DIY Natural Hair Barbie's: Take Two

Were at it again and since our last rendezvous i have picked up some pointers in hopes to better our future experiences with creating our natural hair dolls.  I picked a doll this time around with longer hair about mid-back length and with this length in mind i wanted to try a different technique to achieve a different curl pattern...

This Barbies hair has a coarser texture to it and before i began i snipped about 1/8 of an inch off to get the straggler ends removed.

Remember in our first trial run creating our own DIY Natural Hair Dolls (here) where i just parted and grabbed a small section of hair and wrapped it around the pipe cleaner in a downward spiral form without altering its state. See below an example of what the section looked like before i wound it around the PC. 

Notice that i did not twist the strand and i did not do anything but simply wrap the section around the pipe cleaner. This was meant to create the looser type curls. I illustrated this on the latest Barbie that i did so you could get an idea of how i did it differently this time.

Below you can see that instead of wrapping the section of hair as it was around the pipe cleaner, i twisted it prior to wrapping.

This was done in efforts of creating a different type of curl pattern more closely related to a full afro from tight spiral curls.  I decided to wrap the twisted sections around each pipe cleaner differently also. Last time i began at the very end point of the pipe cleaner and just  wrapped the hair around it until the hair "ran out" where i would then wrap the PC around the hair twice to secure it in place and then clip the extra end piece.

This time (as you can see below) i bent then pipe cleaner in half evenly and set it over top of the twisted section of hair that was going to wrap onto the pipe cleaner, so that each even side was on the right and left of the twisted strand. I then twisted the two sides of the pipe cleaner around the base twice forming a nice secure base and the wrapped the twisted section TIGHTLY around the now unified pipe cleaner sides.

  

Exactly how i wrapped it the first time around except for there being two pipe cleaner sections i am wrapping the section around instead of one. Notice how there are the two end pieces remaining of the pipe cleaner. I just twisted them around each other twice securing the ends so that the pipe cleaner will stay on. I also parted out more sections this time for more curls that would be more tightly rolled.

I left those ends on and didn't plan on cutting them until i was done boiling the hair.  I learned a nice and easy way to cut the straight ends that are underneath the pipe cleaner as well as the remaining ends of the pipe cleaner without hacking too much or not cutting enough because you sure don't want to start separating the curls and realize you didn't cut enough. Its harder to go back and cut efficiently after you begin separating the curls or brushing out the afro.

I got out my "junk" medium sized sauce pot, filled it 2/3 the way full and let it boil vigorously.  Then I held the Barbie head first into the pot and let it boil for 8 minutes. This i did early in the afternoon so i planned on letting the Barbie sit and air dry all day after i squeezed the head numerous times to expel the water than was inside the head. THIS is VERY important to do so that mold doesn't accrue. Later than night i cut the pipe cleaner ends right above where i twisted the end pieces around each other ensuring that the straight ends were completely gone and the pipe cleaners would be easier to remove as i didn't have to un-twist all of the knotted ends of the pipe cleaners.

Here is what her curls looked like as i carefully removed the pipe cleaners from the hair by un-raveling each curl.

To me the resemblance is very close to two strand twists! I loved the unique and spunky curl pattern created! This time around the definition is very eye popping! A part of me wanted to just leave the style as is but figured HEY i want to achieve an afro so that Diva R could have a Barbie with a lovely full afro... So ill save the textured look for next time.

I decided my way of creating the afro would be to comb/brush it out. I began at the ends and slightly separated the curls so that the brushing would be easier. I held the Barbie in one hand and brushed the curls vigorously until i started to see the fro puffing out.... This was not as easy as it sounds (due to the texture and length of the hair) and using a comb was not a good idea either so i wouldn't recommend using a comb. Instead use a brush of some nature will give better results easier. Again no products are necessary in this creation.

Here is our beautiful fro-licious barbie <3

(The hair was straight as a board before with a slight coarseness to it)

I LOVE how cute and fluffy her beautiful fro turned out! I put a pony tail in at the very base of the head and finger fluffed the fro into its lovely roundness.

 

(SIDE NOTE: This experience also caused a casualty in a sense. I was trying to do too many things at once and the Barbies arms got a little heat burnt :( I think it was this barbie being of a different feel, because of her being the wet suit barbie with this coating over the arms and legs is what the root of the issue was in causing the shrinkage of the arms) Lesson learned- Multi tasking isn't always a great idea...

Good thing is that in our household things like that aren't even noticed in a negative light so i decided to just hand her to Diva R and say nothing, as things like that do NOT deem something as being unfit for play or an anomaly so to speak.  

Here are some more views of our newly vamped Barbie :) I ended up clipping a few random straggler hairs i seen throughout...

Diva R was so happy and thrilled to have a "fluffy" haired Barbie she tells me that she loves the Barbies so much that have beautiful natural hair in all their varieties. In her own words of course.  She didn't even notice the arms as being off key. This and her other two Natural Hair Barbies are her FAVS and they tend to always be around in the mix :)

This doll took me longer than the last two i did because of how tightly i had to wrap the twisted sections around each pipe cleaner making sure that i keep a steady amount of tension on each section so that the twist doesn't unravel as i was wrapping it. It took me an hour to do this ones head entirely.

Next i am on the search for some Barbie children so that i can make some natural kiddies for her... The kid Barbies seem to be her fav anyways... But their hair is always real short or in un-even layers so we will see what i can find :)

I love doing this and creating some natural divas for Diva R to play with as the normal straight hair Barbies just don't cut it for us because this isn't a strictly straight haired world :)

God Bless.

Diva R's Mommy-Kim