Friday, April 19, 2024

Q: Quick Curl

 

#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter Q



"No setting! No wetting! No waiting!" was the slogan for the Quick Curl Barbie line. The dolls in this series came with thin wires in their rooted hair that could easily be bent into curly shapes. Deluxe versions of each doll were later released. The Cara doll (shown below in the Deluxe version) was among the characters in this line. P.J., Francie, Skipper and one-time friend Kelley (below) were also included.

Barbie's friend Kelley (right). 

Original and Deluxe Quick Curl Barbie

Cara in one of her appearances.

The Mod Hair Ken doll was also made around this time and is paired with Quick Curl Barbie in this commercial: 


Mattel also used the Quick Curl feature on its Miss America dolls, and on Quick Curl Casey, a 19-inch doll from the 1970s (not to be confused with Francie's friend Casey). 

Quick Curl Barbie is not to be confused with Magic Curl Barbie  of the early 1980s, which did require wetting the doll's hair. That would also mean waiting.

I'd also like to mention Sport and Shave Ken, from 1979, seen in this commercial:


EDIT (4/21): One of the videos I'd included was marked private so I removed it.

7 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Ken looks pretty good with a beard!

Frewin55 said...

I keep popping in to follow this stupendous history of Barbie - it has become a guilty pleasure...
https://how-would-you-know.com/2024/04/pepper-and-quatorzain-poem.html

Sandra Cox said...

A great Q example.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Liz A. said...

That packaging looks so familiar, although not the doll. I think that was the era of my Barbie dolls, so that font and that look would feel familiar.

Brizzy May said...

I only ever had one doll. A Barbie doll. It was unfortunate that when I was gifted this doll I had only recently watched a movie on tv called Elizabeth and Essex. Essex gets decapitated at the guillotine. Must have made an impression because so did Barbie!

ghostmmnc said...

Fun post about the Quick Curl Barbie. This is one I don't remember hearing of. I can imagine it would be fun to style the hair! I wrote my letter B on Barbie this year for A to Z :

Anonymous said...

Wow. Never saw this shaving Ken. I was a big Barbie girl in the 60’s. Still have mine.