When we got our Wii, I was bald. So when my kids drew my “Mii,” my Wii avatar, they tossed aside the idea of making her bald like me, instead choosing a super short hair style.
“At least your Mii can have hair now,” my son Nicholas, then 10, explained as he drew hair on a cartoon character he’d named “Mom.”
I was instantly jealous of my Mii.
In the months that followed, Nick added hair to my Mii as my mine grew back in, making it black and curly when my real hair went in that direction for a while, before settling on its current light brown, straight style. I do believe he found all that drawing somehow comforting.
Enter Bald Barbie. Well, enter if Mattel would make one. It seems that two moms, one bald from leukemia and the other from lymphoma treatments, have started a Facebook campaign to urge the doll’s makers to sell a bald Barbie.
More than 120,000 people have “liked” the page, including me, even though I’m pretty sure you can make your own Bald Barbie with two swipes of a sharp razor.
Personally, I don’t care so much if the doll is made as much as it brings attention to cancer and money to cancer causes. But it just might be what girls who’ve lost their hair to cancer need. That, and Miis with a Jennifer Aniston ‘do.
Mattel told CBS News that they don’t accept ideas from outside sources, which makes me wonder what their marketing department has under their Polo shirts and khakis after they came up with the Tattooed Barbie last fall. (Note to self: Ask Mattel for Radiation Tattoo Barbie.)
Anyhow, does your kid’s Barbie really need to go bald? Or is there enough of that around your house these days? As for us, my boys never wanted a Barbie, bald or not.
It’s crazy, yours is the second post on this topic I’ve come across today in addition to mine! Can we just say the “great minds thing” is at play here? ha.
I can’t seem to embrace the idea of Bald Barbie. I’ll just leave my post’s link and you can visit if you choose. Thanks for writing your post.
http://nancyspoint.com/do-we-really-need-a-bald-barbie/
Nancy,
It does feel a little pinkapalooza, like you said. I’ll bet they don’t make it simply because it wouldn’t sell. Then again, they made a Statue of Liberty Barbie and a Tattoo Barbie. Those had bigger markets, I guess!
I read most closely the part where you described your hair evolution after chemo, because I’m in the very dark/very curly stage, wondering where it will go next. I miss my hair so much it’s ridiculous. I was quite brave about the hair loss while it happened. Not so much now. And I like it best when my boys still draw me with the long highlighted version. My Mii is similarly nostalgic. I think this fb movement has its heart in the right place for sure. I’ve heard they want to name the doll Hope, which I love. But maybe she should have growable hair beneath a cheeky pink cap?
Serenity,
I know what you mean! I didn’t mind being bald as much as I minded the suddenly and so-not-me black-and-curly hair. It was like that for about a year, and then my natural brown returned with some blonde highlights from the sun (followed by a little help a year later). The curl grew out, but it’s still a little wavy in the back, which is nice. It was easier for me because I always had pretty short hair, so it wasn’t far for me to go. In fact, now it’s longer than I used to wear it.
I love the idea of the growable hair for Bald Barbie, a la Fuzzy Pumper Barber with the Play-doh hair. HA!
Feel good.
Jen
Thanks for the personal response, Jen! It’s so nice to talk to someone who’s been there.
You tell me. This is my 12 year old Chloe and her story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1hlKHHunpg&feature=share
This is why she thinks this doll should be made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHnicrpLCVo
Her page if you want to check it out.
https://www.facebook.com/rockerchicchloe
yes us kids need bald barbies when ever i look at a barbie doll I feel bad it makes me think of all the kids like me in the world who look at a barbie and think why am I excluded from having a baraie that looks like me why is it that when im plaing with a barbie I get laughed at because it dosnt look like me think about that.
and I dont have cancer but at least I have a heart