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View Full Version : Will Hairtoys Ever Go Mainstream?



iluvbooks
October 19th, 2014, 03:58 AM
Okay, so we know that long hair will never be a "trend" because frankly, unless people start wearing wigs and extensions (actually, not too far out), it takes way too long for a mainstream trend.

But. . .hairsticks, forks? You don't see many people wearing them. And with all the beautiful artist pieces, where it's literally like wearing art ontop of your head, I see the potential in a hairtoy revival.

Not that I want everyone copying our hairstyles (lol), but with buns becoming more & more popular, one has to wonder. . .Are we ahead of fashion? ;)

What do you think?

LadyCelestina
October 19th, 2014, 04:17 AM
I think the pretty ones are way too expensive to become mainstream :) Seems like those trendy hairstyle people would rather spend on products and hot tools than... haarschmuck :lol:


And I don't see buns becoming popular...Maybe messy knot-type things but those are best done with elastics.I have noticed that various braids are popular.

fiğrildi
October 19th, 2014, 04:32 AM
I very rarely see people wearing hair forks or sticks. Most of the updos you can find around here are messy buns tied with an elastic, or sock buns, not intended for protection at all.

I don't think hairtoys will go mainstream in the immediate future, as LadyCelestina says, trendy people are far more concerned about dyes, highlights, gels and irons, rather than handmade beautiful toys :wink:

dogzdinner
October 19th, 2014, 05:27 AM
Just messy sock bun/knots around here too. I doubt hair toys will become main stream, most people dont even realiese what is available.
Talking to my mother the other day and she didnt even know what a hair stick was. As for my father? He saw me wearing a lovely carved wooden stick and said 'did you know you have a big twig in your hair!?' LOL:doh:

CathyGo
October 19th, 2014, 06:03 AM
Trends invariably cycle back to short choppy looks too quick for someone to actually grow out their hair. Game of Thrones has some people wishing they'd take the time though so maybe that will be a push in the right direction.

darklyndsea
October 19th, 2014, 06:28 AM
Uh...when I was in middle school hairsticks were in.

DweamGoiL
October 19th, 2014, 07:15 AM
Uh...when I was in middle school hairsticks were in.

I've seen hair sticks come in and out of fashion so if next year's runway look have some Asian flavor, they might come back...you just never know. Hair forks I never knew existed before joining LHC and forget about Ficcares. I agree with the other poster that also price point drives the trend. Unless some high profile celebrity all of sudden starts wearing really cool hair toys, they probably won't catch on. The upside is we get to keep all the hairtoys to ourselves :bottomsup:

I mean, seriously, if competition is now tough with acquiring some toys like Lady Idun, Elymwold, Timberstoneturnings, Ravenscroft, etc. can you imagine if you had to compete with the masses?

Madora
October 19th, 2014, 07:51 AM
Hairsticks/forks will never become "trendy" (unless some celebrity sports them in their hair. Then the rush will be on!). Hairforks/sticks require a certain knowledge base and handiness with your hair. Most people don't want to spend the time learning how to use them, or style their hair in ways that show off the sticks. Bottom line: people want convenience and speed when dealing with their hair.

pixldust
October 19th, 2014, 08:54 AM
While there may be an outside chance that sticks, at least, could briefly come back into fashion, I'd be surprised if they did and I can't imagine the trend lasting long. Like Madora said, it requires a bit of patience and time to learn buns and how to secure them propely with a hair toy. Also, with the bigger is better mindset when it comes to hair, I can't imagine many people, who happen to have either fine/thin or short hair being happy with a small bun when they can can create a big-bun illusion with a sock bun or a pouffed up messy topknot.

schnibbles
October 19th, 2014, 09:07 AM
I had a pair of hairsticks from Claire's when I was in 7th or 8th grade (I'm 34 now, so like a million years ago) and when I wore them to school I was teased mercilessly. I still wore them for awhile anyhow, until the teasing on the bus became unbearable.

squirrrel
October 19th, 2014, 09:49 AM
Mmmm... I love the idea of hairtoys (what a fab description! Had never heard of it before I saw it here!). I think it would take me a while to learn how to put my hair up so one could hold it up 'properly' though. I also have tended to find it easier to put hair up in crown rope braid than in a bun... So sticks wouldn't help with that. I do seem to remember having some a long time ago though. The combs look gorgeous. :) Maybe one of these days I shall learn how to put hair up properly in a bun and use hair toys with it. :)

Carolyn
October 19th, 2014, 10:02 AM
Most people don't want to spend the time learning how to use them, or style their hair in ways that show off the sticks. Bottom line: people want convenience and speed when dealing with their hair. If people only realized how quick and easy buns are! I can do most buns in less than 30 seconds and I don't have to blow dry or straighten my hair. They don't have a clue.

Anje
October 19th, 2014, 10:28 AM
Eh, saw a Ficcare or similar last night in a punk music club. They're around. I occasionally spot sticks in the wild, too.

lapushka
October 19th, 2014, 10:33 AM
Maybe if it gets into some show or some such. Then it might "catch on". But I doubt that most people out there will have the patience to grow to these lengths just to wear these "hair decoration pieces". Mainstream? I don't think so. I don't see it, anyway.

spidermom
October 19th, 2014, 10:37 AM
I occasionally see a character on a television show with hairsticks. But the general public doesn't seem to be aware of them, at least not around here. I once bent over just before class at college and my hairstick caught the corner of the desk and was pushed out. The person next to me asked "what happened?" and I said "my hairstick fell out." She laughed like that was so funny! I don't get "the joke" though.

Hootenanny
October 19th, 2014, 10:39 AM
Eh, saw a Ficcare or similar last night in a punk music club. They're around. I occasionally spot sticks in the wild, too.

Yeah, I was going to say that Ficcares must be semi-mainstream since they are sold in places like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.

cathair
October 19th, 2014, 12:11 PM
I had a pair of hairsticks from Claire's when I was in 7th or 8th grade (I'm 34 now, so like a million years ago) and when I wore them to school I was teased mercilessly. I still wore them for awhile anyhow, until the teasing on the bus became unbearable.

Pairs of Claire's sticks were popular when I was at school too. I don't think they were ever used to hold hair up though, they were put through a ponytail or a bun with elastic.

Robot Ninja
October 19th, 2014, 12:28 PM
I think the pretty ones are way too expensive to become mainstream :) Seems like those trendy hairstyle people would rather spend on products and hot tools than... haarschmuck :lol:


The pretty ones are expensive because there isn't enough demand to mass-produce them. If they went mainstream, there would be, so you would be able to buy good-quality hair toys cheap.

iluvbooks
October 19th, 2014, 02:54 PM
The pretty ones are expensive because there isn't enough demand to mass-produce them. If they went mainstream, there would be, so you would be able to buy good-quality hair toys cheap.

Yeah, I agree. Plus, even right now, you can get nice ones for $30-40. . .which, in the world of fashion, isn't a lot of $.

Also, you don't need really long hair to use hairsticks. I've seen shoulder length people do it. And using hairtoys isn't hard, either. It's the easiest hairstyle you can do. My bun takes 20 seconds.

Hairtoys have gone in and out of style. Remember all those things you put in your hair in the 70s? Feather combs, flowers, etc? Or the 80s/90s? Barrette?

It's not so far-fetched that they could be coming into style, especially with all the trendy braids and buns, once somebody famous rediscovers them. ;)

chen bao jun
October 19th, 2014, 03:53 PM
People tend to like to wear long hair down, if they have what in real life is considered long hair (APL, BSL). Its what you see in movies and hair commercials and tv. 'Messy buns' are in style, though and you could use hair sticks in those. However there is also the problem of the intellectual, politically correct sort of person going after people for 'cultural appropriation' if they wear a hairstick. I kid you not. I have heard of people pointed out in their college classes and used as examples of what not to do by some professor, because they had a hair stick in (sometimes the professor thought it was a chopstick). it's easier to wear a pencil or a scrunchie and be left alone.
Ficcares have been seen on tv and preppie types do wear those and I've seen some flexi 8s in the wild recently.

Robot Ninja
October 19th, 2014, 06:14 PM
However there is also the problem of the intellectual, politically correct sort of person going after people for 'cultural appropriation' if they wear a hairstick. I kid you not. I have heard of people pointed out in their college classes and used as examples of what not to do by some professor, because they had a hair stick in (sometimes the professor thought it was a chopstick).

That's a small subset of the population though, and the fashionable types are perfectly happy to engage in actual cultural appropriation if it looks cool. And even that small subset tends to grow up, get out of college and into the real world and realize those issues they are so passionate about are a little less simplistic than Tumblr makes them out to be.

PixxieStix
October 19th, 2014, 08:22 PM
Hairsticks/forks will never become "trendy" (unless some celebrity sports them in their hair. Then the rush will be on!). Hairforks/sticks require a certain knowledge base and handiness with your hair. Most people don't want to spend the time learning how to use them, or style their hair in ways that show off the sticks. Bottom line: people want convenience and speed when dealing with their hair.

Exactly this. I've seen a few hair sticks here and there, and even a couple Ficcare's in the wild, but our society does not value the patience it requires to grow hair long, as a general populous we want instantaneous gratification. So, unless some big celebrities start sporting these the kinds of hair toys we wear, I don't see them ever having a big coming and going phase.

chen bao jun
October 19th, 2014, 09:10 PM
Small perhaps but vocal. Whether they grow up or not depends on whether they ever leave the academic atmosphere, or the type of circles where shaming people for not being up on the latest political correctness means you are either hip or 'superior'.
Personally, I figure that if nobody ever culturally appropriated we'd still be chasing our food around with slingshots, borrowing ideas from other cultures is a good thing...
Back to the subject of hairtoys, most people seem perfectly happy with scrunchies, claw clips and the occasional pencil--I guess they save money that way. Even a lot of youtube videos suggest putting hair up with bobby pins or a chopstick. My friends tell me that they love 'the cool things' that I have in my hair, but when they hear a price tend to stare and back away slowly....And I don't tell them the prices of the truly outrageous things (like my single ficcare superclip bought on ebay..) $20 for something to put in your hair seems outrageous to most.

That's a small subset of the population though, and the fashionable types are perfectly happy to engage in actual cultural appropriation if it looks cool. And even that small subset tends to grow up, get out of college and into the real world and realize those issues they are so passionate about are a little less simplistic than Tumblr makes them out to be.

truepeacenik
October 19th, 2014, 09:19 PM
Cultural appropriation seems only to work when it's members of the dominator culture.
So a Black woman destroying her hair with chemicals or wearing someone else's hair isn't appropriating (awhile wearing a part of another human, no less) but my jewish butt is when I dread. And I'm not part of dominator culture, I dropped out of it at 14.

People need to focus on real issues.

Dreams_in_Pink
October 19th, 2014, 11:14 PM
Hairtoys will never be mainstream because of the same reason long hair will not be mainstream. Hair toys require some length to function, past APL for most people to even attempt to make a bun. Right now people are chopping off their locks for pixie cuts, how's that possible? :D Oh, and extensions won't do either, i cannot imagine the pain of wearing a huge wooden hair fork among all those microrings :run:

Sparklylady82
October 19th, 2014, 11:21 PM
I had a pair of hairsticks from Claire's when I was in 7th or 8th grade (I'm 34 now, so like a million years ago) and when I wore them to school I was teased mercilessly. I still wore them for awhile anyhow, until the teasing on the bus became unbearable.

Those years are brutal, I am sorry you were teased :-( I wore hair sticks the other day and I got a "compliment". She called them chopsticks! Today I got a compliment on my ficarre! But several here are right about people outside of LHC not having the patience or talent to get their hair up with toys. When I explained to the lady that I had to buy the ficarre online or Nordstrom she said she was just fine with her claw clips :rolleyes: Oh well!

Spinder
October 19th, 2014, 11:35 PM
I've browsed around quite a bit, but nice hair accessories are super hard to come by around here. I got some hair sticks from one beauty shop, but found they were too smooth and slippery to really work very well. I'm hoping to find some nice combs eventually.

iluvbooks
October 19th, 2014, 11:37 PM
However there is also the problem of the intellectual, politically correct sort of person going after people for 'cultural appropriation' if they wear a hairstick. I kid you not. I have heard of people pointed out in their college classes and used as examples of what not to do by some professor, because they had a hair stick in (sometimes the professor thought it was a chopstick). it's easier to wear a pencil or a scrunchie and be left alone.

What culture do they think we're appropriating from? Hairsticks have been around for thousands of years, in many *many* different cultures. I recently saw an ancient Greek haircomb/fork on exhibition.

Rosetta
October 20th, 2014, 03:03 AM
Well, hairsticks and forks only work with very long hair, if at all (never with mine though!), so it's logical that they won't ever be mainstream if very long hair won't ;)

purplevickie
October 20th, 2014, 03:54 AM
I have some hairsticks I bought from Claire's in about 2008 when my hair was past BSL, so they were mainstream for a while. I actually went in to see if they had any recently, and was surprised they didn't... I've seen a few people in London wearing them.

I do think long(ish) hair is in fashion at the moment, but more for teens than older women. Perhaps due to Game of Thrones, perhaps a cheaper option than extensions! I'd say for up-dos it's more braids (especially fishtail) and messy buns rather than a neat, protective style requiring hair toys, though.

JustPam
October 20th, 2014, 03:58 AM
I imagine if anything hairtoy-like found it's way into fashion it wouldn't be so much a functional thing as much as it would a decorative thing. I've never seen anyone around here wear any sticks, forks or the likes anyway. I don't wear them either, my hair gets on just fine with cheap conventional accessories, plus I am slightly phobic of attracting public attention and don't want every nosey person I encounter asking 20 questions about a hair thing.

Caraid♫
October 20th, 2014, 05:15 AM
I can't really see it happening either- I've never once seen somebody wearing a hairfork irl (stick yes, occasionally) though I do see plastic french twist (goody brand) combs in the store. Maybe if there were more plastic versions or less expensive wood, but available to buy in stores it could become a little more mainstream. If it's something you can only buy on etsy or ebay, there's just no way it's going to be mainstream!

I do have a related question though- Do you feel that when you are wearing you "non-mainstream" hairtoys that it specifically looks non-mainstream or somewhat peculiar to people? Or maybe people really just dont notice hairtoys.
I wear hairforks mostly every day, and while I know they're not mainstream, I never thought to wonder if I looked strange or eccentric for wearing them. Not that I truly care in the end anyways! :laugh:

pixldust
October 20th, 2014, 05:27 AM
n
(snip) I do have a related question though- Do you feel that when you are wearing you "non-mainstream" hairtoys that it specifically looks non-mainstream or somewhat peculiar to people? Or maybe people really just dont notice hairtoys.
I wear hairforks mostly every day, and while I know they're not mainstream, I never thought to wonder if I looked strange or eccentric for wearing them. Not that I truly care in the end anyways! :laugh:

When I first started wearing sticks/forks, I did wonder if I would get comments on them, but so far I've only twicw had comments made. Both times I was wearing acrylic sticks and both times I was asked if I had a pen in my hair! I don't care what people think anyway, if they said I was weird I'd agree :D

Caraid♫
October 20th, 2014, 06:03 AM
n

When I first started wearing sticks/forks, I did wonder if I would get comments on them, but so far I've only twicw had comments made. Both times I was wearing acrylic sticks and both times I was asked if I had a pen in my hair! I don't care what people think anyway, if they said I was weird I'd agree :D

haha me too!! basically I'm weird and I already know it :p I've also only received a comment a few times about a fork asking if it was really keeping my hair up, otherwise people dont seem to notice or at least dont comment

Gertrude
October 20th, 2014, 06:56 AM
I have seen Ficcares in the urban wild in London on many occasions. They are popular with the business women working in the financial district near where I live. I have seen Flexis in the country at a folk music festival. Not in London. I have seen the occasional hair fork as well at the ice rink my 6 year old skates at. Group of ladies who are obviously friends and enjoy skating.

That said very expensive claw clips, the French ones, decorated and expensive looking fancy barrettes I see a lot of. They certainly aren't cheap and most big London departments stores sell them.

DreamSheep
October 20th, 2014, 07:09 AM
I haven't seen anyone wear one, but I do get a lot of people asking me how I use a stick to put my hair up and people notice changes in my hairstyle / objects holding them up.

Not sure I'm a trendsetter though - but it would be fun if hairsticks came into fashion. :)

Hootenanny
October 20th, 2014, 07:28 AM
What culture do they think we're appropriating from? Hairsticks have been around for thousands of years, in many *many* different cultures. I recently saw an ancient Greek haircomb/fork on exhibition.

Exactly this. The person(s) who are shaming people for wearing them are only displaying their own historical and cultural ignorance.

hanne jensen
October 20th, 2014, 07:33 AM
I see a lot of beak clips in hair. I also see many wearing beautiful chopsticks as hairsticks. I see a lot of mature people both male and female with hair at MBL to waist. Due to the tough economy a lot of people are saving money by not cutting their hair. The young schoolgirls are wearing their hair up in topknots or buns and I see some french braids.

Carolyn
October 20th, 2014, 07:40 AM
Well if wearing hairsticks is not politically correct, then I see that as a reason to wear them even more. Most people where I live wouldn't know a hairstick from a pencil from a chopstick. They think "long" is APL and waist is OMG long or creepy long. They see all buns as just buns. They don't see that there is a difference in the way a bun is made. The hairtoys I see are claw clips and elastics almost exclusively. There is a lady who works in the restaurant of a nearby truck stop who wears sparkly hairtoys she buys on EBay. We've talked hairtoys a bit but that seems to annoy Mr Cranky so I try not to talk to her too often. I don't think hairtoys would ever catch on here other than things that can be purchased at Walmart. The women with long hair wear it down, ponytailed, messy bunned or up in a claw clip. If they don't have long hair they have some kind of a shellaced, looks like a 5 year old cut it with nail scissors, Kate Gosselin pixie thing or they have a bob that makes them look like they have bassett hound ears. When I'm away from here I see more hairtoy usage. I guess it's maybe because hairtoys are more available in more metro areas. If I wanted to go to a brick and mortar store to purchase a hairtoy I would have to go to Nordstroms in Minneapolis or Kansas City. Both are about 5 hours away. Some of it is probably lack of availability and some is the price of the really nice hair toys.

cathair
October 20th, 2014, 07:57 AM
Okay, so we know that long hair will never be a "trend" because frankly, unless people start wearing wigs and extensions (actually, not too far out), it takes way too long for a mainstream trend.

But. . .hairsticks, forks? You don't see many people wearing them. And with all the beautiful artist pieces, where it's literally like wearing art ontop of your head, I see the potential in a hairtoy revival.

Not that I want everyone copying our hairstyles (lol), but with buns becoming more & more popular, one has to wonder. . .Are we ahead of fashion? ;)

What do you think?

If they were mass produced, then they would no longer me pieces of handmade sculptural art made from exotic pieces of wood. So the more I think about it, the more I think there needs to be a distinction between sometime like a carved hair toy and something bought from Claire's. I know there are ways of speeding up making certain hair toys, but even then they would become less unique.

So while wearing a stick or a fork might become mainstream, I don't think that the finer pieces will ever become mainstream. It would always be like the difference between buying a piece of mass produced furniture made out of chipboard from a catalog vs getting something made by people from real wood.

If they were a good, we would all be wearing cheap mass produced Claire's sticks. But we don't, because they are not very strong and not as pretty.

Robot Ninja
October 20th, 2014, 07:58 AM
What culture do they think we're appropriating from? Hairsticks have been around for thousands of years, in many *many* different cultures. I recently saw an ancient Greek haircomb/fork on exhibition.

Asian culture, probably. That kind of slacktivism doesn't care about inconvenient facts. It only cares about showing everyone that you are more progressive than them, and feeling superior for putting the ignorant in their place. Therefore, if a non-white (by the American definition of white) culture does something, white people aren't allowed to do it. So even though white people have probably been using long pointy things to hold their hair up since we figured out that we could, and modern white women have an established tradition of using long pointy household objects to hold our hair up, because Asian women's long pointy household objects look a lot better than a pencil, we're appropriating from them. Don't expect it to make sense, it's not supposed to. If you don't know what you're doing wrong they can yell at you even more.

pixldust
October 20th, 2014, 12:11 PM
Asian culture, probably. That kind of slacktivism doesn't care about inconvenient facts. It only cares about showing everyone that you are more progressive than them, and feeling superior for putting the ignorant in their place. Therefore, if a non-white (by the American definition of white) culture does something, white people aren't allowed to do it. So even though white people have probably been using long pointy things to hold their hair up since we figured out that we could, and modern white women have an established tradition of using long pointy household objects to hold our hair up, because Asian women's long pointy household objects look a lot better than a pencil, we're appropriating from them. Don't expect it to make sense, it's not supposed to. If you don't know what you're doing wrong they can yell at you even more.

Agree 100%. Hairsticks will instantly be associated with Asia, particularly China, and no one would think to consider that other cultures may have had the same ideas for what made good hair ornaments.

iluvbooks
October 20th, 2014, 07:33 PM
If they were mass produced, then they would no longer me pieces of handmade sculptural art made from exotic pieces of wood. So the more I think about it, the more I think there needs to be a distinction between sometime like a carved hair toy and something bought from Claire's. I know there are ways of speeding up making certain hair toys, but even then they would become less unique.

So while wearing a stick or a fork might become mainstream, I don't think that the finer pieces will ever become mainstream. It would always be like the difference between buying a piece of mass produced furniture made out of chipboard from a catalog vs getting something made by people from real wood.

If they were a good, we would all be wearing cheap mass produced Claire's sticks. But we don't, because they are not very strong and not as pretty.

I agree. I just meant hairforks and sticks in general.

But we can go a step further, now with Etsy becoming more and more popular, especially with the diy/green movement that promotes buying directly from artists instead of Big Business, I can see people saving up and buying a nice piece, if hairtoys became fashionable. Especially if a celebrity who was wearing one specifically said which shop they got it from, similar to how they say which designer designed their red-carpet dress.

chen bao jun
October 20th, 2014, 07:54 PM
I can't see one of a kind artistic hairtoys ever becoming popular again unless truly long well cared hair becomes popular, as it was before 1920 (which is also the date at which beautiful hairtoys went out of fashion).
Truly long well cared hair is not going to come into style again, in my opinion, because a) it takes patience to grow and you can't follow every hair trend out there b)people are fooled and think it is a lot of trouble to care for and c)the beauty parlor culture is too well entrenched, after about a century of it. People don't feel 'groomed' without their expensive color and cut and that is what they are spending their money on. So I think Ficcare is about as mainstream as it is going to get.

chen bao jun
October 20th, 2014, 07:59 PM
I don't see PC shaming going away any time soon either, as it is thoroughly entrenched in colleges at this point, and the better high schools, so the intelligent young people don't know any other way to think. If you challenge their view of the world, they have been taught to regard YOU as either uninformed or malicious, facts have nothing to do with this anymore, but that's another subject.

Santi
October 21st, 2014, 12:16 AM
I was in a shop today called Claire's. They sell inexpensive accessories for girls & have stores in malls through out the States. I checked out the hair section & came across hair sticks, hair combs & beak clips. They also sell The Twist. It's a seamless clamp and hair stick combination. I don't know how long these items have been available b/c I only go there when shopping for gifts. I purchased The Twist, hair sticks & this thing called Half Up. I would have purchased the hair comb if it was available in black. I know they are cheap quality, I couldn't resist. I made my first peacock twist today using my new hair sticks. I'm not sure if hair toys in Claire's is considered mainstream but I sure am happy that I have access to them.

Ingrid
October 21st, 2014, 03:14 AM
I've seen fakkares and claw-clips on a very rare occasion. I've only seen one girl wearing a pencil as a hair stick around here. There was a headband trend a few years ago but I wouldn't really consider it a hairtoy. I think it's a pretty slim chance that hairtoys will become mainstream here any time soon, particularly as there is this cultural perception that hair worn loose is "sexier" and it seems to be look that people are set on striving towards. Plus people here think that long hair worn up is old-fashioned and boring and so they're less likely to look into various ways it can be worn up. Also, people associate putting hair up with a million bobby pins and so tend to give up before they start. And chen bao jun I agree with you - I think your points are spot-on.

iluvbooks
October 21st, 2014, 03:56 AM
I can't see one of a kind artistic hairtoys ever becoming popular again unless truly long well cared hair becomes popular, as it was before 1920 (which is also the date at which beautiful hairtoys went out of fashion).
Truly long well cared hair is not going to come into style again, in my opinion, because a) it takes patience to grow and you can't follow every hair trend out there b)people are fooled and think it is a lot of trouble to care for and c)the beauty parlor culture is too well entrenched, after about a century of it. People don't feel 'groomed' without their expensive color and cut and that is what they are spending their money on. So I think Ficcare is about as mainstream as it is going to get.

Well, to be fair, you don't need long hair for sticks or forks. They can work for basically anything at shoulder or below.

And you're right that haircombs/forks went out of fashion after the 1920's. I've never thought about that before. I see Victorian haircombs on eBay, and some studded art deco 20's ones, but none after that. Good point.

iluvbooks
October 21st, 2014, 04:02 AM
I don't see PC shaming going away any time soon either,...

Do people really do that? I sure hope not. Has someone commented on your sticks before? Usually appropriation means something being stolen that is harmful to a culture, ie. an underwear model wearing a native headdress is seen as disrespectful to the natives, because their headdress is sacred and is basically the same thing as a solider's medals.) I'd be shocked to hear people actually going out and shaming us for our sticks, considering there have been so many cultures to have worn them, and we aren't harming any of them.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/57/50/04/575004e2c12f9be23559a4721ed09464.jpg
Just for fun - This is a Roman woman's haircomb, she would use this in her hair, as well as actual sticks. She could also brush her hair with this.

fiğrildi
October 21st, 2014, 04:08 AM
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/57/50/04/575004e2c12f9be23559a4721ed09464.jpg
Just for fun - This is a Roman woman's haircomb, she would use this in her hair, as well as actual sticks. She could also brush her hair with this.

This is very interesting. Thanks for sharing :)

Angels+Eyeliner
October 21st, 2014, 04:36 AM
I had a pair of hairsticks from Claire's when I was in 7th or 8th grade (I'm 34 now, so like a million years ago) and when I wore them to school I was teased mercilessly. I still wore them for awhile anyhow, until the teasing on the bus became unbearable.

This is pretty much word for word what I wanted to write, but I was in year 8 and I'm 22 now. I reported the bullying and got pulled in front of the head of year and told to leave my hair sticks at home because they were 'weapons'.

fiğrildi
October 21st, 2014, 04:45 AM
I reported the bullying and got pulled in front of the head of year and told to leave my hair sticks at home because they were 'weapons'.

This is awful, it's amazing how much cruel kids can be.

The fact that hair sticks can be used as a weapon is an advantage!
If I ever happen to be a castaway in a desert island, I can use my hair stick for fishing, and to attack possible monkeys trying to steal my bananas :p

Morganaa
October 21st, 2014, 07:25 AM
Big NO, IMO.

I once read a thread here about which types of hairtoys people used in your everyday life... I work in Paris, so I see a lot of people either at work (bookshop) or on the train, and I tried to look closely at what I could see (I do that occasionally on my own already). And I was greatly disapointed. Hairties, plastic claws... that's it. When I see a "hairstick" it's chopsticks. Never saw a fork irl outside my home. But I did saw an indecent amount of office rubbers and pens... Quite sad.

_ Long hair trend : nope, not without the help of extensions and wigs for sure. Too much work, too much patience and too much willpower against the ever new hairstyles/trends. Hairdressers usually want you to get some layers or simply cut because all this thickness is a crime, so you must be strong or find someone you trust not to butcher you.

_ DIY/handmade trend : not that much. For what I can see here and on youtube, it's the economic gain people are looking for the most (talking mainstream here) with a little good conscience in the mix and DIY is not always less expensive. Handmade can be way more expensive. Too much for something that's not a mini computer that can prepare your coffee while singing the baby to sleep.

_ Exploring a new universe : you have to try different sizes, styles and makers to discover what suits you the most. Not talking colors/textures/grains, etc. A few mistakes/fails and most people will stop bothering.

cathair
October 21st, 2014, 09:16 AM
This is pretty much word for word what I wanted to write, but I was in year 8 and I'm 22 now. I reported the bullying and got pulled in front of the head of year and told to leave my hair sticks at home because they were 'weapons'.

I bet they didn't ban pens and pencils though :rolleyes: which are also long, pointy and probably sharper. Very unfair.

thankyousir74
October 21st, 2014, 11:03 AM
Funny we're talking about hairsticks as weapons, because I came to post that I don't usually see many hairsticks, but the other day, on this crime-drama Netflix series called "Luther", a woman uses (what was clearly to me and to my boyfriend) a metal hairstick as a weapon! She ambushed someone, not a hand to hand combat sorta thing or anything.

It was hilarious, DBF was like, "I would never have noticed if it weren't for you". Also later on in the episode, the protagonist confronts this woman, saying "You went and stuck a knife in her ear!" and she responds "It wasn't a knife..." as she looks out the window.