“I love to comb their beautiful hair!” - Year 3 Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns (US commercial) https://ponyrescuehome.proboards.com/thread/97/little-pony-commercials
We have shown you the stylable hair on MLP toys, but why is this feature so significant? The incorporation of hair play in the ponies is stressed by the people involved in its creation, as shown in the Netflix show “The Toys That Made Us”, a a key component of its success. The hair play feature served as a way to remind the girls playing with it that this was, after all, a doll. Rituals of grooming have a long history as a tool for bonding between people, and the creators of the toy wished to extend that into play time with the pony’s hair. This effort of reframing play is shown in the ad below.
Just like with Barbie dolls, the ability to style the hair of a toy meant a reproduction of an already common cultural practice. A book, titled “Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion”, edited by Geraldine Biddle-Perry and Sarah Cheang, goes into detail on the significance of hair care and styling practices across cultural contexts. In a study of mutual grooming, researchers found it to be strongly present in situations of trust-building between people, with close friendships being highlighted (Nelson & Geher, 2007). Given the centering of friendship in the marketing of the MLP ponies, it makes sense to put forth this dynamic of play that would mimic real life situations.
Their mission was successful, as there is no shortage of online content regarding hair maintenance and styling. Below are two example videos sourced from YouTube regarding hair care and styling:
If you would like to see more about styling hair, check out this playlist.