Doll-A-Day 245: Red Heads Week: Midge

   Today is the last day of Red Heads Week, and I'm finishing up the week with one of the most famous red heads in the doll world, Barbie's best friend, Midge.

Midge was the first Barbie 'friend', (As opposed to 'boyfriend'.), introduced in 1963.

Midge's last name was Hadley, but in 1991 Midge was allowed to get married, something Barbie has never done. (All Barbie's weddings have been 'fantasies'. Barbie is not allowed to get married.) She married her  boyfriend Alan, who hadn't been seen since his original run ended in 1966, back when his names was 'Allan'. When she married Allan/Alan her name then became Midge Sherwood. I don't think Mattel has ever mentioned the last name after Midge was married though.

 Midge disappeared in 1967. She just couldn't compete with Barbie's Mod Era friends and family, like Francie and Stacey. Ironically, Barbie's new friend PJ, introduced in 1969, used Midge's head mold.

Midge reappeared in 1988 as California Dream Midge, using the Steffie head mold.

Midge is using the Steffie head mold again these days, but she had her own head mold for quite a few years. Though Midge dolls without freckles were produced during her original run, they are rare, and every version of Midge since has had freckles.

 Another rare Midge produced very early on was Midge with teeth. She used the same head mold as our doll today, but a fine line of white paint between her lips gave her teeth. There are fakes sold as real Midge dolls with teeth,which are repainted regular Midge's, so be careful when buying a Midge with teeth.

Although Midge is usually remembered as a red head, and has been a red head since she was reintroduced, (And even her 30th anniversary reproduction, and every reproduction since has been a red head.),Midge was originally available as a blonde and a brunette as well as a red head.

Midge is wearing Barbie's Swingin' Easy fashion, from 1963.It's a green version of Barbie's Let's Dance, which is blue.

The dress is mine, but the Midge is actually Ivy's. I was trying to decide which of my red haired Midge's to use for this post, and she insisted that I use hers. Her reasoning was that this Midge is way prettier than any of mine. True, but...

 She also has the best hair.

In getting a really good look at this Midge, which Ivy won at one of the big Barbie auctions for $10 for the whole box of dolls, I'm pretty sure that Midge has had her lips and her eyes retouched. 

 And so we conclude Red Heads Week.I hope I haven't bored you all too much with my red hair trivia and memories of life as a red head. My own kids don't seem to think about their red hair very much, and float on through life like anybody else with 'normal' hair. I was the only member of my family to have hair this colour. Even my Dad never had hair as red as mine, and by the time I was born it had darkened. (Plus he always had a flat top, so he didn't have enough hair to be able to tell what colour it was!)So, consequently, I always sort of felt separate. It was nice to connect with my own children, who were the only family I ever had who had my hair. Although,when I had my first child I wished for the baby to not have red hair, because I still didn't like it, for the most part. When Emma was born she had dark auburn hair which turned blonde very soon. (I wished I had saved a piece of it, because she lost the colour so quickly and ended up with such a different one.)I got cocky and didn't even think to wish the red hair off my second child, and my son Fuzzy was born with a head full of bright orange hair, just the colour mine used to be. We had to start calling it 'orange hair' instead of red when he was little and learning his colours, because otherwise it confused him.When he started losing his baby hair he still had a tall 'mohawk' of hair on top of his head, and we've called him Fuzzy ever since. He always loved his hair, and so did everybody else.When I was having my third child I decided I wanted her to have red hair. Ken's hair is curly and I always hoped we would have a curly haired kid. I wished for Ivy to have curly red hair (Not clown curly.)And she did. Now that she's older her curls are pretty much just waves because her hair is so long,but when she was little she had curls. Her red hair is lighter than Fuzzy's.Ivy was born with the same dark auburn as Emma though. This time I was determined to save a sample of it, in case hers changed too. It's just her baby hair, I thought. It will all fall out anyway, so no one will see a gap if I take just a tiny bit from the back of her head, right at the bottom. So I snipped out a tiny piece, about the width of my pinky nail. I waited for that baby hair to fall out and erase the gap I had made. Little by little her hair thinned, as a baby's hair does. That gap, however, remained. Finally she had lost all her baby hair---except that fringe along the bottom of the back of her head, leaving my gap for all to see until it eventually grew out! 
  See you tomorrow for Skipper Saturday.