Budding Dunedin hairdresser Imogen Dench is only 2000 doll haircuts away from getting her very own life-like full-body silicone baby. To raise money to achieve her dream, 9-year-old Imogen is offering to cut your beloved doll’s hair for the bargain price of 50 cents. She also offers nail polish and hair washing for 50 cents, but will throw in a free styling. “It’s so satisfying doing all the different types of styles, like curling and cutting.” She has so far had one customer, and decided to provide her services for free. “I can do bubble braids, I can do just normal braids, I can do ponytails — any plait really.” To practise, Imogen bought a mannequin head with a full head of hair — unfortunately she believes she may have fallen prey to some false advertising because the quality was not quite up to par. “It says it clips perfectly, and it’s amazing … it doesn’t clip perfectly and it is not amazing.” Despite the issue with quality, a new and improved mannequin head was not what she would buy, she said. “I would buy a full-body silicone doll — I will say that every time.” Imogen has two dreams — she wants to be a hairdresser, because she “like, really loves cutting hair”, but she also wants to be a full-body silicone doll artist. The dolls, also known as reborn dolls, are hyper-realistic, solid collectable dolls made entirely of flexible platinum silicone. Imogen said she did not believe she would be able to raise enough for the full-body silicone doll through haircuts alone, but she had more businesses on the go. One day in Herbert, Imogen and her friend grabbed a scrunchie maker and a ring maker, made some wares, and started selling them on the fly. A teenage boy gave them a handful of gold coins from his truck, and another teenage girl “just kept buying scrunchies”. They soon had a tidy profit. “We shared out the money between ourselves,” Imogen said. To kick off her doll salon business and raise more money to put towards her goal, Imogen has plans to make some flyers to pass out to pupils at her school, and she had already created her own website. laine.priestley@odt.co.nz
