The Hunt For Ever After High: Holly O’Hair

Darn it!  My blogging schedule has been completely thrown off.  I was in the writing groove and doing well posting once a week when it happened: INFINITY WAR!  (I warned you about my fangirl tendencies?).

Instead of working on Ever After High reviews like I should have, I spent the last week researching Infinity War theories, ogling the newest Hot Toys Iron Man at Sideshow Collectibles, and (of course) watching Avengers: Infinity War with Sister.  I’m dying to spill the theories we’ve come up with about how the next movie might play out, but no spoilers today!

No, today we are resuming our hunt for Ever After High by introducing another new dolly friend: Holly O’Hair!

I still remember that day, back in summer of 2014, when Sister and I stood on Barbie aisle at Walmart trying to decide if Holly and Poppy O’Hair were worth their $30 price tag.  Obviously, we decided to wait and try to get them during a sale.

Worst decision ever!

Now you’re lucky to find a new-in-box Holly and Poppy O’Hair set for less than $100!  Besides Dexter Charming, these girls are no doubt the hardest and most expensive Ever After High characters out there.  Since it would take a miracle to find them at an affordable price, I decided to switch tactics and buy these dolls separately.

Thanks to her many releases, getting a hold of Holly O’Hair isn’t too difficult.  There are eight versions of her:

Out of all these Hollys, the two that caught my eye were Spring Unsprung Holly O’Hair and Sugar Coated Holly O’Hair.  In the end, I chose the one with the best price tag:

This Holly is part of the Sugar Coated line released in 2015.  The other dolls in this series are:

1. Madeline Hatter
2. Cedar Wood
3. Ginger Breadhouse (who comes with a kitchen playset).

When I got her (which, I admit, was a few months ago), she was $23.99 on Amazon; however, I recently checked back and saw she had increased to over $70!  Price jumps like this happen on Amazon, and I think it has to do with third-party sellers.  One day an item will be crazy expensive and the next it will be half the price with Prime shipping.

When it comes to Ever After High, though, I’ve noticed the cost is more likely to fluctuate up.  This is one of the reasons I hardly purchase Ever After High dolls through Amazon anymore.  Most of the dolls I want can only be bought from third-party sellers and are ridiculously overpriced.

Where do I go to find Ever After High bargains?  Let’s just say eBay and I are becoming close friends?!  But we can talk more about eBay later.  Let’s get back to miss Holly O’Hair!

Sugar Coated Holly comes in a lovely pink and gold box.

At the top of the box is a bookmark with a drawing of a little gingerbread man holding up a cake.  The cake has “Sugar Coated” written on it.  The inside of the box looks like a well-stocked bakery.  Behind Holly’s leg is a pop-out, paperboard table (or oven?) with one of Holly’s accessories (the cake stand) sitting on it.

On the back of the box is a description and recipe for Holly’s Tiered TrifleTower Torte.

The description reads:

Choose your own Ever After:

It’s time for the Fall Bake Sale at Ever After High, and the students have a lot on their plates preparing their fairy favorite recipes!  Each charming treat is royally spellicious, but which one will really take the cake?

Below the description is the “long, long list of styling ingredients” needed to make the torte and a little blurb from Holly saying,

“Every year I go to great lengths for the Fall Bake Sale, and this year the layered look is in!  Make sure you mix the cake ingredients until they’re in a good lather, so when they are heat-treated they’ll have hexcellent volume and shine.  Oh, I just know this cake will take the bake sale to the highest heights ever after!”  

Perhaps, but let’s not tell Holly that just yet.  She’s new here, and we don’t want to hurt her feelings, right?

Okay, now let’s get Holly O’Hair out of her box so we can introduce her!

Meet Holly O’Hair!

Here is Sugar Coated Holly O’Hair straight out of the box.  Besides her dress and shoes, Holly comes with:

1. A pink necklace.
2. A turquoise headband.
3. An oven mitt
4. A small cake on a cake stand.

I was a little disappointed to find that this Holly doesn’t come with a doll stand.  Typically, the stand is hidden in the spine of the book, so I assumed Sugar Coated Holly came with one.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  I really shouldn’t complain because Holly can balance decently without a stand and, if she needs one, I have plenty to spare.

Holly O’Hair has auburn colored hair and wears bold makeup.

She has light green eyes, purple eyeshadow, and dark eyelashes.  Her lipstick is light pink, and there are three silver dots on her lower lip.

Since she is the daughter of Rapunzel, it’s no surprise that Holly’s hair is quite long.  It almost reaches her knees.  Her hair styled in a high ponytail with a single braid allowed to hang loose on one side.

Like most of the Ever After High dolls I’ve unboxed, Holly came with matted box hair.

Oh well.  It’s nothing a good wash and restyle can’t fix.

How about now?  A doll should always look her best when making her debut!  Besides those tangles are beginning to bother me, and I’d like to get rid of them before continuing.

Here is Holly O’Hair after having her hair washed, dried, and lightly crimped.

I cleaned Holly’s hair using warm tap water and a teensy bit of shampoo just like I did for Blondie in our DIY Doll Hair tutorial.  The only downside to washing doll hair is it removes any curls and leaves the hair completely straight.  So, to add some style back, I crimped Holly’s hair using a technique I learned from Jlantis on YouTube.

Basically, you sandwich sections of damp hair in between straws and use bobby pins to keep the straws in place.  Leave the straws in overnight to make sure the curls hold their shape.

When you take out the straws the next day, your doll should have lovely, wavy hair!

I decided to keep Holly’s hair in a high ponytail because I think she looks fantastic with her hair pulled up like this and didn’t want to lose the dramatic effect it gives.

Now that she has a gorgeous hairdo to flaunt let’s continue with the review.

Like her Ever After High friends, Sugar Coated Holly has a good amount of articulation.  She can turn her head to the side or tilt it to look up or down.

She can lift her arms at the shoulders, bend them at the elbows, and turn and flex her wrists.

Holly can also lift and rotate her legs at the hips and bend her knees.

I love it when a doll can hold a variety of poses.  It makes photographing them more fun!

Moving on to her patisserie themed outfit, we see that Sugar Coated Holly wears a brightly colored dress and apron.

The dress is hot pink, has a strip of ruffled, lilac fabric sewn to the front, and secures in the back with Velcro.

The apron has an assortment of goodies printed on it and is permanently attached to the dress.

Next, we have Holly’s super sweet ice cream shoes!

The sides and heels are light pink with a waffle cone texture, and the toes look like big scoops of chocolate ice cream.  YUM!

For accessories, Holly dons a pink necklace and turquoise hair band.

Her hair band and necklace are molded to resemble little wreaths of flowers.

I don’t know about you, but I love Holly’s light pink and turquoise accessories.  I kind of wish the designers had used these colors for her dress instead of hot pink and purple.

Holly also has a pair of bright pink earrings which, unfortunately, are badly bent!

A doll should never be forced to wear damaged jewelry, so we’re going to get rid of those little eyesores right now!

Besides her necklace, hair band, and earrings, Holly comes with an oven mitt and small cake.

Her oven mitt is the same turquoise color as her headband and patterned with crisscross lines to make it look quilted.  The mitt slips easily over Holly’s hand so she can grab goodies out of the oven without getting burned.

This little cake must be Holly’s famous, Tiered TrifleTower Torte!

The cake stand is silver and has a removable, clear, dome-shaped top.  There is a handle on one side so Holly can hold it and show off the sweet treats inside.  The cake inside is pink and topped with a chocolate castle.

Overall Opinion:

Am I happy with Sugar Coated Holly?  Yes!  Is she without faults?  No…but, seriously, what doll is?

Yes, Sugar Coated Holly’s came with a matted mess of hair, but this was remedied with a quick trip to the sink.

The only gripe I have with this doll is that she costs the same as other Holly O’Hair variations but has the fewest accessories.  For example, you can get the Spring Unsprung Holly O’Hair for a similar price, and Spring Unsprung Holly comes with a more elaborate outfit and a doll stand.

However, that complaint has more to do with price than quality.  When it comes to quality, Sugar Coated Holly is on par with every other Ever After High character.

So, to wrap up this review…

Well, Poppy is a little harder to get a hold of, so we have to be patient until we find one we can afford.  But don’t worry, I have a feeling she will be here very soon?.

Yes, there are several more reviews in the works, and I hope to have them posted soon–that’s if I can stop searching the web for Avengers 4 nuggets!  I know, I know…Infinity War is barely out, and I’m already looking ahead to the next movie.  But trust me.  Once you see the film, you’ll want to know what the future holds for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes too!  For now, though, I guess we’ll just have to speculate!

I hope you enjoyed this review of Sugar Coated Holly O’Hair, and now I’m off to work on my next review (I’m pretty sure you can guess who it is?)!