Tuesday, July 19, 2011

D.I.Y. Natural Dolls


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 nowhere 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

Natural dolls!

Grace and Chandra after their makeovers.

Don't forget to check out Kristl's blog! How to Play with Barbies

44 comments :

  1. Oh I love it! I am so going to do this to the diva's dolls, thanks for the post!

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  2. That is awesome. I will definitely have to try this for my daughters.

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  3. AWESOME! When I have kids, their dolls will definitely be getting this kind of treatment.

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  4. awww and they definetely look better with big natural hair!!!Good job :)

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  5. Great job!! Thank you soo much for posting this!

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  6. They honestly do look better; this is so cool I love it! Beautiful job!

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  7. Brilliant! Can't wait ot try this!

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  8. This is amazing!!!!!! Can't wait to try this out! Thanks!!!

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  9. I feel so much pride looking at those dolls

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  10. this is so great. I absolutely LOVE what you've done! It gives us MORE options. As we all know, there are many different hair textures "out there" and this really gives us the ability to choose different textures. I am so excited to see so many people interested in black dolls with natural hair. They are SO BEAUTIFUL.

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  11. This is a great D.I.Y! I will be doing this real soon for my nieces!

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  12. I wish the Walmart here carried these dolls I look almost everytime I go and can never find any grrr :(

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  13. I absolutely love this and will be making over a couple of dolls for my nieces. Thanks so much for posting this!

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  14. That is incredibly cool. I have to try it.

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  15. Those are awesome! Great job! This sounds like a project to maybe do with DD.

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  16. I may have to do this!!! This is just amazing and the cure to my issues of not finding any barbies with textured hair!! YAY the dollar store by me sells those IN STYLE Barbies affiliated with Rocawear :) Thanks so much for posting this!

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  17. Oh my gosh I absolutely love this!! Wish my mom knew about this back when I was playing with dolls!

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  18. These girls look so GLAMOROUS this way! I love it. Thanks for sharing!

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  19. You are a fantastic mother. I don't have any kids yet, but I wondered when I first cut my hair, what I would do with my own daughters hair when I have one.

    And then I discovered this blog.

    You have to understand. I know a lot of women, black, brown or light, whatever, who talk about how non-black/brown (lol) women have children with black men and don't know what to do with their children's hair. And I think that's B.S. Because I know a lot of those women often just slap a press or a perm in their daughter's hair and/or keep it in tight ponytails by age 7.

    I know that a lot of black or non- do this out of habit. But you, you actually took the time to research and figure out what to do, and I think that that is fantastic. It's something that many mothers of curly and kinky haired children just don't do. Because their mothers didn't.

    I still hear my curly headed half-Mexican sister telling me how my hair is pretty but someone else's hair (which was very like mine, but not as maintained) is bad or nappy.

    Thank you for your blog!! It's great. Sorry for the essay. I just had to tell you. Every time a mom says to me I don't know what to do with my daughter's hair, I send them here.

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  20. They look great Nikki!! Thanks for sharing!

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  21. Aww this is too cute! I REALLY love this! Thanks so much for sharing!

    So, I am sharing! Lol! `Blessings!

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  22. wow, this is such a blessing, to see a doll that looks like me. thanks for this

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  23. this is such a cute idea!! the dolls look great!

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  24. OMG! These baby dolls hair is HOT! Nikki, you come up with the most creative things to do. Toy makes should pay attention to what you are doing here. This would boost the confidents of so many kids. Keep up the AWESOME Work!

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  25. Love...Love... LOVE!!!! I have a 5 year old and this is too perfect!!!

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  26. oh my gosh!! This is genius!!! I'm sooooo going to do this!!!
    ~Karli

    www.curlyhairdoideas.com

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  27. such a wonderful post, I can't wait to try it on my 4 year olds dolls!!

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  28. I love this! I love the way you are putting a positive spin on having natural hair! I wish I had known all this before I got a relaxer! This is a wonderful idea and will be using it soon!!

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  29. Wow what a GENIUS! this is such an amazing idea, I"m the mother of a 2 year old and when she's old enough to play with Barbie's ALL her dolls will look like this. I hope you don't mind me reblogging this. (of course I will link your blog in the post) and here is a link to my tumblr
    http://millennialmami.tumblr.com/ Much respect!

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  30. which walmart can I get black dolls? im in Arizona??? smh

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  31. Oh wow! Love the idea! I have a struggle finding darker skinned barbies or dolls in general for my daughter here in Sweden, just bought a few on my visit in NY. I might order some online and do make them naturalistas! I always stuggle with buying straight haired dark skinned Barbies. Thanks for sharing!!

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  32. I LOVE THIS!!!! This is sooo great. I'm ready to go to the store right now. :-)

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  33. This is too cute!!! I need to do this with my daughter's dolls. She'll LOVE IT!! THANKS!!!

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  34. Is there a way to do more of a "Z" curl pattern?

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  35. This is an amazing DIY project for outlet girls! O will never give my nieces, goddaughter, or future children a straight haired doll again!!

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  36. Makes me want a litte girl!

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  37. Thank you so much for posting, I wanted to share that we're discussing it in my Race and Ethnicity in American Society class here (with full credit/linkbacks):
    http://race.iheartsociology.com/2012/10/diy-barbie-and-natural-hair-dolls/

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