Bobby Pins or Straws for Curling Hair

I heard about bobby pins from the Ginny people or the Barbie people. The use bobby pins as "rollers" to make tiny curls on the small dolls. So, I used bobby pins to roll up the short hair on my vintage dolls.

You can also use straws as rollers. Cut them in short pieces, and roll the hair around the straw, then secure it by sliding a bobby pin through the straw. Straws will make somewhat larger curls and is probably a better choice than bobby pins alone for the babydolls, but I will continue with the bobby pin story...

The photo above shows two dolls in rollers and two who are finished. Baby Face Sandy, in the middle, is getting a "perm" using small blue and yellow perm rods. My 24" vintage doll on the left is in bobby pins and the vintage doll on the right is already finished.

The vintage doll (above) had already had her bath and shampoo. I wet the hair down and clipped a bobby pin on the end of a small hank of hair. I used one bobby pin to roll up the hair and another bobby pin to anchor it in place. I found out that this requires an awful lot of bobby pins. I had to go buy another package or two in order to roll up the hair on my 24" vintage doll. And, it took me a couple of hours to roll up her hair, but she was such a beauty it was worth the trouble.

When the hair was rolled up, I wet it down with warm water again. (By the way, don't use HOT water on vintage dolls, it will ruin the hair.) I spritzed the hair with hair spray too. Then I allowed the hair to dry for a couple of days.

When the hair was completely dry, I unrolled it and finger picked the curls a bit to fluff them. Lemon Creme is all dressed and pretty now! She has been adopted, it did not take long to find a new home for this Beauty.

Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 Cynthia Stevens All rights Reserved