Inspired clay-based depilation

The origins of this wallpaper cleaner made good are documented in lumpen detail elsewhere (go on, Google it if you must, thicko). But by far the most interesting fact about Play Doh is that it was first manufactured by a company called Kutol Chemical Products – a name so redolent of industrial toxicity it wouldn’t sound out of place in one of those post-apocalyptic ‘70s BBC dramas like Survivors or Doomwatch.

Another oft-ignored hallmark of Play Doh was its extremely evocative smell; to be frank, they might as well have pumped the cavity walls of the nation’s primary schools full of this stuff, such was its odour so particularly associated with one time and place. Show us an infant school play area and we’ll show you a marbled rainbow snake of branded modelling compound. Not to mention a few sticklebricks matted with brown-grey morsels of the stuff.

The newly-rechristened Rainbow Craft Co swiftly introduced additional accessories to help control and contain the enjoyment. First there was the Playdoh Fun Factory - a sort of press wherein a lump of the evocatively-smelling, carpet-staining clay was deposited and then extruded out into a variety of cross-sectioned sausages, to the great amusement of countless young children still harbouring a vestigial toilet fixation¹. The real genius, though, was the decision to ally this abstract device to a model person with holes in the top of their head (and chin, in the male instance), thus creating endless opportunities for “cut ‘n’ grow” streaky purple dreadlock shaving fun. Thus was the Play Doh Barber’s Shop born².

Despite there being something slightly skin-crawl inducing in the way the clay tendrils wormed their way out of each Playperson’s scalp, it would be years before such an image would be capitalised upon by the British horror industry (and we’re only thinking about the Hellraiser films here). Scissors, clippers and a sort of permanent wave clamp thing for the ladies added to the variety.

The Play Doh playset went away for a bit but has now resurfaced as the Barber and Beauty Shop, so we presume the obligatory TV tie-in version endorsed by Andrew Collinge or Nicky Clarke can only just be around the corner.