Reborn baby dolls - a lifelike experience

Reborn baby dolls are ready and available for adoption.  These dolls are truly the most original and lifelike looking creations available, and only barely falling short of the real thing.  Each doll is generally unique and original with its own name, birth date, and birth weight.  This hobby began at around 1990, and I consider it to be somewhat of a Cabbage Patch doll resurgence, except for adults.

A Reborn Artist, or Reborner, will purchase a doll kit from a manufacturer and then set to work using their creative talents making the doll unique and lifelike.  Often the Reborn baby doll kit will be a limited edition style, adding to its value and rarity.  The artist will add personal coloring to each doll, through a variety of techniques.  Many layers of paint must be used to create the mottled skin look of a newborn.  They will also add hair to help give it the desired lifelike appeal.  A Reborn artist will often labor for months on each doll. 

The hair can be painted on, but for more realism, mohair from Angora goats is used. Each strand of hair needs to be individually rooted into the doll’s vinyl head using a special needle. This process alone can take the artist several days. The specially dyed mohair will be used for the doll’s scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes.

The Reborn doll’s feet and hands are also appropriately colored to give it the lifelike baby finish. The nails are finely detailed and varnished to a shine.

The baby doll’s eyes are perhaps what truly bring reborn baby dolls to life, but the dolls are also available with their eyes closed.

Additional features can be added to create a more lifelike look and feel. A battery powered breathing apparatus can be used to give to appearance of a breathing baby. Some dolls can be offered with a squishy stomach, or an umbilical cord, or an internal speaker that will emit various baby sounds.

The sky has been the limit in what Reborners have been able to come up with to make these dolls completely realistic.  There have been many stories of police breaking car windows to rescue these “unconscious” babies that heave been left in cars by their negligent parents.  Some, however, find the concept of these dolls a little bit creepy, as they are so realistic, and they are not toys meant for children.  Regardless, they are very popular and can be found online readily, starting at only a few hundred dollars.