Black Hairstyles for Dolls

I've found a lot of amazing guides for styling hair in ways that reflect the human black community. Here are the ones I have tried so far.

hanging out the the sisters

Afro

I used this wonderful guide from How to Play with Barbies.  It's a modified boil-curl that you pick apart with your fingers until it's fluffy. I made my dolls 'fro very large- I had intended to trim it more, but it's so big and bold, it feels wrong to tone it down! (I'll probably trim it down...)

Reading for a boil curl

picked out to perfection

Dreadlocks

Another How to Play with Barbies guide uses the doll's original hair and an iron. The guide says it takes 20 minutes- it felt much longer to me! But the results were a lot of fun- works great with doll hair that's already in bad shape. I even melted away the stump of unwanted bangs.

The final result is rather stiff, but it has a unique quality I like.

For a yarn re-root, check out this video by My Froggy Stuff. I found it challenging to work with a needle that was large enough to thread yarn, but small enough to fit through the holes. Size 20 or 18 seem to be the correct option- I bought a multi-size pack labeled "chenille."

Supplies for yarn re-root - also, get yourself a pack of needle-threaders

giant needle! You see why the thimble and pliers are helpful.

I love the results on this, but like all re-rooting, it was very slow. It took me 40 minutes to scrape all the original hair out of her head with a tweezers. Then rooting the outside circle of her head took one hour, twenty minutes!

Even with all this work, I find myself looking forward to the next re-rooting project. The potential for creativity and the professional looking finish are satisfying.

Limbe Dolls teaches how to make a dreadlock wig using pantyhose and yarn.

Using the pantyhose elastic to create a wig cap

I guess this would also be a good guide for making beanies

I didn't sew on my yarn according to instructions- I just did what felt right at the moment. (It worked okay.) This was amazingly faster than re-rooting.

A new style to cover up bald patches

Short Hairstyles

You can make a solid hair style with modeling paste, with this guide from Limbe Dolls.  (I haven't tried it yet, will come back.)

No Nap Time instructs how to make a yarn re-root that's short with full coverage. This was so much work. Even though the end results are so cute.

I didn't have a huge needle at the time, so I kept pulling the yarn apart, finer and finer... Also, I went through about eight needle-threaders.

The yarn goes through the threader, and the threader goes through the needle, and the needle goes through the scalp

After giving Kida this long hair style, is was hard to cut it down to the size I'd planned for her.

Kida with long hair

But, I trimmed it in a series, which was a fun process.

trimming hair 4... 3... 2...

maybe we'll keep playing with that trim.

This was fun, because as you can see above, Kida can also wear a wig over her new hair.

Flocking
I haven't tried it yet! We'll come back to it.
I've also seem glitter used- not my personal favorite, but interesting!

Last, I loved this photo of a doll by M Wilson. I copied it for Barbie using very small pom-poms. (The pictured doll is larger than Barbie, but pompoms come in many sizes, and you could do it differently than I did!)

This project was so easy and fun- I think it only took an hour and maybe cost $5.

Strangely, this doll was extra easy for removing her original hair. She was a glue-head doll, and this guide for removing the hair from gluey dolls is helpful - from Fantasy Doll Customs

What favorite hairstyles or guides do you recommend?

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