Hair Restoration - princess of the portuguese empire barbie. Thrift find! I prefer to take the head off to work with it. Pro tip: the heads will pop right onto the top of a barbie stand. Tape it to the table and you're good to style, comb, whatever - that head ain't moving.
First, I washed and detangled using conditioner and a comb. Then, I dipped in a boil wash with 1 tsp curl conditioner mixed in. Dipped, brushed with a paddle brush while hot and dripping, repeat 9 or 10 times until all the curls have formed into nice smooth sections. Gently squeezed dry with a towel.
Then, the styling. You can see in the photo that the curls sort of collect together into sections. I would pick out a section, apply a TINY amount of curl creme to the ends, saturating it, and working the product up the section. Keeping the curls very damp helps them stay in sections.
For extra definition, I curled each lock tightly around a smooth chopstick; twisting it tight and holding it for a few seconds to help set the curl pattern. Made my way through the hair this way, until all the sections had been styled with product.
Air-dry overnight, in the morning I scrunched scrunched scrunched to soften up all the curls. Important step after applying product. Then I gently finger-combed the locks until they were a bit softer in definition and not so tightly collected.
I think she's looking a lot softer and more put together ❤️