Black Dolls with White Hair

Why can’t I find a black doll that looks like me—not the way I have to kill myself to look?

Ever since I can remember I’ve always owned a black doll, usually a Barbie. My mother bought my first one because I only had white dolls, and she wanted me to fall in love with Black Beauty. Sometimes I’d carry her around; I loved changing her clothes and braiding her hair—her long Europeanized hair. I still loved to brush my black Barbie’s hair during High School when my own hair was in an Afro.



I recently moved and couldn’t find my doll (think I left it at my parent’s house). So I’m on a quest to find a new one—but this time around I want her to look more like me.



Talk about a task! Why is it so difficult for companies to make dolls to represent the variety of communities on this planet?

My research online yielded information about a new line from Barbie that is supposed to be African American dolls. Beautiful dolls. I applaud the effort—but they really aren’t representative of what we look like.

I’m not getting into body proportion—because no healthy normal women can have that figure. Not even going to talk about the skin tones (they did try to make various shade—though I suspect my future daughter might need a shade darker to reflect her beauty). No, you know I’m going straight for the hair.



Every one of those dolls look like they have relaxed hair or a weave—even the baby girl Barbie dolls in the line. How about some braids, locs, or kinky curls? Not only does a respectable population of adult African American female have styles to the alternative to that of the relaxed or weaves—how many of the young girls who play with these dolls don’t have straight hair (I’d wager more young black girls don’t have relaxers than their adult counterparts). How can we expect black little girls to think they are beautiful when the pervasive images of beauty look nothing like them?

The odd thing is that Barbie did make a doll whose hair, at least, was fro’ed—back in the 1980s!!Finding a doll that reflects me is going to be more difficult than I thought.

Picture #1- Barbie's doll from the '80s
Picture #2- Barbie's new line, launched late '09, with more coming this year


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Links
Essence Magazine: Parents Say New Black Dolls Not Black EnoughRead more: http://www.essence.com/fashion_beauty/beauty/parents_say_new_black_dolls_not_black_en.php#ixzz0fk5sU5sN

CNN: New black Barbies get mixed reviews
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/21/black.barbies.irp

Amazon's Black Fro's Barbie on sale:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IB7Q0Q/ref=asc_df_B002IB7Q0Q1032294?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=pg-1549-01-20&linkCode=asn&creative=380341&creativeASIN=B002IB7Q0Q

nikG just bought her daughter a black barbie with a TWA...
http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/02/natural-barbie.html
idk how much you could comb it, but it would still be nice to have one...idk where she got it from though

Its a rare thing, but hopefully one day there will be dolls that have actual kinky/ethnic looking hair on a regular basis and not just as special edition or something.

I could kinda kick myself for giving away my black Generation Girl barbie. I felt I was doing a great deed (and not just getting rid of old childhood stuff) by giving my lil niece a doll with kinky hair. I felt that it was important that she and her sister have the opportunity to have a doll reflective of Black beauty without needing straight hair. This line of barbie's had girls from around the world in a highschool setting/theme with two outfits for school and their career goal. Nichelle (the black doll) had curly/kinky hair that was done in two-strand twists I believe. You could make her wear it out or even put in lil rubber band for a curly pony puff (I think I untwisted it for a twist-out and never put it back or vice versa....Imma look up some pics) But I found out that their dog chewed up Nichelle's little legs. OMG, I almost cried!!! lol

I'm gonna see if I can find a link or some pics of the doll so you can see her hair; if was so tough for me to part with her [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Iri you beat me to it, LOL

@Lena_Jolie and @iri9109 Thank you for pointing me in the right direction! I'll contact nikG, but any links or info y'all have would be great! I feel weird not having a black doll in my possession. I know it's weird--lol

It is frustrating. It is very hard to find dolls with curly hair sold in stores.

The Barbie I bought my DD with the TWA was found at Kmart! I believe it was the last one, so either they had a limited selection or they were sold very quickly.

Here are some more beautiful natural Barbies that were brought to my attention:

http://www.barbiecollector.com/showcase/product.aspx?id=1003502&t=modern&t2=editions&x=editions&y=g33&sort=name

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-2007-GOLD-LABEL-BARBIE-HARD-ROCK-CAFE-BLACK-AA-MIB_W0QQitemZ200436264698QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2eaaeeaefa

Bad thing is, they are once again, not sold in stores!

I just remembered this one, which I saw at Walmart last year...

http://www.target.com/Best-Friends-Club-Fashion-Doll/dp/B002002FJM/sr=1-8/qid=1258400063/ref=sr_1_8/177-1212282-8340851?ie=UTF8&search-alias=tgt-index&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k%3Abest%20friend%20doll&page=1

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Mattel has two other editions of this Generation Girl line that I know of, it may be more. These pics are from the 1st/original one. They also have a My Room one and a Dance Party one for all the dolls in the line. You can find these on Amazon.com (that's where I saw the Dance Party Nichelle---too much pink for me lol), probably even eBay too. Mattel seems to not have anything in their database for this line anymore unfortunately

Omg how cute are those Lena! Ughhhhhh!! See. They need to sell all of these IN STORES!!

http://www.tabloach.com/[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
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@lexibugg: those dolls are AMAZING!! I love the ones with locs they're just beautiful! and the one with the fro is too cute!! Now whey aren't there more dolls like that? *sigh*

@lexibugg004- Those dolls are wonderful! I have to show those pictures to my 8 year old daughter.

I have what I think is the first black barbie ever made. I'm not exactly sure where she is not. Must have gotten her in the late 1970's. She is dark skinned with wooly hair. I'll have to post a pic if I can find one.

I just looked at a website that shows that barbie at the beginning of this thread as the first black barbie. I'm not sure what kind of doll it is that I have.

Lena_Jolie wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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Mattel has two other editions of this Generation Girl line that I know of, it may be more. These pics are from the 1st/original one. They also have a My Room one and a Dance Party one for all the dolls in the line. You can find these on Amazon.com (that's where I saw the Dance Party Nichelle---too much pink for me lol), probably even eBay too. Mattel seems to not have anything in their database for this line anymore unfortunately

I loved Nichelle! I remember spending hours one time just braiding her hair. It was so cute....must have been a sign for me to be natural. I have no idea what happened to her though.

lexi- I love those Barbies. I first saw them posted on CN. Gorgeous. The thing is, why do we have to custom order Barbies? Why do we have to order off of the internet or order from ebay? The point is they need to start selling more curly haired dolls in stores. You walk into a huge store and you're lucky if you find one doll with curly hair. (I got lucky at Kmart!) Maybe we can email them. Well, I'm not sure if that would make a difference, but maybe.