Daughter's Dolls Redressed and Heads Done, Finally!

In a February 2010 post, I shared an image of my daughter's remaining childhood Barbies. My plans then were to bring the dolls up to date with current hairstyles and fashions.  Last weekend I finally began the process by first restyling the dolls' hair.

From left to right the dolls are Teresa, Steffie #1, twin Christies, and Steffie #2.  

As illustrated in the image above, I nervously gave Teresa a buzz cut in preparation for the new hairstyle she would receive. (I have never intentionally cut a doll's hair in this fashion... how scary!)

With plans for four different hairstyles, I used pipe cleaners for Steffie #1 and the two Christies, and the tiniest of rod rollers for Steffie #2.

Steffie #1 was designated for a larger-than-life Afro because I refused to cut any of her long black hair, including her bangs. All of her hair was rolled from ends to roots, and I used a modification of Kristl's Rotini or Hair Halo tutorial to achieve the desired effect.


Christie #1's hair was pulled back into a ponytail before rolling the ends. The ends of Christie #2's original layered cut were rolled so that only the ends would be curly.  I tied a scarf around the top of head to hold the unrolled portion down.

I braided a section across the front of Steffie #2's head to frame her face and rolled the ends with rod rollers.

For a few seconds, each rolled head was dipped into a cup containing boiled water followed by a second dip into a prepared cup of ice cold water. All were allowed to dry overnight before the final styling took place.

While I waited for the heads to dry, I toned down Steffie #2's eyeshadow using a tan Sharpie marker. I worked around her existing upper eyelashes with the marker to only cover the eyeshadow.  Next, I applied Mendocino Red acrylic paint over her original bright orange lip color. I failed to update Christie #1's eyeshadow, which still screams 1980s, but she'll be okay.

I retrieved all pieces of a 2007 Barbie Fashion Fever ensemble and located the Bollywood outfit made for Mixis dolls, ordered months ago.  (This fashion is still on sale for $10.99, a great price for such a well-made doll fashion.)

After all dipped heads dried overnight, I removed the pipe cleaners and rollers and styled each individually.  The dolls were dressed in the most appropriate fashion based on their body type and accessorized with a combination of on-hand earrings and other people-jewelry fashioned into doll jewelery. After Teresa's brown Limbe Dolls braided wig arrived, they were ready for their photo shoot.

Frontal head-to-knee shot

Head-to-knee shot from the back

Teresa loves her Limbe Dolls brown braided wig.  Her Barbie Fashion Fever (FF) ensemble is nicely accessorized with faux diamond stud earrings and matching ring.

Steffie #1 also wears Barbie FF, a pair of my brass-tone arabesque earrings, and a toe ring as an arm bracelet. Sister Girl is rocking that Afro and makes me want to sing the chorus of Curtis Mayfield's "Miss Black America."

 The two Christies, also dressed in FF, wear gold heart-shaped stud and hoop earrings, respectively.  Christie #2 wears Barbie Basics shoes and a pendant necklace made with a gold earring and gold elastic.

Finally, the lovely Steffie #2 wears Mixis Bollywood with faux diamond earrings and ring. Her Barbie Basics black open-toe mules have a pink bow on the vamp that matches the color of her ensemble.

The redressing and hairstyling took several days to complete, but I had lots of fun throughout the entire process.

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Dear Daughter has a birthday within the next few days.  The good mother in me briefly contemplated re-gifting her with these dolls.  Because she no longer has any affection whatsoever for dolls, the doll collector in me thinks it is best to just show her the dolls and give her something else for her birthday that she will genuinely appreciate.

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