The chopstick bun (Day 266)…
My hair isn’t quite long enough to do this anymore, but I used to be able to: as the girl in the above photo demonstrates with a Hello Kitty chopstick, you basically twist the hair up into a regular bun and hold in place with any stick-like object — a chopstick, a pen, a straw or a twig.
Providing you use a found object instead of buying something new, it’s a very eco-friendly way of keeping stray hair out of the way. It means no butterfly or alligator clips, barrettes, elastic bands, bobby pins, headbands, snap clips, or god forbid, the dreaded scrunchy (which almost made a comeback a couple years ago — scary!).
All these things are made of plastic or metal and come packaged in even more plastic, paper, glue and so on. So as of today, I’m not buying any more hair-related doodads, and if I’m in desperate need of an elastic, I’ll just use the rubber band that comes on my newspaper every morning.
Photo courtesy of Kristen Rudd on Flickr
November 21, 2007 at 3:16 pm
oh dear god…a RUBBER BAND?????? why dont u just wax your head….come on girl!!! did u already cut out hairdryers or something? style it and keep ‘er down!!! last time my hair was up was 1998. haha kidding. But don’t hurt yourself with those things…they pull out like a millions hairs.
November 21, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I use rubberbands on my hair all the time and I don’t have any problems. But my hair is also so thick that when it gets long enough chopsticks don’t really hold without feeling like they’re going to break.
What I”m trying to say is…go for the rubberbands if they don’t hurt you. : )
November 21, 2007 at 7:36 pm
I am in love with a leather (using up the whole animal here!) hair thing I got at World Market. It is pretty, reusable, and way nicer on my hair then a rubber band. Oh, they have wooden ones too. Check them out here:
http://www.worldmarket.com/Embossed-Leather-Hair-Accessories/lev/4/productId/6187/Ntt/hair/Ntx/mode+matchallpartial/Ntk/Def/N/0/Nty/1/index.pro
http://www.worldmarket.com/lev/4/productId/6188/index.pro
November 21, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I think shoelaces would be more hair-friendly than rubberbands. And they would last longer, too.
November 21, 2007 at 9:31 pm
As much as shoelaces are appealing… I still say leave it down. OR the chopsticks cause they’re cute.
November 21, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Rubber band from the newspaper … you still get newsPAPERs. Switching to internet news would have been an early change for me. Or like I do, reading the newspaper scraps at my coffee shop each morning. As a guy the hair thing is not such a problem.
November 22, 2007 at 6:35 pm
A friend of mine used to cut up old (=holey) tights to use as hairbands.
November 22, 2007 at 11:10 pm
I use cut up old tights for hairbands - they work really well and don’t break your hair like a rubber band will.
November 23, 2007 at 5:19 pm
For years I just made my own hairbands out of scraps of fabric and elastic from old clothing. Scrunchies (as godawful as they are) are simple to make too. Take a close look at the fabric hair accessories in the stores, they’re stupidly simple in design and can even be sewn completely by hand. Saves money too!
November 23, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I think I’ll just knit my own hair elastic…out of natual fibres…