Barbara Gets Her Head Soaked

Spent some time and some money on an old doll of mine tonight. She is a 22" Ideal Saucy Walker Doll, from I am guessing the 1955 version, but I can't say for sure. She has red hair and her name is Barbara. She is missing a shoe, has no socks and no underwear, so I found the right shoes (I hope) and socks and underpants so she can be covered. Her hair was pretty matted in the back so I looked up ways to untangle a doll's matted hair. There is a variety of methods people have used. One was to heat some water almost to boiling, put it in a bowl and soak the doll's head for a while and start combing it while the hair is still in the water. That's a little awkward, but, long story short, as with all the doll experiments I have attempted, you just have to try something and see what works. Like the time I used a little funnel and a hair dryer to blow fungus out of a doll's eyes. That was memorable and almost miraculous, let me tell you. So, for a first attempt, we made a little progress but there is still a lot more work to be done. I discovered that probably working some of the tangles out with fingers to start is probably best. The one I used said to start combing from the ends and move upward which makes some sense. Anyway, I can't wait to put her little socks and shoes and pants on. She's been sitting on my dresser with one shoe on for about a year now I used to look for stuff like that in the local antique shops, but never find them. The market across from Bobo's in Topeka, The Market at MacVicar it's called, at 2307 SW 10th Street in Topeka, the one with Karl, the Market Cat, had a doll a lot like my Barbara one day, so I knew there were some dolls like mine still around, but until today I didn't know it was an Ideal Saucy Walker doll. She used to walk and turn her head and move her eyes somehow, but now she doesn't do that anymore, I don't think. It's possible she might be able to be fixed, but right now she's kind of disabled. Her face is in wonderful shape except something has happened to one of her eyelids. I don't know if I will be able to do anything about it. It's not noticeable except at a certain angle, and I only just noticed it for the first time just now. On the back of her neck, it just says "IDEAL DOLL," no number, no other marks. I'm supposed to be able to find out how much money I could get for her if I wanted to sell her. That's a possibility, but not something I'm terribly interested in. I have a few dolls from my childhood that I have recently acquired from my late mother's house, where they were unavailable to me for many years, so, naturally, their hair suffered some in that process. Anyway, I have always been interested in dolls, and I have made a couple or three or four cloth dolls, like four very large ones, the size of an 18-month-old child. It would be great if you could get paid for all the work they are to make, but you would have to charge more than anyone would pay for them. I like to think about what dolls would remember if they could, kind of like the toys "The Velveteen Rabbit." Kate DiCamillo wrote a really cool book about a toy rabbit called "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane." I don't remember much about the story, I'll have to read it again, but I loved it, and I think there are probably story ideas about dolls if I could ever get in touch with that part of my brain again. But until that ever happens, I'll just enjoy their company, knowing that they were loved by me in another time and another place. I have stayed up too late again as usual, goodnight. https://www.worthpoint.com/dictionary/p/toys-dolls-games-puzzles/dolls--types/ideal-saucy-walker-doll