Hairtoy use and preferences

[Melisande]

I noticed that after I bought a number of flexi 8s, I loved them so much that I hardly ever used my hairsticks any more - many of them new! Then I bought some ficcares and I use them now most of the time.

I use ficcares 60% of the time, flexi 8 30% of the time... and all the wonderful rest only meagre 10% of the time!

Sticks, forks, African butterfly, scroos and pins. They have all been toppled by ficcares and flexi 8s. I regret it and will try to rotate more often.

Did the same happen to anyone else?

[Stagecoach]

Yes, I have some beautiful sticks and a hair fork... but I find that I use two hair sticks, my octopus clip and Amish hair pins 90 percent of the time.

For that reason I try very hard to not guy hair toys..... I know from experience that I won't use them often.

[Alaia]

I mostly use Ficcares or a couple of hairsticks I have.

The rest are just too pretty. I wear them when I'm doing other things than going to work/uni.

Like earrings. I tend to only wear them when I feel I have someone/something to wear them for (which has caused my holes to close in the past).

[Carolyn]

I seem to go in spurts. I'll use Flexi 8's a while and then switch to Ficcare's and then switch to Mei Fa's. Sometimes one thing will work better than another then something happens and something else works better. I have no idea why. I just love hair toys! :p

[nowxisxforever]

My favorite hairtoys are my hair forks and my ficcare. I switch back and forth between which I use more :]

[FrannyG]

Like Carolyn, I tend to go in spurts. I am in hairstick mode right now. I don't think I've worn anything other than my various hairsticks in maybe 2 months.

I also have some lovely flexi-8s and several different Ficcares, and likely I'll be getting back to those some time soon.

[Xandergrammy]

I use whatever I'm in the mood for on any given day, but I especially love my Ficcares and my Flexi-8's because they are so darn easy and always look beautiful.

[OhioLisa]

I'm with Carolyn too. I tend to go in spurts. I have really started trying to rotate what I wear more though, just for variety. I don't know that I could even pick a favorite. I could, but it would likely change by tomorrow anyway. :D

[Patrycja]

I wear whatever I have brandnew at the time.Right now,its a buffalo horn fork from quecraft.Its the only fork I have found that keeps my hair up.Before that,it was my fakkare.But,that's too small for me now :love:

[thetokenlady]

If it's really cold I'll wear a Ficcare, because they're flat enough to put my jacket hood up nice and snug. My real favorites though, are hairsticks. I have lots of sticks and tend to rotate through them. The current favs are the 4 Ketylo sticks I just got :D buy 3 get one free rocks!

[ajr]

I don't get the flexi 8 thing, their really pretty but I try and use one and all I get is a snarled mess. I'm using my one Ron Quattro stick constantly on my wet hair days and I'm thinking about getting a hair fork by him. My problem is when my hairs dry it's slippery so forks tend to fork better then stick, I want to get one by 60th street for my next hair toy purchse =)

[ladiosaRosa]

Spurts here, too.

But, I recently made an observation that in Winter, when I spend a lot more time at home, I tend to wear my forks and sticks. In Summer, when 'out and about' more....I find myself using my Ficcare Beaks, Max's and Ficcarisimo's a lot, because deep down inside me, I have this gnawing feeling that a stick or fork has potential to 'slip' out of my hair and if I ever should loose one, I'd be distraught. A Ficcare, on the other hand, is 'stuck like glue' when applied.

Am I silly, or what?

[hrimfaxi]

I also tend to go through phases. At school, however, I tend to go with Ficcares a lot just because they require marginally less fiddling and I am a lot more active at school, and I trust the Ficcares to take abuse better (which isn't to say I abuse them; I try to take good care of all of my possessions). I also just feel like a lot of my hairsticks are a little too dressy for my usual school mode of dress; Ficcares are dressy but still basic enough that I feel I can get away with it. Also, the boy dislikes being poked during hugs by my torc and Goddess Spirals as it is; he doesn't need hairsticks thrown in too. ;) My second go-to after Ficcares is my Baerreis forks or Quattro helix fork -- they hold like steel and are dreadfully comfy.

When I am working internships over the summer and have to "dress up" for work, I tend to wear hairsticks instead, because I spend most of the day sitting in a chair and therefore slightly less stable updos or hairtoys that require a little more fiddling are more okay.

When just sitting around at home, I tend to go with hairsticks. When playing at the beach, playing DDR, or so on, I tend to go with hairsticks because they hold a tighter bun than a Ficcare does, usually, and this is sometimes desirable (particularly for vigorous activity).

[Silver & Gold]

I'm rather obsessed with hair sticks. I have some striking singles, some matched pairs and sometimes I like to co-ordinate mismatched pairs or even three if they are smaller. But my favorite is a single because I love the idea of pulling out one stick and all the hair tumbling down or doing a quick twist and holding all the hair up with one pin. It still seems a bit magical to me that all the hair can be held with a single straight stick. Something about that little slight of hand. (Yeah, I'm still a six-year-old on the inside . . . easily amused.)

[trolleypup]

... But my favorite is a single because I love the idea of pulling out one stick and all the hair tumbling down or doing a quick twist and holding all the hair up with one pin. It still seems a bit magical to me that all the hair can be held with a single straight stick. Something about that little sleight of hand. (Yeah, I'm still a six-year-old on the inside . . . easily amused.)
Mmmyup! Single lightweight 7.5" stainless steel chopstick. I use a Bronze Jewelers clip mostly when I am detangling, and very rarely to clip my hair. I have lots of other hairtoys...most of them virtually unused.

I prefer age 12, but yes, I really love my lazy bun...no twisting, and pull the stick and floomph! down and mostly straight!

[sapphire-o]

I use mostly forks at home, Ficcares when going out. It's been like this since over a year ago. I do use slides as well but they take a little longer. I just don't trust hairpins and sticks to hold my slippery hair up. I can do it but I'd always keep a Ficcare in my pocket just in case. :)

Recently I've been more interested in braids, so that doesn't need any hairtoys.

[eadwine]

I go in spurts, new toy gets the rave, mostly. I have worn ficcares till I got amadlife0's sticks, then I wore THOSE for a long time, and now it's the comb.

I just switch by week. One week this, another week that. But I do remember my starting point! That very hairstick I used in my 10sec bun video.. I started out with sticks :)

[Masara]

I had a Ficcare phase for about 6 months and then one day my hair just wouldn't stay up in them any more. I think I need to go up a size, but even the next size up isn't holding all that well at the moment. I guess it's just a phase I have to wait out. So at the moment I'm using either ketylos or flexi-8's nearly all the time although i'm doing quite a lot of braids at the moment which only need an elastic.

[aisling]

I'm a little like Carolyn, I have spurts when I use different toys. I do try to use everything I own every now and then and to keep up with this, I've done a little challenge, I challenged myself to use different toys for was it 20 or 30 workdays in a row. It worked pretty well and I also found out ways to use cute, older clips that aren't real long hair toys, but still nice. I should probably do another challenge soon.

[Juanita]

I try to use different hairtoys most days. but my claw clips seem to get most use.

Cheers
Juanita

[Lillian]

I rotate so each day of the week I pretty much have a different updo with a different toy. I don't want to look exactly the same at work each day. My most used toys are my hair scroos, Ficcare Beak and Ficcarissimos, Ketylos, and my two hairforks. The ones that get the least action are Flexi-8 and VK Designs sticks.

[shrimp]

I tend to go in spurts too. For a while I was using nothing but sticks (I even go in phases with these of wood, metal, pairs etc), then forks, then slides, then flexi 8s, then combs... Now I'm back to sticks again.

It depends on what is working for my hair at any given moment and how curly my hair is as well as lazy-ness factors.
The only things I hardly ever use are my most decorative - and usually expensive - sticks as they feel a little too much for work and I never get a chance to get dressed up (plus I worry that they will fall out and break).

[florenonite]

I don't really own that many hairtoys, but I go through stages where I use my fakkares (too cheap for real ones xP), currently I'm going through a hairstick stage, specifically cinnabuns with hairsticks.

[Chamomile betty]

I use my Ficcare Maximas and Innovation about 85% of the time. I'll use a Bear Claw Clip just to change it up 15%.
I have beautiful hairsticks and I have them on display in a basket. It's more like a special occasion I wear one than an everyday thing.
I should just jump in and begin to wear them more often because they are so nice. I guess I think of them more like fine jewlery therefore I wear them less often.

[annarose]

But my favorite is a single because I love the idea of pulling out one stick and all the hair tumbling down or doing a quick twist and holding all the hair up with one pin. It still seems a bit magical to me that all the hair can be held with a single straight stick. Something about that little slight of hand. (Yeah, I'm still a six-year-old on the inside . . . easily amused.)

Me too! I read here once of someone doing a jaw-dropping display of this with waist length hair and I thought, wow, that's what I want to do someday.

I'm a (single) stick user mostly because I make my own and I get feeling sorry for them sitting there getting dusty so I try to wear them as much as possible. And I love that little sparkle that is seen from the topper as the stick part hides in my hair.

Magical, yes.

[trollkjerring]

Due to my short hair right now I can't use a lot of my hairtoys.

I try to rotate my "updos" to avoid damaged hair, so I switch between peacock twists with claws, ponytails with velvet scrunchies, messy twists with Ficcares.

For a few days now I am able to use forks again but I am afraid to use them outside cause I feel they are not that secure right now, maybe in summer my hair is long enough.

I already promised myself that I will rotate all my hairtoys as soon as I can use them again, maybe I will create an Excel chart?

trollkjerring

[pookatrina]

I have 1 fork & 1 stick that are my hands down faves, I wear them 70% of the time. I do have a tendancy to go through phases & new toy love so when something is new I'll wear that more or if I figure out a new style I'll wear something different in it.

[coppercurls]

Like most of the previous posters, I tend to ge through phases with my hair toys. Sticks & forks are used the most though.

[Kittee]

I have this one hairfork, I got in a trade, that I use non stop lol. My other toys gather dust. My plain little wooden fork > all of them.

[Curlsgirl]

Lately I wear my new greydog sticks quite a bit. I go in spurts too though and love braids for their comfort and easy style. My Ficcares probably get the least use because they seem to pull on my scalp hair more than anything else I have. LOVE my Flexi 8s too. I just love EVERYTHING! :D

Trollkjerring, I love your siggy quote!! That is SO true!

[tiny_teesha]

i use my elastics and bobby pins heaps. To make braided buns for works. Occasionally ill use the beak clip.
At home i use sticks heaps. I normally use the same ones...but when i think about it ill try something new.
i don't own a ficcare yet.
Its true, i have HEAPS of hair toys, but i rarely use them. I should definetely stop buying them!!

[Gumball]

Depending on what I'm doing usually I'll use either a bunch of hairties or a small claw clip. When I'm doing something different I'll go straight for my hairsticks and once in a while some bobby pins. It all depends on the day, but I've tried to vary what I do more often lately. We'll see how long it takes before I go back to the same thing day in and day out. :)

[frizzinator]

I make about 15 different updos. When I started participating in the "Wear hair up for a year challenge", I took photos of my updo everyday.

The photos really help much more than a mirror. I can see which hairtoys look great with certain updos, but not with others. Some of the toys I did not use suddenly had a specific use. Some of the toys I used a lot didn't look as wonderful in the photos as they did in the mirror.

[Nightshade]

Herm I think I break down like this:

Hairsticks: 50% - Most often used in an Equilibrium (http://chatter.thebeautybottle.com/showthread.php?t=1605)bun, which is my default.
Hair Forks: 25%- Most often used with a figure 8
Ficcare:20%- Almost always used with a cinnabun
Amish Pins/other pins/scroos: 4% - Used to hold things like braided and rope buns
Misc: 1%- barrettes and the like, sometimes used for half ups.

[UrbanEast]

Me too! I read here once of someone doing a jaw-dropping display of this with waist length hair and I thought, wow, that's what I want to do someday.

I'm a (single) stick user mostly because I make my own and I get feeling sorry for them sitting there getting dusty so I try to wear them as much as possible. And I love that little sparkle that is seen from the topper as the stick part hides in my hair.

Magical, yes.
I find the idea of holding up all that hair with one stick magical too--I used to think that it was only possible with short/thin hair. I was so proud of myself when I finally managed to make a cinnabun and it held.

[basak]

Hmm, I never thought about this. I like to vary my accesories, so my hairtoys usually match my clothes. I have a couple ot sticks that are wooden and solid in color, I like using them in buns. I have two forks and I use them too. I also use flexi 8s. But my most used hairtoys are my hair elastics and bobby pins. I don't use my fancy stuff in home :)

[cassie_g]

Cheap Claire's hair sticks and two ouchless ponytail holders. My amish hair pins are MIA so I haven't been using them.

[lynnala]

Yes, I have some beautiful sticks and a hair fork... but I find that I use two hair sticks, my octopus clip and Amish hair pins 90 percent of the time.

For that reason I try very hard to not guy hair toys..... I know from experience that I won't use them often.
Stagecoach; what are Amish hair pins and where do you get them? (I know, from the Amish, but....)

[frizzinator]

Lynnala, here is one place to buy Amish Pins: http://www.prayercoverings.com/catalog.php?category=5

Here is another website that sells Amish Pins: http://www.plainlydressed.com/headcoveringfile.html You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see them.

[Cichelle]

I'm another one who goes through phases. I'm just getting over a small "no accessories" phase where I would just twist my hair and leave it alone (one good thing about being a curly girl...my twist stay very well without assistance of any kind.) I think now I'm going to go back to wearing more updos again, so that means it's time to get out the ficcares and also amish hair pins. (I saw those wonderful pins the other day on my desk and have been wanting to use them again.) I have a flex-8 that I love. I don't know why I don't use it as often. I also have sticks, hair combs, and etc. I need to switch things up more often, too!

[Magdalene]

I definitely go thru phases as well. Often it's running lateness "oh, this toy I used yesterday is still on the bathroom counter" or "this toy doesn't need braiding to hold" that determines the usage.

The last few days my wavelength pins have gotten alot of use. My Bronze Jewelers corkscrew also gets play at least 3 days a week. Sticks and metal (plastic breaks in my hair) jaws also get some use. I'm waiting for a XL flexi-8 so I'll see how much use that gets- the ones I have right now are too small for updos, and I rarely do half-ups. My forks get the least use, oddly enough.

I also like to accessorize with mini-barrettes and headbands around my face, especially if I'm not wearing earrings.

[helynhighwater]

I don't tend to vary too much day to day. When I was kid, it was all scrunchies all the time with the occasional barrette thrown in. Had short hair and a love for hats for a lot of years. When it started growing out again, I went back to scrunchies for a while, then discovered jaw clips and used them almost daily and was beginning to get frustrated because the usual large size I was finding for them wasn't quite big enough and the one I bought that billed itself for thick/long hair didn't hold tightly enough. Then a friend of mine was kind enough to show me to properly use hairsticks, which I'd always thought would never hold my slippery hair, about a week before Halloween just past, and I've been using them almost exclusively since. I bought a few pairs of sticks at Claire's. My father made me some wooden hairsticks on the lathe for Christmas and has been on a stick making binge since he got his bansaw and bugging my mother and me for design ideas. It's very worth the bugging, though, as he's made some lovely and fun sticks. The Claire's sticks are gathering serious dust and the jaw clips are confined to shower use.

[young&reckless]

I don't have that many toys yet. I have two faccaries and two Ketylo hair stick.

If my hair is wet I use the stick, dry I use the faccaries.

I'm saving up for a Finny hair fork. The rest will be neglected when I finaly buy one.

[Loviatar]

I havent worn much else since I discovered Ficcares... so much for my jar of sticks. I am trying to use more sticks, though.

[wendyg]

I wear forks most of the time when I'm home, usually in I guess a soft nautilus (a bun I thought I invented) because it's quick and doesn't involve a lot of twisting and tightness. In the last couple of months I've discovered I can do log rolls and figure eights (I think the tail was just too thin before), and I'll change up with those, occasionally with a Ficcare or Flexi 8.

When I go out, though, which isn't that much of the time I like the length to show, and especially in winter I find forks and Ficcares argue uncomfortably with my coat collar. So I've taken to going with either a barrette-held pony tail or a single braid for those occasions. My hair has generally been impossible to do in a half-up because it's so fine it just isn't that thick, but recently I got a lovely dichroic barrette that's small enough to do one securely.

wg

[Neon Gloss]

I don't do much with my hair (yet), so it's just plain old hair ties and bobby pins for now... Agh.

Now don't get me wrong, I've seen so many beautiful hair sticks that I have EVERY intention on buying. I love the dangling ones, but I'm afraid that they'd break.

[ari810]

How feasible is it to use amish pins for shoulder length hair? How would you recomment that I get all of my hair in something that can be amish-pinned up? Thanks for the links. What size should I use and can I keep using shorter pins when my hair gets longer?

[Alba-NY]

How feasible is it to use amish pins for shoulder length hair? How would you recomment that I get all of my hair in something that can be amish-pinned up? Thanks for the links. What size should I use and can I keep using shorter pins when my hair gets longer?


While I normally use 3" pins I keep some 2" (I think, they are in the city) around too because I use them on the inner coil of my cinnabun.

Amish pins should pretty much meet at the centre of your bun to work best, but if they don't you can do what I do, and use small pins for the centre coil then larger after you finsh coiling. So, theoretically you can use shorter pins if you want to. It depends how long you plan to grow your hair though, and if they are reaally tiny maybe not. Though my mum might buy that size off you ;)

Based on your thick and slippery hair (is it still slippery without cones?) you ideally need another inch or two for a really good bun. If I saw you tomorrow I was going to bun it though, come hell or high water! I *think* it could be done already, but probably not too easily. I am not sure *you* can without practising and getting used to it, and that is hard when it is so close. (using aloe will help.) I am thinking a little cinnabun btw. You can probably already do a french twist, but I don't know how to do them. I mean, I *know* how, but have never been successfull myself.

[Blueglass]

I tend to use scrunies because they are so hair friendly. I have a large collection, which have had since the 90's most which are still in good condition. I also use large bobby pinns for buns. However I rarly make buns because my mother hates them on me. I have antique forks made of earily cellulie plastic, but I understand that is very flammable, so I'm a little afraid if them. I have a comb with rine stones and sometimes it. I also have a fork with a shell in it. Somday I may want a curved stick because a straight stick is not likely to work on my type hair, and a turned stick may tend to break it.

[Mely]

Before I came to this forum I used mostly barrettes. Now I use mostly sticks. In the last few months my hair has finally got long enough so that it can be held securely with a stick. Sometimes I use forks, too. But I rarely use barrettes any more, or Ficcares. Not sure why.

I'm just on a hair stick jag now, I guess.

[jojo]

for uni i normally either braid or pony my hair with a bobble but on the wards i love my ficcares as they dont pull or give me a headache

[dukkelisa]

I just weeded out a lot of hair toys....all the ones I stopped using or have never worn at all. I am getting really fussy about anything that catches in my hair, so no more barrettes, clips or claws. I like sticks and forks the best. I also gave up all my bobby pins and regular hair pins in favour of bent double pointed knitting needles. I love how just 4 hold my bun so much better than anything else I have tried.

Now I am trying to keep my toys to the absolute favourite ones. I put a fancy cut crystal vase on my vanity to hold my sticks. I love seeing them displayed.

[Loviatar]

I live in my Ficcares, but it's laziness rather than not wanting to wear my pretties. I have a ton of sticks and forks but I currently divide my time between my apartment and my boyfriend's. Ficcares (especially my plain black one, which goes with everything and I'm not bothered if it gets a little beat up, then I can adapt it!) can be thrown in a bag day to day, whereas if I want to bring sticks and forks to his place, I have to think about how to transport them - I travel on the Tube every day so my bag has to contain EVERYTHING, like laptop, purse, books etc. Hairtoys kind of take a back seat at the moment.

I've set myself a different-hairtoy-each-day challenge though.. I want to mix it up a little.

[rymorg2]

I only have forks and sticks....no metal now. No ficcares....they give me headaches. I only have 6 forks and 5 sticks right now, with a 7th fork on the way. I usually rotate with what I'm wearing, though I have one or two faves of each kind. Out of the 5 sticks I only have 3 that I actually wear though...maybe it's time for the swap board???

When my hair was longer I would rotate too, but I still had my faves. I'll always have my faves that I'll go to on a regular basis. I just like having options LOL!