My Life As Hairstylist review

It's Columbus Day today, and I get a day off!  Good thing too, because it looks to be stormy.  Now, to my mother's considerable chagrin I dragged home another eighteen-incher.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for a doll with goofy hair.  Meet My Life's latest hairstylist.  Not a new profession for My Life by any means, but dayum, she cute!

As far as I know, the only My Life dolls with names are JoJo Siwa and Ryan from Ryan's World, so I've christened my new poppet "Airy" because she looks bright and airy!  Hmmm...maybe I should've waited until spring...nah, she might not be in stores then.  I was inspired to buy this doll due to a photograph I saw on FailBook, where a young lady bought the hairstylist and Just Like You #88 for her birthday.  For the uninitiated, Airy and #88 both have blue eyes, fair skin, and pink and blue hair.  Their parts are also on the same side, though that's hard to see on my doll.

LOL, the similarities between those two remind me of Barbie and the Rockers, and how they were Mattel's answer to Jem and the Holograms.  I don't know how well American Girl is doing financially (I have my doubts due to the declining quality of the dolls), but it sounds like their newest Just Like You dolls have at very least caught the attention of My Life, because My Life is playing around more with hair and eye colors.  Aaaannnyway, here's a brief look at some of the things the box had to say.  Since I love kid-friendly gimmicks I was attracted to this.

Apparently the design on Airy's shirt changes color when exposed to sunlight.  When I was a little kid there were shoes that did that.  I wanted a pair and never got one...and my sister never wanted a pair and DID get one.  She never wore them because they wore blisters, but they wore blisters because she wouldn't wear socks!!!  That was twenty years ago and I'm still not over it!!!  LOL, anyway, Airy's shirt apparently changes color under sunlight, so I'll be testing that.  Also visible on the side of the box was the other hairstylist available.

Had I the choice I'd have picked the black doll instead, because her hair is purple and blue instead of the stereotypical girly pink.  American Girl has two dolls with purple hair (#86 and #91) and one doll with blue hair (#90), but they don't have one with purple AND blue hair.  Speaking of hair, Airy wears her hair like this in a loose bob with a small segment tied back, but when she was in the box her hair was styled like this.

Pigtails.  Cute, right?  Well...not so much.  Dig this.

I wore a hairstyle like this myself one time in high school, to my sister's considerable chagrin (her A-hole classmates made fun of her because of her kooky sister's antics).  Since Airy is a hairstylist I might've given her a pass for triple-ponytails, but there's unfortunately these to be seen.

Airy's hair is clearly not meant to be parted.  It's wonderfully smooth hair though, and it has a little twist on the top right side that's held back by a rubber band.

I have a few extra bows, so I may decorate that.  But for a hairstylist Airy...doesn't have much hair.  One would think she'd have a little more to play with, but she doesn't.  Oh well, I've heard nightmare stories about how JLY #88 has thin hair, so I probably shouldn't complain.

Up front Airy has the My Life face that a lot of us probably know and love/loathe.  Big eyes, thick lips, and a flattish nose.

The eye paint is what I was talking about when I discussed the World By Us line last week.  Makena, Maritza, and Evette all have painted lashes like this, and I assume they have sleep eyes as well since don't ALL American Girls have sleep eyes???  Anyway, Airy has rooted lashes and painted lashes, and this is how she looks when her eyes are closed.

She doesn't look bad, per se, but she does look a little odd that way.  All My Life dolls have painted lashes, by the way, so this isn't a problem specific to Airy.  Above her eyes she's got dainty multistroke eyebrows, and her eyes are bright blue with rooted black eyelashes.

The eyes themselves have a nice pattern and look a little metallic from a distance like Nancy's eyes do.  Compare that to Gracie, one of my Madame Alexander dolls.  Gracie has the kind of eyes that reflect a lot of light.

I compare Gracie to Airy because My Life used to be owned by Madame Alexander.  Gracie is from Avon and was not a member of the My Life bunch, but she's similar enuff to Airy that I can still compare them.  Gracie is a nice doll with a sweet face and thick, smooth, rooted hair, but her eyes make her a difficult photography subject, something that Airy avoids.  Now that I think of it, a lot of my Madame Alexander dolls have reflecty eyes like that.  I commented on that during Pussycat's review.

As prestigious a doll company as Madame Alexander is, one would think they'd find a different material for eyes.  Anyway, since the My Life dolls are supposed to be children they don't wear much makeup, though Airy could've gotten away with a bit more makeup since she's a hairstylist and all.  But she's not got much, just the same paint job that all other My Life dolls have:  peachy, lightly blushed cheeks and lips that are a little unnaturally pink but not garish.  Indeed, I rather like these lips, because they're full and softly painted.

Yeah, I definitely prefer this lip color to the stuff Sadie and the older Our Generation dolls have.  Note that Sadie also has reflecty eyes, though in her case it's the irises and not the pupils.

I love the Our Generation dolls, but bluish lips are not a good sign, kids.  Not that Airy doesn't have problems of her own.  I didn't look at her closely enuff in the store, or I would've seen that her eyebrows are slightly wonky...as is her left eye.

Not as bad as Xenia's eyebrows, mind y'all, but the uneven placement is there and I feel stupid for not noticing it.  At least they don't look like woolly worms.  On a more positive note, My Life eyelashes are wispy and pretty like human eyelashes should be.  Compare that to American Girl lashes (Lark is shown).

Hardcore AG fans make a big to-do about soft Pleasant Company lashes versus hard modern lashes, but I...can't say as I care much for either, especially compared to the wispy lashes that Airy and Sadie have.  Humans have wispy lashes, not clumpy ones like Lark and her buddies do.  Airy's eyelashes aren't perfect though, as they hold her eyes open a little when I recline her.  I can also see one of the eye pegs, something that American Girl fans were up in arms about a few years back.

Sometimes eyes that don't close are an issue with American Girls too.  I always like to joke that Felicity never truly sleeps, for example.  Anyway, no earrings for Airy, which is kinda a shame since earrings would've made sense with her hairstylist getup.  Most of the hairstylists I know always wear earrings of some stripe, from dangles on down to the simple little studs that we all love.  On the other hand I don't know of any My Life dolls that do have earrings, though we collectors can do that ourselves if we choose.

I take that back:  JoJo Siwa has earrings, though as far as I know she's the only My Life doll that has them.  And they're not even real earrings!  They're stickers.

LOL, I call JoJo Siwa "Psycho JoJo," but I'll be forever thankful to her for making hair bows "in" again.  I'd like to own this JoJo doll, but as my mother pointed out I've got too many dolls this size as it is.

Either way JoJo is the only My Life doll I can name that has earrings.  Lots of little girls have earrings now (I was eight when I got mine done), but let's face it, jewelry isn't the best accessory for a doll designed for kids.  Doll jewelry is usually the first thing to get lost or broken, right along with shoes, so  Lottie was definitely on to something when she didn't wear any jewelry.  Anyway, back to hair.  Airy has pretty, kid-friendly hair, but it's thin and there's not a lot to play with.  Usually dolls that are hairstylists have a lot of hair to play with...but that's not always the case, as one of My Life's past hairstylists shows.  The hair is fun to look at but not play with, but Airy's face is nice...especially those eyes!  Her electric blue eyes may not be the most natural shade, but I like them anyway.

Now let's disrobe this pet and see what she's got underneath.

If you're a hardcore AG fan and you've never handled a My Life doll before this body might surprise you, but if you're a hardcore Journey Girl fan it'll look familiar.  And of course if you're a hardcore My Life fan you'll probably roll your eyes and go "So what, Moon Girl?  What's the big deal?"  Well, seeing as my emphasis is on American Girls, the vinyl chest plate of My Life dolls is always a bit of a surprise to see, even though I know darn good and well it's there.  Now, that said...My Life dolls have a cloth body with the aforementioned vinyl chest plate, and attached to that are your prerequisite arms and legs.  In the past some My Life dolls had wires inside their arms and legs, but Airy doesn't.  No great loss, though Airy's body is not without its flaws.  Her joints are extremely tight, especially her hips.  Airy is not good at sitting or splitting at all.  She was able to get into the positions, but she only sat because of the wall and because of her soft body.

I understand that this stiffness is common for My Life dolls, but I'm still not a big fan of it.  I like when my dolls can sit without a fuss, like Rita Cheryl and Sadie can, and Airy and Lark and Xenia can't!  Yeah, Lark.  My little blue-haired buddy.  She's very tight and can't sit unless both her back and her feet are braced.  Her terrible posture is MY fault, LOL.

Xenia isn't great at sitting either, as I've established ad nauseam.  She has loosened up a bit over the years, though, and she can at least sit nicely now if propped up, and she doesn't have to have her feet braced against something.  So Xenia has improved in this respect. 

Sadie is not a graceful sitter either, but she can do it without too much fuss.  Nonetheless, I recommend getting your Our Generation doll some bloomers if she wears lots of dresses and has to sit frequently.

The thing is, I can restring Lark and Xenia if I so choose.  Airy is not strung like Lark and Xenia are, and thus I hesitate to force these joints to bend too much.  I don't think her joints are flanged either, the way Sadie's are.  In fact, I'm certain that they're not, because Sadie has no lateral motion in her joints at all.  Airy has a little in her shoulders.

As I mentioned above, My Life dolls have a vinyl chest plate, and Airy is no exception.  The plate consists of the upper chest, shoulders, and neck, and the arms attach here.  She has no clavicles (sometimes dolls with vinyl chest plates have that).

Airy's neck looks like it would be ball-jointed too, but it's not.  She can only look from side to side.

Compare that to past My Life dolls, who CAN tip her neck.  I don't have Alissa anymore, but she could tip her head.

Airy's measurements are similar to but not exactly the same as an American Girl's, and this is most obvious in the hands.  Airy has thick, rounded fingers.

By comparison, Lark has rather dainty fingers..  I promise that Lark's hand isn't this yellowed IRL, by the way; my flash made her look jaundiced. 

Gracie could be considered Airy's forerunner, and yet her fingers are more similar to American Girl hands.

Airy's right hand is molded in a slightly pinched shape, I assume to help her hold her accessories (she came with some hairstyling tools).  The only American Girls I can name with hands like this are Tenney and Logan.

A quick perusal of other My Life dolls showed that they too have pinched in fingers like this, which I like.  Here's JoJo's hand...

...and the hand of the farmer...

...and of the unicorn trainer.

Not only does this enable them to hold their accessories, but they can also hold onto a fingertip.

Ever since I reviewed Sasha I've kept my eyes open for dolls that can hold hands with their owners, because sometimes a little kid needs someone to hold their hand.  Heck, sometimes I even like it now, at thirty-four years of age!

Airy's legs are pretty unremarkable.  Like most eighteen-inch legs they're thickly built and straight up and down. 

In the past both My Life and Our Generation dolls had hollow limbs that would bend, but it looked unnatural and uncomfortable, so I'm glad Airy doesn't have those.  She has solid, rounded little kneecaps.

Her feet are squat and boxy, just like the feet of other dolls this size.  She has well-defined little toes and toenails, but no nail polish.

The cloth part of Airy's torso is made partly of pinkish cloth, and the cloth is significantly thinner than the cloth on an American Girl's torso.  It's also a softer body, maybe not as substantial as the body of an American Girl?

At the same time it's not as snag-prone as the torso of an Our Generation doll.  See how Sadie's body appears to be made of stockinette?

I make note of this because Sadie's body could snag if it catches on Velcro, just like an older My Twinn's body does.  Our Generation clothes unfortunately utilize a lot of Velcro, though I've managed to keep Sadie's body safe from snags thus far.  Airy's blouse also closes with Velcro, but since her body doesn't snag it's not as big a deal.  Here's Airy's clothes.

Since Airy is a hairdresser she's dressed in a style that I rarely see done correctly:  comfy AND trendy.  Being thirty-four means that I'm comfy and not trendy, while my seventeen-year-old self was sometimes trendy and not comfy.  Ugh, high-heeled shoes...by the age of seventeen I'd reached my adult height of five feet, eight inches, so why I chose to wear high heels is anyone's guess.  LOL, My Life dolls can't wear high heels, thus why I was mystified back in February when Gracie modelled an outfit with high-heeled platforms.  Speaking of shoes, I'm going to start with Airy's shoes, since they're the weakest part of her outfit.  They look okay...well, for chunky plastic doll shoes, they do.  They're a nice color and have a buckle that is molded but not painted.

The soles have a little bit of molded detail, like stitches and a bit of a tread on the heel, though the rest of the sole is smooth.  Talk about steppin' in a slide zone.  Anyway, these shoes have some respectable little details.

BUT...they are too big for Airy's feet!  See?

I'll have to get Airy some socks or tights, because her feet slide around in these so much that she can't stand on her own.  Good thing socks and tights are easy to find for dolls these size.  Going up now to where I usually start, the T-shirt is a plain white T-shirt, made not-so-plain with the design on the front.

The sleeves also help break up the monotony, as they're ruffled with green velvety trim.

The logo on the front is smoothly done, and it has the message "Have a GOOD hair day!" surrounded by the instruments utilized for cutting, styling, and maintaining hair.  The white area around the writing is supposed to turn pink under the sun, I think.

Yesterday it was sunny, so I got to check the color-changing feature.  The background and some of the tools change quickly from white to purple, and once Airy is out of the sun the purple changes back to white.  Not super-impressive, but it's better than nothing. 

To my considerable shock, there is an Our Generation doll that has this very same insignia on her shirt.  Her name is Ashanti, and guess what?  She too is a little hairdresser.

Hmmm...I wonder who did the design stealing this time, Battat or Cititoy?  Or did they both get their designs from the same third party vendor?  The ring of tools are different colors and the pattern appears to be reversed, but that's still too close there!  I'm not really not sure what to make of that, so I'll just move on.  The back of Airy's shirt closes with Velcro, which as I mentioned above isn't a huge deal for Airy since her body doesn't snag.

This kind of blouse could be worn tucked in or out, but Airy wears her shirttail tucked into a sparkly knee-length tutu skirt.

The skirt has two layers, both lavender in color, but interestingly the layers are hemmed together at the bottom instead of hanging free.

The underlayer appears to be smooth, and the top layer is covered with sequins.  These are individually sewn on in three places, which can't have been easy even for a machine.

Unlike the shirt, the skirt does NOT fasten with Velcro.  The waistband is made of this elasticized sparkly material that is roughly fuzzy to the touch.

Around her waist Airy wears her hairdresser apron.  This ties in the back and has two large pockets to hold her tools.

Since the pockets are large, said tools don't stay in place very well.  All three tools are made of plastic, and since Airy's pockets are large all three have been swatted around by a cat at some point. 

I wonder why the hair dryer is pink while the scissors and comb are blue?  Anyway, Airy has these, and when they're not in her apron she can hold them to a certain extent.  Or she can hold the hair dryer. 

The scissors open, though they don't actually cut.  I thought that was a cute touch.

Oh yes, I almost forgot...Airy also has a fuchsia scrunchie.  I usually leave this around her wrist, but she can wear it in her hair if I fight with it enuff.

Airy's hair is so short and her head is so round that I can only pull her hair straight back, and then her head looks like an onion.

Overall Airy's outfit is cute enuff, but I think I like past hairdresser ensembles more.  None of the real hairdressers I've known wore skirts to work (though that's probably up to the individual hairdresser), and most of the young ones I know wear louder colors than this (though again that's probably up to the individual).  In Airy's case my main beef with the outfit is those shoes.  They just look uncomfortable, as big as they are.  The rest of the outfit is fine once I get past my own nitpicking.  

Since Airy is close in size to an American Girl I want to revisit a set of posts that I did long, long ago when Denise was my only modern AG doll.  Lately I've seen a lot of American Girls wearing My Life clothes, but I know from experience that not all My Life outfits fit American Girls.  I tried a Madame Alexander-era My Life outfit on Denise back during the early days of the blog, and it didn't work at all.  More recently I found this Snoopy set on Etsy, and it was modelled on a My Life doll.  Just for the heckuvit I tried it on Doremi, who is slimmer around the waist than Denise is.

While the set looks cute on Doremi it's very tight, and when I seat her the legs ride up so much that I can see her lacy pink panties.  Even though Doremi is a Peanuts fan I probably won't let her wear this again.  Since you're available, Dodo, I'm gonna try shoving Airy's outfit on you, and Airy gets the outfit you're wearing.

Keep in mind that Doremi's current outfit is from Etsy and is not a brand-name AG product.  I don't think that matters, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.  Regarding the fit, Doremi's Etsy ensemble is surprisingly a little tight on Airy, at least around the waist, while the shoes are loose.  I had a bit of trouble getting the headband in place too, since Airy's head is bigger than Doremi's.  To my considerable surprise and delight, Doremi can wear Airy's outfit almost perfectly, with just a teeny-weeny bit of tightness across the shoulders.  The shoes look loose, but they too are a better fit for Doremi.  I'd have to try some other My Life outfits on Doremi to see how well everything fits, but this particular switcheroo was a success for both Doremi and Airy. 

I also tried Our Generation clothes on Denise back in the day, with varying success, so now it's Sadie's turn to play Dolly Dress Shuffle.  I can't find Sadie's stock dress for the life of me, but this winter getup will do just fine.  I have a kite-flying outfit on the way too, but this will have to do for now.

Not bad!  The Our Generation set fits Airy like it was made for her, while Sadie's slightly slimmer frame doesn't fill out the My Life outfit as well as Doremi's frame did.  The shoes fit fine, though.

Lastly, I want to test my little Kennedy and Friends doll Reagan.  I bought a My Life costume for her, but I don't know if it'll work on her or not.

Once again, Reagan's clothes and shoes fit Airy like a glove.  Airy's outfit is a bit big for Reagan but can be made to work.  Again, Airy's shoes fit Reagan better than they do Airy.  As a result, I no longer worry about the My Life costume fitting Reagan; since no costume fits perfectly she should look fine in it.

I do believe that covers it!

BAD

*Not a lot of hair to play with.  Since Airy is a hairstylist I'd have figured she'd have a lot of her own hair.

*Shoes don't fit!  The older My Life dolls didn't have this problem. 

*Color changing feature is not terribly impressive, and the design on the blouse appears to have been copied (or worse).

*Poseability is poor, particularly in the hips.

GOOD

*Hair is cute and manageable.  I'm a sucker for goofy-colored hair!

*I love the eyes too.  They're a beautiful, vibrant shade.

*Accessories are greatly appreciated.  There are Barbie dolls that don't come with this much!

*Clothes appear to be fairly well-constructed, though that skirt can probably snag or tear if manhandled. 

*I was thrilled to discover that Airy can share her clothes with Mattel-era American Girls, with Our Generation dolls, and with Kennedy and Friends.  I didn't think to try Carpatina clothes.  Earlier My Life clothes did not fit either AG or OG.

While it was refreshing to see a My Life doll that can share clothes with other eighteen-inchers, Airy was not a fun doll to review.  My main issues with Airy are her stiff hips and her loose shoes, both of which made it very difficult for her to stand up.  A nice doll stand would fix this, and indeed My Life stands were available at one time, but I haven't seen one in quite some time.  Airy is best left either propped up or seated, but she doesn't sit down well either.  I could nitpick a little more, but I'll just say that Airy is a cute doll that needs some new hips and some new shoes.  Seriously, the other shoes Airy wore helped stabilize her greatly.  I didn't show this, but even other My Life shoes help her stand better.  So if you do get this doll, definitely get her some new footwear!  Otherwise Airy is an acceptable little plaything and a good enuff doll to collect if you just display your dolls.  If you like a lot of poseability, another doll might be best.

Apples and oranges,

RagingMoon1987