Micro-Root(R) Hair Rooting Tool- #5598

This is for the TOOL ONLY. You buy needles separately.

The Original Micro-Root(R) tool from the company that coined the term Micro-Root! We first tried all the rooting tools we could find, and then we came up with this rooting tool.

Our first Micro-Root(tm) baby was Zachary, whose auction was placed on eBay on 11/26/02. We later created Destiny, our Micro-Root baby whose auction was placed on eBay on 1/20/03, and it is with Destiny that Denise, of Bountiful Baby, coined the term Micro-Root to describe this new rooting technique in January 2003.

Since then, Micro-Rooting has become the latest cutting-edge rave in Reborning. And here you can buy the original Micro-Root(tm) tool!

The tool also comes with an extra collet to allow it to be used for even larger needles if you wish. The smaller collet included with the tool will tighten all the way down to size zero, to fit even the smallest needles. This tool will hold all of our pre-cut felting needles that we sell.

This tool has a wooden handle, which gives it the extra weight for added comfort in your hand during rooting. It has a feel of quality, rather than a cheap plastic feel that some other tools do.

Click here for Hair Rooting Instructions by Denise Pratt, found on page 18.

Our Needles

We have found that most people are happiest with our 38 gauge Crown needle. But, we actually offer a bewildering array of needle choices. This document helps to describe them.

We stock four types of needles including Regular Felting, Crown, Forked, and Single Bard. With a variety of sizes, we offer several options of precut, uncut and coated needles. Please note that the larger the gauge number, the smaller the needle is. (When comparing crown needles to Regular needles, note that a 38 gauge Crown roots about as finely as a 42 gauge Regular.)

So how well do they root?

As long as the needle size stays the same, the rooting thickness, listed from thickest to finest, is in the following order:

1. Regular
2. Crown
3. Forked & Single Barb

As long as the needle gauge remains the same, the Forked and the Single Barb needles root the "finest", and the Regular needles root the thickest.

The Regular needles, as well as the Crown needles, are triangular, therefore they have three edges. The Crown needles have one single small barb per edge (three barbs total), with the barb approximately 1/8" from the tip of the needle. The Regular needles have two barbs per edge (six barbs total), and they are at staggered depths from the tip. The forked needles have a very tiny, almost invisible fork in the tip.

For hair rooting, the "fine-ness" of the rooting depends on three factors: (1) the size of the rooting hole, (2) the number of hairs pulled into each rooting follicle, and (3) the elasticity of the medium being rooted into. The elasticity effects the degree that the rooting medium closes back in on the rooting hole-- the greater the elasticity, then the greater the rooting medium will "squeeze", or close back in, on the rooting follicle. For example, rooting into vinyl or silicone will appear finer than identical rooting into polymer clay (before the clay is baked), because both silicone and vinyl are more elastic than unbaked polymer clay. So, the best needle also depends upon the rooting medium.

For rooting into vinyl (or a silicone/vinyl mix), a 38 gauge Crown needle roots about as finely as a 42 gauge Regular needle (remember, the bigger the gauge number, the smaller the needle). This is because our Crown needles pull fewer hairs per follicle. That is what they are designed to do.

So, even though our Crown needles root more sparsely than Regular needles, they still work well, and are our most popular needle (by about 3 to 1). However, some people do not like them, because they root too sparsely for their tastes. For those people, they may be happier with 36 gauge regular needles.

Our Forked needles are for advanced rooters only. They have a very small fork on the tip, rather than barbs along the edges. They root more sparsely than any of our other needles, but for our smallest forked needles, it is difficult to even see the fork on the end of the needle, let alone root with them.

Our Single Barb needles are popular with some rooters, but they are also difficult to work with, and the needle has to be turned to a precise rooting angle in order for the single barb to make contact with the hair, and pull the hair in. But they also root very finely, like the Forked needle does.