A Barbie with natural-looking African-American hair? How to make it yourself

Mattel's Barbie I Can Be Pet Vet doll (Photo: Mattel.com)
Mattel's Barbie I Can Be Pet Vet doll (Photo: Mattel.com)

One of the problems some parents have with Disney's Princess Tiana and other dolls of color is that, even though their skin tone is some shade of brown, their hair is usually still classic Barbie, glossy and straight. Even Addy Walker, the African-American American Girl doll who escaped from slavery in the 1860s, has longer-than-waist-length, barely textured hair.

If you're looking for an African-American doll that's rocking a pair of puffs, twist-outs, or braids (and you can't afford to spend a fortune on one), you'll probably have re-style it yourself-and that's where this awesome post from Black Girls with Long Hair, by NikG of Beads, Braids, and Beyond, comes in.

She takes a couple of standard Barbies-the "So In Style" Grace and Chandra dolls-and sets about transforming their long, straight tresses into bouncy, kinky, curls. So, Grace went from this:

So In Style Grace doll (Photo: Amazon.com)
So In Style Grace doll (Photo: Amazon.com)


To this:

Grace with her new 'do. (Photo: Black Girl with Long Hair via BeadsBraidsBeyond.blogpost.com)
Grace with her new 'do. (Photo: Black Girl with Long Hair via BeadsBraidsBeyond.blogpost.com)



For those of us with curly girls at home, the idea of giving our kids a doll that really looks like them is pretty intriguing. The "perm" process is pretty simple; there are no chemicals involved, since a Barbie's nylon hair will "set" with a 10-second dunk in boiling water. And you can comb out the curls to get a big, gorgeous Afro or Halo. Check out the tutorial if you want to try it yourself!





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