by NikG of Beads, Braids, & Beyond
I was so excited to try the Natural Hair for Dolls Tutorial that I went out yesterday and bought a couple of straight haired So In Style Barbie Dolls. I did it a little differently than Kristl but all methods produce beautiful results. A absolutely loves all her new dolls!
Below are the two dolls I purchased. Grace (blue dress) and Chandra (white tee). I bought them both at Walmart. Grace was almost $8 and Chandra was almost $12.
Pipe cleaners in
I started by parting off a small section of hair. I wrapped the end of the pipe cleaner around the section of hair near the roots so it would stay put. I then rolled the hair on to the pipe cleaner. I left a little space inbetween as I rolled the hair on. Once I got to the ends I folded the pipe cleaner over the ends then wrapped it around once or twice and cut the remainder of the pipe cleaner off. I continued this process for about 40 minutes to an hour until I was finished. I then dipped her hair into a pot of boiling water for a 10 count,as Kristl mentions in her tutorial. I left the pipecleaners in overnight. I removed them in the A.M. and separated her curls. I cut all the straight ends off.
Pipe cleaners in/the back
After removing the pipe cleaners
The back after removing the pipe cleaners
Separated the curls and viola! Big hair!
The back
For Chandra, I knew I wanted a different curl pattern, so I did the same exact process as above, only I parted off much larger sections so she didn’t have anywhere near as many pipe cleaners in her hair. After dipping her hair into a pot of boiling water I only left them in for about 3 hours, removed the pipe cleaners and separated the curls.
Pipe cleaners in
And out
Separated
Grace and Chandra after their makeovers.
I LOVE this!! What are your thoughts ladies? For those of you who have young children will you be giving this a try?
And check out Beads, Braids and Beyond for more natural haircare tips for kids!
I could kick myself. I used to have a black Barbie with the most gorgeous face I’ve ever seen on any Barbie (the ones today don’t even come close), and she came with curly, textured hair. I loved her and played with her constantly. I so wish I still had her. This tutorial makes me want to go out and buy a Barbie, hahaha. There’s still a little girl in me. :D
As a curly girl myself — don’t let my Gravatar fool you; the flat iron is my best friend — I always wondered why very few Barbies ever had curly hair. If my future daughter gets my curls, I’ll so be doing this for her Barbies.
I so love this! My daughter has barbies mostly as collectibles, but I will be doing this to her dolls that she plays with. I am so happy to have found this!
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fabulous!
Does anyone know if this would work on an American Girl doll?
Yes, the boil perm will work fo any doll with synthetic hair.
You could also put a tighter pattern in to frrizz the hair and thn make an afro
This is brilliant! My niece is adopted (from China into a Caucasian family) and I’ve been searching for dolls/barbies with a variety of ethnicities. What I’ve found is along with Asian dolls, black dolls with naturally curly hair are few and far between. I love promoting the natural look because I want my niece to know that beauty is not about how much product you use or how much time/energy you put into primping – it’s about loving who you are and being confident in your natural beauty.
Thanks for this post! I will definitely be trying this with some dolls in the future!
I used to play with my barbies and literally hate the hair that grew out of my head! It was in the past couple of years when I started to appreciate my curls. I am African American, and having a few dolls with hair like this really would have put me at ease as a child! Great tutorial, I hope parents incorporate loving your natural hair into their child’s lives!
I love this! I am not of color, but had a jewfro growing up. I was so jealous of Barbie and Farrah Fawcett and all of the girls with straight or feathered or anything other than short, q-tip styled curly hair. My mom clearly did not know what to do with it. Nothing in the world could make my hair straight! I would have loved to have a doll who had hair like me! I love my curls now and rarely pine for the straight hair or even do a blowout. Women stop me all the time asking if I have a perm or if it’s natural, as they look wistfully at my curls! I’m tempted to do this to a plain Barbie that I have sitting on my shelf! Thank you!
I’m just a white guy, so I don’t have as much invested in this from personal experience, but I came across this story and I’m really impressed by the do-it-yourself spirit of it. Someone should submit this to Make magazine.
Next step, someone needs to figure out a do-it-yourself solution to make your Barbies not so damned skinny!! :)
LOL!!!! Thanks for your input, Dr. D!
Love the skinny remark!!! I just think the hair would be cute on ANY of the dolls, because I have super straight hair and always tried to get cute curly hair, I think it would be fun to do this on some Barbies just for variety. I have twin 2 year old daughters and they already love them. Funny thing, one of the off-brand dolls we have is a blonde with hair so kinky curly for some reason it shoots out from her head like Sideshow Bob! My girls especially love her. (We are white Hispanic)
I have a little girl and I would certainly buy or if I had to make it myself; give my baby girl dolls with hair like her own. I want my daughter to love her hair. I love my hair. No perm.
I LOVE THIS!!! I remember having a red headed doll with curly hair when I was a kid! I think my daughter would love to add some diversity to her dolls! She is a straight haired freckled red head, but really likes diverse dolls! Her favorite is a Clawdeen Monster High doll :) I think she would love giving Perms to her barbies, no matter what color their hair or skin is :)
Beautiful! Both dolls came out so lovely. That sweet little girl looks so happy with her new dolls. I love it.
This is wonderful. I wish you could make your technique all yours. Someone else will try to make it their’s , as often happens to Black folk.
one word…. AHMAZING!!!! thank you for sharing this!
I wish I had thought of this when my daughter was younger… we come from a mixed family (my mother is chinese, my father black / white mix… and my daughters father is also black / white… so my daughter has naturally curly, reddish colored hair but with fine coils.
I unfortunately gave into pressure from her (wanting straight hair, mainly being influenced by seeing a lot of it at school etc.) and started texturizing her hair…
She is 13 now and thankfully has decided she wants to embrace her naturally curly hair – but oh how I wish i had never processed it to begin with… I am so grateful for this wonderful trend toward natural, beautiful hair now and the variety of products available to help style and tame the tresses…
Naturality is beautiful!
OMG, this is the best remake of a doll ever. Thank you for making the dolls look more like us. God bless you for the esteem that you give our girls!
Good lawd, thank you for posting this tutorial, truly thank you!Purchasing ‘natural hair’ dolls are sooooo expensive.
Have two lil one’s in the fam and they desperately need black dolls, with hair like theirs or at least something similar, in their life.Thank you! Will be getting pipe cleaners this weekend-yeah!!
I tried this with bobby pins with great results! I wish i had a picture to upload. You simply use the bobby pins like you would use a flexi rod or straw set!
I love this. Although I’m not of African decent I’ve got a daycare child who is and now I know what I’m getting her for her birthday. She has the most beautiful hair, and unfortunately some people have made her feel bad about it and even though I have ethnic dolls NONE have hair that resembles hers. Thank you Thank you for this amazing and simple solution to this dilemma.
Lovely! Thank yous SO MUCH for sharing. I’m African American and had a Barbie when I was young. I remember having to wait until an African American one came out because my mom felt I should have one that represented me. I wish I had known about doing this to my Barbie’s hair back then. I kept my hair natural up until my junior year, permed it for 12 years and am now back to natural. My daughter has very curly hair and said to me recently that she wanted straight hair because everyone else in school has theirs straight. I had to explain to her that her thick curly hair is just as beautiful. She has quite a few Barbie’s of different ethnicities. We will definitely be changing up their hairstyles. Not only will doing their hair enhance her play experience, but help her to feel more confident in her natural in her hair as well. :-)
I have been looking for curly hair extensions and will try this with straight hair extensions. I hope it works..
How exciting…
Thank you..