Is Triton XL 114 Better At Removing Mattel Head Glue Than L.A.’s Totally Awesome?

So, we all know that I’ve been experimenting with getting rid of Mattel’s nasty head glue for years, now, and have settled on L.A.’s Totally Awesome in the US as my go-to product (CIF brand cleansers seem to work, too).

Here’s a link to a post with an overview and some other links:  https://www.tumblr.com/imreadydollparts/708236837686214656/mattel-head-glue

I don’t have the patience to dig up all of the reference links but over time a chemist on a Russian forum did some chemical analysis on the glue, discovered it’s either 1 part of a 2-part epoxy, or was mis-mixed so that it could never set, and suggested Xylene as a cleanser to remove it.

Xylene isn’t a very friendly chemical (though a paint thinner that is xylene based is often recommended for deflocking MLP without messing up their paint) and an art conservationist decided to try a friendlier surfactant called Triton XL 114 which works on similar things as Xylene.

Triton XL 114, when just a few drops are worked into gluey doll hair like shampoo (you must rub, friction is key, and add a little water) obliterated the glue. Glue gone. No glue left other than a little tackiness at the roots, which makes sense because the hair is so dense, there.

It can be purchased here:  https://museumservicescorporation.com/products/triton-x-114-1-pint

You want gloves.

Now, I don’t have a lot of glue headed dolls left. I sold them all because I didn’t feel like dealing with it, but I did get a little tube of Triton to test out because Totally Awesome treats glue head AND can deflock a My Little Pony without damaging her paint, and in the same vein of thought as Xylene to Triton, I hoped that Triton would work on G1 flocking glue, too! Having a single chemical that could strip flocking glue without hurting the factory paint would be really nice! T.A. does a decent job of it but I do often have to get out some acetone for thicker globs of glue.

I also dug up an old Venus McFlytrap head that had never been treated and a Goldie Locks head which I had used in a T.A. experiment some time back which was still gluey.

Well……. I have hard water, and we discovered that Triton doesn’t work nearly as effectively in hard water.

This is the same problem I have with products like Goo Gone. Goo Gone can dissolve the head glue, but I can NOT wash the Goo Gone out no matter how long I scrub with how much soap, because I have hard water.

After washing both Venus and Blondie were still rather sticky.

I did manege to grab a jug of distilled water, though, and it made a huge difference. Even with gloves on I could feel the surface texture of their hair change as the glue was washed away.

Very nice.

I did deliberately rub off Venus’s flocking (don’t worry it was already damaged) so I could clearly see how the glue was affected by Triton XL. It was not.

Regardless of what purity of water I used, Triton does not do anything to MLP flocking glue and cannot be used to deflock a pony. Boiling hot water knocks the flocking off well enough and also gave me a good view of Triton’s effect on the glue. No effect, just like Venus.

I used a little acetone here so you can see that the yellowing is the glue which didn’t come off.

So.

Is Triton XL 114 better at removing Mattel head glue than L.A.’s Totally Awesome?

The end results are about the same. You get clean hair that might be sticky still in denser areas.

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Washing the hair with Triton doesn’t affect the glue remaining inside the head unless you get some inside the head and let it sit for a while. It’s kind of a pain to get out, again. You will have so many bubbles.

Again, the end result is the same as with a long soak with Totally Awesome. The glue that remains will have formed a crust on the outside of any chunks, and loose globs will come out or be easier to manually remove because the outer layer is no longer sticky.

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Triton is faster at removing glue from the hair by a long shot. You might have to shampoo and rinse two or three times, but that’s still much faster than soaking for days to weeks in T.A.

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You need a lot less Triton to treat a doll head than T.A. since you’re using a drop or two per head instead of having to fill a cup with cleanser and then change it now and then.

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Triton is less effective in hard water which might mean needing more washes and taking longer/more water to rinse, whereas T.A. doesn’t lose any efficacy in hard water and is very easy to rinse.

Distilled water greatly improves Triton’s efficacy and ease of rinsing.

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T.A. will strip off flocking glue and Triton won’t. If you’re trying to clean up a doll head with flocking do NOT touch the flocking while the head is wet or it will come off regardless.

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T.A. will dissolve rubber bands (been so happy that works…) and plastic hair ties and Triton doesn’t.

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T.A. is kind of stinky and Triton is scent-free.

So, honestly, neither is better at getting head glue out of Mattel doll heads, but both work.

If you enjoy the process of washing doll hair, don’t have the patience to wait, or maybe you can’t leave cups of concentrated cleanser laying around because you have kids/pets, you might want to go with Triton.

If you want a more hands-off, passive experience with removing head glue or don’t have time to stand around washing doll hair, Totally Awesome might be the best option for you.

Personally, I think both are pretty great and I’m just happy that there is something out there that works.

I am disappointed that it didn’t work for flocking, though. It would be very nice to be able to rub a nice soap into flocking and have that glue all just go away without taking the paint with it, wouldn’t it?