How to Be a Barbie Girl in This Barbiecore World

When it comes to recreating a Barbie hairstyle at home, David Lopez, celebrity hairstylist and T3 ambassador, finds inspiration from the ‘90s-era Barbie he grew up with, with her long hair and a large flip at the end. “You can use a large curling iron like the 1.5 curling iron barrel from the T3 Wave Trio to smooth the hair and curl the bottoms up for that effortless, bouncy, Barbie flip.”

When Barbie Went Pink

Just as blonde became synonymous with Barbie more than a decade after she was introduced to the world, the color pink took some time, too. According to Culmone, the shift to Barbie Pink started as early as 1972 with the Best Buy Fashion line, then all of the Barbie packaging started to go full tilt in 1976 featuring the new “Bubble” font for the Barbie logo. The style is closely associated with the 1977 Superstar Barbie, which features the doll in a pink satin gown and pink, sparkly boa. “This creative shift contributed to the color’s association with the brand, which is now prominently featured in the doll aisle,” she says. 

It made sense; pink is long associated, quite controversially, with femininity, girlishness, and a gentler demeanor. One famous study showed that a certain shade of Barbie-esque pink, called Baker-Miller, had a calming effect on inmates, though replicated studies later showed it to have no effect at all. Some research even points to a link between pink and optimism, with increased optimism levels for women, though we’re not sure Science Barbie would approve of their methodology.

But there is a certain something about Barbie’s signature pink, especially in our modern age. It’s bold, loud, and vibrant — not the more muted, Glossier-esque, Millennial pink of yesteryear (2016). This specific hue is fitting for today’s post-lockdown, more-is-more mentality. The rise of dopamine dressing, maximalist interior design, and extravagant, bedazzled makeup all line up with the unabashed, unapologetic style that Barbie and her signature shade have always represented.