Barbie Flip Reveal Styling Head Review

There is no denying the fact that I have a major girly girl on my hands. I suppose it wasn’t going to be a huge surprise considering I am one myself but I’ve always tried not to push my own opinions and personality onto Alyssa and let her decide things for herself. Yes, when she was born I dressed her in clothes I loved and thought were adorable and cute but from the second she could talk and realised she could have her own opinion she has been choosing what she’d like to wear. When buying clothes for her or when we are able to choose some to review, I will often ask her opinion on what she’d like – obviously that’s within reason but I think it’s important she has some control. She adores watching me do my hair and make-up and loves it when I do her hair and let her “play” with some make-up herself. So, when I was asked if she would like to review the new Barbie Flip Reveal Styling head, I knew she’d be over the moon. I’d been thinking of getting her a styling head so this was the perfect opportunity…

Now, I was never much of a Barbie girl when I was little – I had a few of them but the real fan was my sister.  When I found out that we’d be getting the Barbie Flip Reveal Styling Head I was intrigued to see how, if at all Barbie might have changed. I’m telling you, I want whatever she’s got because she hasn’t aged a bit! Revealing the box to Alyssa elicited an excited squeal followed by “Oh Mama! Is that for Alyssa?!” which of course I confirmed it was. 

Right from the start, I will say this –  you need a phd plus a full working tool kit to get into the thing. Okay that is perhaps a slight exaggeration but there was a lot of tape and twisty bits and hidden clear plastic bands and with the pressure of a young person, eager to get at it, you might want to loosen it up a little before presenting it to them.

“Now you can style and colour Barbie’s hair! Change Barbie’s look from blonde to pink when you flip her hair to reveal beautiful bright pink tones! Each time you change her parting, you create a new look with different colour effects! For the ultimate colour specialist experience, the set includes pretend colour play accessories: a colour mixing bowl, a mixing brush and hair foils! Barbie also has special colour-changing nails and makeup so you can give her a makeover once you’ve styled her hair! This set comes with accessories you can wear yourself including a hair extension and other additional hair and beauty accessories including nail wheels, nail stickers, hair bands and hair clips! Create any look you can imagine!”

This does have an age 3+ on it which means Alyssa is slightly short of that by a few months so I just made sure I monitored her with certain parts but actually she was more than capable of using it all. I gradually introduced her to the different tools so as not to overwhelm her. Firstly, she loved the fact that Barbie can go from Blonde to Pink hair with a simple side sweep and the pink is a lovely colour. Barbie is wearing a lovely silver sparkling top and we had great fun moving her arms around as well which either sit neatly under her chin or swing out when you’re ready to do her manicure.

Alyssa’s favourite part by far was the water changing nail varnish and make-up. I ended up getting an extra dish so that she could have warm water and icy cold water at the same time and she kept changing the colour of the nails and lips. NOTE: It does say this in the instructions but in case you have misplaced them, IF the nails or lips don’t change colour switch water from icy cold to warm or vice versa as the change may already have occurred and need reversing the other way.

I thought it was hilarious that Barbie came with her own hair foils which I have to say were a little tricky to put in and keep in, so I have put these away until Alyssa is a bit older to manage them. She comes with a pink colouring pen (which you have to bleed through initially my shaking and pressing the nib down) which you can also click into the back of a colouring brush to stroke through barbies hair. She of course has a hair brush and bands, but also hair clips which double up as stencils for the pink hair colour pen.

Barbie also came with some fake plastic nails and nail stickers for decoration which can be stuck on Barbie or (unbeknownst to Alyssa) the child playing with them so that is a great edition being able to do nail art and a proper manicure.

Overall, I was really impressed with the styling head. As I said, Barbie hasn’t aged a bit in all the years I’ve known her and is still just as beautiful as ever. All the different accessories are really easy to use and Alyssa enjoyed making Barbie look “pretty” with a little help from Mummy too obviously. This is a lovely creative toy for any boy or girl who loves doing hair or playing with their mummy’s make-up.

If you fancy grabbing one for your budding hair and make-up artist you can buy it in store or online.

*We were sent the product in exchange for a review – all opinions are our own.

**Product made by Flair PLC.