditioner very well. Those with frizz pretty well absorb it (and those without sit there looking wet). I use Pantene on mine, and it works very well. Any cheap conditioner might work, just test it out: If it feels slick rather than sticky, and sets in the hair, and brushes through well, it's a keeper.
After washing, coat the hair, especially the frizz at the ends, with generous amounts of conditioner. Leave them to stand and dry for about a half hour, then brush it through, working out the knots at the ends first, until you can bring a comb from base to tip without problems. If the horse was frizzy, it still probably is at this point. Replace any conditioner the comb pulled out, and let the horse sit for another hour or two.
Grey Willow with conditioner brushed through.
After that hour, brush it through. If the horse is pretty well done, rinse it well. Sometimes I rinse until they feel clean, then find out they're still slick with conditioner when they're half way dried.
If they are still frizzy, you might want to heat treat their hair.
Ironing your GC's Hair
Maybe your pony still has frizz, maybe you want Kamira to have a nice, curled tail.
For minor frizz, a curling iron or a flat iron will work, depending on the desired effect. I like curling very-long tails so the don't drag, and very-short tails so they have more body. But it's all up to you. In de-frizzing, it can be easier to separate the hair into 2-8 sections and curl/straighten it in parts. If you like the style, it can be left like that, if not, a full pass with the implement after will clean up the look.
Curling Bluegrass' hair in sections.
:: To curl just the tip under, grip it so no hairs at the tip are outside of the clamp of the iron. If they are out, they will often crimp and look weird.
:: To curl the whole tail against the body, start at the base, and slowly drag the curler through, curving the iron in as you go. Be careful, sometimes if it drags weird it can pull on hairs or add little crimps from clamping and unclamping.
:: For ringlets, wrap the hairs around the iron and hold them in place, section by section. A more effective way to do this would be a boil perm (below).
:: Manes are harder to work with. A thin-barelled curling iron slipped under can restore the curl naturally there (especially if the friz needed a proper iron-out). To make the hair lay on their necks, I pin it down with the barrel of the curling iron and hold it there.
For extreme frizz, take an iron to the horse. Using a flat surface, lay down your horse, and place an untextured towel over his hair and body. Then take your iron, and gently work it over the hairs, taking care not to over-heat them or burn yourself. Some recommend keeping the hair/towel wet this entire time, but I've had no problem without.
After ironing frizz out, hair can be styled with a hair iron (as mentioned above), or, to hang it flat, you can continue with the clothes-iron. Cover the horse's rump with the towel, holding the tail down, and rub the iron on the base. This will make the tail lay flat. For the mane, pin it with the towel, and iron up and down his neck.
Still frizzy or not styled well enough? You might have to cut the hair.
Trimming
Sadly, sometimes there is impenetrable frizz. Usually the combined above steps can bring it from 'entire tail' to just 'very tip.' At that point, it's time to take scissors to the horse.
Start by cutting off the frizz, just a horizontal motion across. After it is removed, comb the tail straight and, using a light pair of scissors, cut vertically up toward the base of the tail. This makes it look less chunky and more natural. If you like the blocked-off look, just take care to get it completely even.
Manes generally need less trimming (as they are less prone to frizz). A little thinning, as done to the tip of the tails, can work wonders on the appearance of split ends and frizzes, though at worst, it may also simply need to be shortened.
Boil Perms
So you wanna do some styling. I learned this technique originally from an MLP collector, but it also works on other dolls and horses.
After your horse's hair is washed and conditioned (do this even with new horses, this takes off the old layer of factory coating), prepare a pot of boiling water, or a kettle and a bowl, etc.
Straightening: To straighten a mane, fold a paper towel to the width of your horse's neck, and tape the folds in place. Dip your horse's mane in the boiling water for a few seconds (around 15 most, not less than 5), then quickly wrap it in place with the paper towel, and tape that in place. Leave it for a day to dry- you really want it to be dry before you unwrap it. For tails, follow the same procedure, but for long tails, wrap them against a straight, flat piece of plastic/metal. Cardboard might work, but also might deposit paper bits, I haven't tried it. For a short tail, wrap it against the rump/leg.
2004 Grey Trakehner minis while straightening manes. Tails have been hot ironed. See 'After'
Curling: First, you need to make or invest in curlers. You can buy doll curlers in various sizes, and there are many ways to make them. For a tight curl, a straw works. Cut your straw to a nice straight pipe, wrap the hair around it, and slide bobby pins on- one end inside the straw, the other clamping the hair. Two or three bobby pins should suffice. Once the curlers are in places (doll or homemade), dip the desired part of the horse into the boiling water, let sit a few seconds like with the mane, then sit out to dry. Once it is fully dry (wait an hour or two after it feels dry to the touch), curlers can be removed. If once the curlers were added (before boiling) the hair sits at odd angles, the ends of the curlers can be taped against the body to hang in a more desirable way.
First Class and a family Palomino in curlers. The foal is wearing straws, stallion has a tight-barrelled human curler. Results are not yet posted.
To combine straightening and curling, curl as described above, with the locks for straightening left out of the curlers. After dipping, wrap the hair you want straightened, leaving the curls free. Wait a day before removing anything, and it should turn out pretty.
