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.
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 pipe cleaners 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.
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?
Check out Beads, Braids and Beyond for more natural haircare tips for kids!
99 Responses
Love it! I will definitely be doing this to some of my daughter’s dolls!
I like this alot. With this, little girls will see that beauty comes in all colours and hair textures and will cultivate a culture of self acceptance. Great Job!!
OMG LOVE IT!!!! You should patent something because (M**) will come along and do it. Then charge an extra $10 bucks.
I am soooooooo happy to see this! I will definitely do this for my 4 year old who loves her natural hair!
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This is an awesome idea. If our little girls played with dolls with natural looking hair, maybe they will want their hair that way. My daughter is now age 43 .with no children, but I have step-grandchildren (2 little girls) and I think I will give them dolls with natural hair styles for Christmas. Thanks for the idea!
Makes me wish that I had a daughter just so that I could do this for her dolls’ hair.
Ah how sweet and cute! This a great idea I always wondered where these natural hari dolls came from.
I think there should be natural hair dolls. Some company should be the first. We don’t need Barbie! It may have the same impact on other companies as black women’s transition to natural hair.
There is a natural haired doll in CP Toys catalog. They have a website too.
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This is a wonderful Idea! I remember seeing Chime do this on a doll for an experiment. But anyway, I bet now they will start making black Barbie with natural hair now. I know they have her with curly hair, but she is so rare. We can just make out own now, but they will most likely start making her with curls so that they can get more money out of us!
I do OOAK Kelly dolls for charity and one thing I’ve discovered is that the Tamika dolls, though they do have the “relaxed” style common to most Barbies, the texture of said hair lends itself well to microbraid styles. I use an embroidery needle to separate three plugs for each braid; braid them together, then tie them off with cotton thread. I’ve seen other doll artists do ‘rows, twists and Bantu knots on the dolls too, and they all look pretty cute.
I have been looking for curly hair extensions and will try this with straight hair extensions. I hope it works..
How exciting…
Thank you..
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 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.
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!
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!!
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!
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!
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.
Beautiful! Both dolls came out so lovely. That sweet little girl looks so happy with her new dolls. I love it.
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 🙂
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’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 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 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!
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!
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
fabulous!
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!
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. 😀
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.
Pure genius! You have just invented something that affects so many women positively; no matter what color hair, it can be done for any of us girls with big hair! I hope you patented it! I hope you make a gazillion dollars… 🙂 I am just so impressed at your creativity and you deserve accolades!
What a wonderful idea! I wish I had thought of this when my daughter was little! I always had a problem with that straight hair, even though I always bought her Black dolls. This is just great!
WOW! WOW! WOW! Your dolls look beautiful! I wished my Barbies looked like this when I was growing up… Geez oh man, that is so creative & I love how easy & quick it was. Would love to do this to a doll that was a gift. Never give a straight haired doll to a curly haired girl again!
Wow! This is SOOOO cool. I wish I had known about something like this when my daughter still played with Barbie dolls. She did have one with coily hair but the others had straight hair. Those are all gone to Goodwill. Now she only has the collectible Barbie dolls that we don’t take out of the boxes.
Wow. The dolls you did look so wonderful! My daughters are brunette and blonde but they have dolls of all colors. As a curly redhead, I always wanted a doll with hair like mine but had no idea how to obtain the look. I am SO going to do this! My granddaughter is too little for Barbies yet, but this will be in my file of “Must do later” items.
Thank you so much for sharing these directions. I can’t wait to run out and get myself a doll to try this with!
All the best!
Deborah
Wow!!! Sister,
I was surfing the net promoting my business and I saw this!!! I am impressed. You are truly a beautiful Sister and worthy, because to take the time to create a way to change the style of the hair of, well….barbie doll so that it could reflect more of who we are as a people and then share it with all of us is… LOVE, God Bless you. I have two beautiful little Princesses this is “PRICELESS”
thanks,
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Best idea ever! Now all of my daughter’s dolls will have kinky hair. Very important. Love you for this!
I love love love this!!!!!! My youngest says she’s gonna try this with her big doll head….
I love it!!!
I’m a white girl and wish I had known to do this to my white Barbies back in the day! I love this hairstyle, especially when it’s shoulder length. 😀
I was jst about to spend $60+ to get 2 natural barbies for my nieces for Christmas, now I will do it myself, thanks so much!
this is so cute i want to go buy black barbies and try this out
this is greatness. my daughter will love this
YES YES YES!!!!
So awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m a white girl with curls and I am soooo doing this to one! LOL!!! Awesome!!!!!!
I love this. If I have a little girl, I’m going to do this.
I have a 2 year old niece who I will definitely be doing this for! As a kid, I used to braid my Barbies’ hair and put black rubber bands on the end. How exciting to find a new hairdo!
Wow! Adorable. I don’t a have a little girl but I have the urge to go buy one and try it myself lol
LOVE
That’s amazing!!Thanks for the tips. I wish I could even have black dolls as a kid because as Black French, there were no black dolls or barbies on the market when I was a little girl so I remember having white dolls either doing braids or cutting their hair and putting products to make their hair kinky lol…I even remember putting the foundation of my mom in their face!!! That’s why it’s really important for next generation to have good future reference looking like themselves and make them feel proud! Love it love it!!! Xxx
I’m loving these dolls!!! My 12 year old has been trying to get her hair that way. She will love doing that to her dolls.
You Go Girl!!
I know what my nieces and cousins are getting for Christmas
Those dolls came out looking really good, who would have thought to do that :). Keep up the good work.
These are cute!
Those look really awesome!
Barbies with a twist out. I LOVE IT! It makes me wanna go out and buy dolls all over again. lol
Great pics and cool tip!
We did this when I was little with Blue Magic and Barrettes!!! It never failed! 🙂 But that is a fantastic idea!!! 🙂
@NikG, you are a genius!!! I love the pic of your daughter with her barbies in the convertible, sooooo cute!!!
Brilliant! Her creativity knows no bounds.
Rare opportunity to show off some of my collectibles! I customized the hair on some of these by sewing in new hair and cutting and styling it.
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Love this too! Now that I see that consumers are able to permanently changing the hair to reflect natural hair styles, I’m a bit upset that the companies couldn’t hook their dolls with a natural style vs straight hair as well. :sigh:
Actually, more of the collectibles have kinky and curly hair. The “playlines” (dolls intended for children) tend to have straight hair. But you’re right, I think the dolls marketed to children should reflect more natural hair styles.
These are beautiful!!! I remember growing up wanting my hair to look like my dolls hair and how much of an influence my barbies had on me and I would love for my daughters to have natural dolls and love their hair and their dolls’ hair. Love it!!!
Loving the hairstyles and the outfits lol!
If it was possible, I will buy yours without hesitation.
Do you sell them after you customize them? If so, I’m interested. 🙂
OMG! I wish I had a young girl for whom i could “naturalize” barbies!
That is absolutely perfect! If I have girls in the future I’ll be doing that to their dolls’ hair!
This is amazing! I wish I knew about this when I was younger!
BTW, when I saw the image with the doll and the pipe cleaners still
in her hair, I thought it was a style. I said to myself:
“UH-OH….Barbie goin’ to a Carribean Carnival!” LOL =^^=
I really like it. I guess my only question is can it go back to straight? If you can go back and forth whever you wanted, that would be really cool. But I know we are dealing with synthetic fibers here, so I was just unsure of that possibly.
I love love love this. Can you come do my hair LOL!
This is too cute! I still love Barbie and I can’t wait to buy a few so I can try this 🙂
This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!!!! I know this is for pure enjoyment but this touches on a deeper issue in that many young girls are psychologically impacted and insecure at a young age because they do not see many representations of themselves in movies, books, advertisements, and yes… even toys such as dolls! When I was younger back in the ’80’s my mom would color the kids’ faces brown on the cover of board games and the like so they could look like me! (ridiculous when I think about it) But I’m so happy we have found one fun way to manipulate the images little girls are seeing so they can see beauty in their own likeness.
Thanks for this! Definately doing this when/if I have a daughter in the future!
My daughter has outgrown dolls…I want one for myself! If only my hair were this easy to style! FANTASTIC IDEA!
Great idea! I would love to share one with my 5 year old sister and I think I want one for myself too!
Omg that is soo cute! I don’t have children but, this makes me wanna go out and buy some dolls.
Super cute! I’ll definitely try this out when I have kids!
Brilliant !
What an amazing idea!! Now I can get my niece an American Girl doll for her birthday!
Love them…love them….love them!!!…wish these dolls were around when I was a kid. Need to purchase some for my nieces. Live in the UK so please email purchasing details.
makes me wish i was a little girl or had one! lol
This is great! I don’t have children, but I have a niece and my girlfriends girls too. I am a big kid at heart and I will be doing this. Looks like fun! I hope I get good results. I have a small black Barbie collection, (remember those Asha dolls)? I will get some new straight hair black dolls to try this on soon. Thanks for the project.
I really like it. In my childhood, I had melted many a Barbie doll head trying to curl their hair. I’ve hair to remember this for the future.
It*s so great.
I will do it 100 % !!!
I have a boy and a girl and both play with dolls, why not 😉
Where I live i never saw black dolls with natural hair. Even Black dolls with straight hair are hard to get.
I cant wait to make it for may children
You really shouldn’t let your boy play with dolls. Give him a ball and send him outside!!!!!!
Let a person parent the way they wish. Your comment is unbelievably rude and harmful.
Harmful. Oh Lord…
John
I respectfully disagree with your comments as an early childhood educator and former preschool teacher many boys play with dolls in the dramatic play area and act out roles of mothers and fathers. It is a myth that understanding how to care for a baby even if it is a doll has an adverse effect on boys.
Larissa your comment makes me so happy. I don’t normally comment on this site but to see a parent not hell bent on installing gender roles into their children… I felt compelled to comment. You’re going to catch a lot of flack from this (especially if you are Black) but please do not worry about that mess at all. It’s ok for little girls to play with trucks and build things out of legos and it’s ok for little boys to play parenting roles with dolls or dress them up. You’re children will be well adjusted and probably more socially aware early on than other kids (adults too), trust me.
WOW! that is amazing
http://sartorialme.blogspot.com
Awww. I love this idea. I wish I had a Barbie like that growing up. It was soo difficult to find a black barbie…. :c)
This is so cool! I Had about 7 black barbies, 1 Theresa doll, and a blonde barbie. I feel bad that the blonde barbie’s hair lacked color, so I used a blue marker to make her beautiful. lol
Love the options, gives little girls someone they can idetify with, when I was growing up the only options I had was to cut the dolls hair into style to create options….lol
I think this is one of the neatest projects I’ve seen on BGLH :). Makes me wish I was a little girl again!
Saw this on curlynikki – It’s a good idea and good for future reference. I really wanted to ask though:
As a child if I wet the Barbie doll’s head, the hair would dry frizzy and untouchable. Does that happen with this process?
what a great idea! so cute, they look adorable
Vonnie of Socialitedreams.com
This is cute. I love it. I have a son, but if I did have daughters I would so do this!
I am impressed! If I knew how to do this to my dolls 15 years ago, I might have had less of a “Straight hair” complex. The dolls look amazing with textured hair!