My mom was a doll doctor. She would wash the doll hair with dish detergent. Allow it to dry. Use a curling iron to style it. SPRAY with hair spray to hold. Use the same process you would with a wig.
ALSO, one can use cut-to-size q-tip sticks to roll for tiny curls and bobby pins to secure, using alcohol to let air dry, IF synthetic of any kind, not human hair. I always hated the "large curl" look, especially on the bangs and around the face of Madame Alexander sized dolls or Barbies. Keeping the scale according to doll size, for hair curls, looks best to me. : )
PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL USING HEAT ON DOLL'S HAIR! It could melt. Always do a test strand on a small piece of the hair underneath. Another way to curl hair is to use "permanent" curlers, roll dry or wet hair, and then dip them into boiling water for a few seconds. Let cool and remove curlers. Let hair dry completely. BUT AGAIN...please do a test strand first...it's still a heat process.
Also, with washing and conditioning...if it is synthetic hair (not human), use fabric softener instead of hair conditioner. Any kind of liquid soap will wash them.
also for doll hair that is very tangled you can put on lots of conditioner......wait a couple of minutes and comb through with a comb(it may take a bit of tugging).......then rince out the conditioner and let dry (using small clips to hold in place if needed) i did this with old dolls with very matted hair and they turned out great........
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