Restoring A Used Barbie... Into An Action Figure!

Have you ever seen a gorgeous used Barbie and wonder, "If her hair was not messed up and she had a better body, this doll would pair great with my 12 inch figures!" In this tutorial, I will show you how to convert a secondhand Barbie into a fully poseable action figure suitable for adventures with your 1/6 heroes!

1.) Here is what you need!:

1. A good looking Barbie with hair that has not be cut (Can be found at retail stores, thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls, garage sales, etc.)
2. A Made-to-Move Barbie (Can be bought at Target or Amazon)
3. Steel tooth dog comb (Can be bought at dollar store)
4. Fine tooth comb  (Can be bought at dollar store)
5. Hair Blower (Can be bought at Wal-Mart)
6. Hair Conditioner (Can be bought at dollar store)
7. A slick Barbie outfit (Can be found at retail stores, Etsy, on other used dolls, etc.)
8. A doll stand you do not mind getting wet (optional)

2.) Find a Barbie that you want to be converted into a figure.

I was at an antique mall in Atlanta and was looking through a used doll bin for old figures. I came across this nice looking $2 Barbie and knew immediately I could restore her into something better. After some research, I also found out this was the 2003 Mattel Shakira Barbie, which is now worth a decent penny!

3.) Get a Made-to-Move Barbie with matching skin tone.

Typically, I would buy a completely new Made-to-Move Barbie doll on Amazon or Target, but with some luck, I managed to find a used $2 Made-to-Move doll with a matching skin tone at another thrift store! Made-to-Move bodies are fully articulated and come in most Barbie skin tones. They are also decently priced, well made, and ideal for customization!

Here is a side-by-side view of the dolls. I love those double joints; the Made-to-Move body is one of Mattel's greatest Barbie innovations!

4.) Carefully remove the desired Barbie head from the body.

When removing a Barbie's head from the body, cover all the hair as possible. You do not want any of it exposed to the hair blower's heat. I hold the hair in my hand like above.

With the blower, heat the head on high where it connects to the neck post. Avoid letting the heat get to the hair as much as possible. Do this for about a minute.

Once the lower part of the head is warm enough, carefully squeeze and manipulate the head off the neck post. Do not attempt to remove the head by pulling on her hair. The warm head should be flexible enough to bend off the neck post. If the head is still too hard to remove, reheat the lower part of the head with the blower. Remember to protect the hair from the blower.

5.) Remove the head from the Made-to-Move body.

Repeat the steps above to remove the Made-to-Move doll's head. Notice that I am protecting her hair as well. Be extra careful when removing the head from the Made-to-Move doll. This is the desired body, and you do not want to break the neck post off with too much force.

A side-by-side comparison of the decapitated dolls. The horror...

6.) Put the desired head onto the the Made-to-Move body.

Place the desired head onto the Made-to-Move neck post. Some neck posts may need to have a little trimmed off the top because of varying head sizes, but this post will fit fine into Shakira's head.

I decided to put the other head onto the other body. This is optional, but I usually just donate the unneeded pieces back to the thrift store.

Now you can legitimately pose Shakira so her Hips Don't Lie!

7.) Carefully straighten out the hair.

Now it is time to perfect her hair as if she is fresh from packaging. Grab your the steel tooth dog comb.

Start from the bottom of the hair and work your way up to the scalp. This takes patience, otherwise you will lose much Barbie hair.

After combing the major kinks out with the dog comb, use the fine tooth comb to straighten the hair even more. Remember, always start from the bottom of the hair and work your way up to the scalp.

After about 15 minutes of brushing, this is about as good as the hair will be up to this point.

Back view. It is much improved from its secondhand bag days, but it can still be better.

8.) Wet and condition the hair.

To perfect the hair, you must condition it. First, run the hair under water. Warm to hot water is ideal for straight hair. Cold water is ideal is you wish to preserve curls/waves of the doll's original hairstyle. I want Shakira to have straight hair, so I am going to use warm to hot water.

After, the hair is completely wet, grab the conditioner. I just happen to have Pantene close by, but any type of human hair conditioner can work.

Apply the conditioner to the hair. Not much is needed, just enough to make sure it covers all of her hair.

Lather the conditioner throughout the hair.

When the conditioner is lathered throughout the hair, grab the fine tooth comb and straighten out the hair again. Start from the bottom and work your way to the scalp.

All of the combing steps takes patience. We want the hair to be straight, so we are going to condition it as straight.

Unfortunately, you will lose stray pieces of hair with this restoration process. If you are patient, you will lose a lot less, and it will not affect the appearance of the finished hair.

After the combing, the hair ended up like this.

Back view.

9.) Let the doll sit for a few hours with the conditioner in the hair.

Allow the hair to sit with the conditioner the same way you want it to fall naturally. I have left dolls sitting with conditioner anywhere from 2 hours to a few days; it will not hurt the doll.

10.) Rinse the conditioner out of the hair.

Once a few hours has passed, rinse the conditioner out of the hair. Remember, warm to hot water is ideal for straight hair. Cold water is ideal is you wish to preserve curls of the original hairstyle.

11.) Recomb the hair and let the doll sit to air dry.

After completely rinsing out the conditioner, recomb the hair, always starting from the bottom and working your way up to the scalp.

When you finally stop feeling kinks, the hair is as straight as possible. With her hair falling straight down, let the doll air dry overnight. It helps tremendously if you have a doll stand. Do not attempt to dry the hair with a cloth or hair blower. The cloth will ruin the straightness, and the blower will ruin the hair fibers!

Back view.

12. After the hair is completely dry, recomb until the desired hair appears.

Here is the doll after drying overnight. The hair can be combed just a tad better.

Again, start from the bottom, and work your way up to the scalp.

The hair is finally to my standard. Is it factory fresh? No, but it is 99% there.

Shakira has been restored!

Bonus Step: If you find a Mattel DC Super Hero Girl, you can swap hands with a Made-to-Move body so your figure can hold items!

I had another stroke of luck, and found this Supergirl from the Mattel DC Super Hero Girl line at another thrift store! These dolls have hands that fit perfectly into the the Made-to-Move body. All you have to do is find a doll with a matching skin tone and hands worth swapping.

With the hair blower, heat up both dolls' wrists for about a minute and swap hands. Remember to protect the hair from the hair blower! Supergirl possessed one gripping hand, so now my Shakira will be able to hold something!

13. Find striking clothing for your new figure and enjoy!

After swapping bodies and restoring hair, Shakira is now ready for action! I found these clothes on Etsy for about $30, but you can find striking, cheaper clothing anywhere from retail to thrift stores. In fact, the shoes and cuffs came from a secondhand doll I found in another bag!

So for less than $40, I restored and put together a fully jointed and beautiful character to work with (or against) my Max Steel! That is not a bad deal at all, and it is one less doll wasted in a secondhand bag!

Restoring Shakira took me about 2 hours along with the overnight drying. I have done this process with countless Barbies, and I get faster and lose less hair with each one. 

One of the biggest challenges for 1/6 customizers has always been finding an ideal female counterpart for the abundance of male figures available in the market. With Cy Girls, Power Team, Phicen, and countless Chinese one-offs, my personal favorite female companion to my Joes is still Barbie.

Barbie possesses gorgeous heads, can be super poseable, and are easy to acquire for decent prices. She also has the 60+ years worth of fashion options accompanied by many economical and custom outfits on the web. The biggest downfall for Barbie are her dimensions. When Phicen can offer many bust and hip sizes, Barbie only offers a few that can pose to double jointed standard.

I hope you enjoyed my doll to figure tutorial, and if you have any questions, feel free to PM or leave a comment! Happy customizing!

-Chuck