I recently discovered Daisy Dolls, the cute little fashion dolls released by British fashion designer Mary Quant back in the early 70s. Daisy is only 9 inches tall, so a bit smaller than Barbie, and had an amazing wardrobe based on the same fashion as the designer released for full sized human people🙂 There was even a version of the doll named Havoc, who was meant to be a super spy and came with a ‘Kill Bill’ style track suit and a selection of weapons (including a machine gun!). Daisy was apparently very popular in Great Britain and the rest of Europe, but I’m not sure if she was well known elsewhere.
I searched around for a while to find a Daisy Doll at a not crazy price, as I hadn’t seen one in person and wasn’t sure if this was a doll I’d love. I found one at a good price and very soon Daisy arrived to me. The dolly was in good shape, but had hair that was a bit dry and frizzy on the ends. I washed and condition it, which improved it a lot. But I thought it could be even better - and this is where things turn ugly. I was vaguely aware that there were some vintage dolls whose hair shouldn’t be boil washed, but I’d never run into one. So I was perfectly confident when Daisy got that boiling water poured over her hair. And then her hair shriveled up into a weird brownish blob on her head (she originally had lovely silver curls).
I was super bummed I’d ruined my doll nearly immediately upon arrival, and moped around for an hour or so. Then, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to learn how to reroot a doll. I had the tools and materials on hand because I had been planning to give it a try, but hadn’t yet mustered up the courage. So I gave it a go, and two days later have a beautiful new dolly to play with.
I actually feel very attached now, as I always end up feeling very bonded to dolls I paint or customize myself. The outfit in the below pics isn’t one of Daisy’s original outfits, I’m still waiting on a couple of those I found on eBay, but I think it captures the spirit of the doll.
Fun piece of daisy doll trivia is that igra a toy company in czechoslovakia apparently bought them and sold the daisy dolls in plastic bags, I genuinely thought we had our own communist era fashion doll we did not ☹️ buuut you can still buy them new online, I got one in the plastic package
Idk about her fashions tho, mary quant would never, also she has some paint on her face so its possible these dolls did not pass quality testing 🤔
Okay I screamed reading about the boil washing cuz its the number one thing not to do with them lol. But the reroot looks super cute though
Taking this moment to bring up the gorgeous Mary Quant x Licca doll that came out last year <3
