Curious Question About Pinned Hairstyles Without Hair Decorations

[Kayleena]

Hi, everyone! :) I didn’t know how I would search for this topic on this site, so if there is already a thread like it, feel free to point me to it.

Since my hair-styling skills are *very* limited & my hair is fine & mostly straight, styles that work well in my hair are quiffs, side parts with tossovers, ponytails, & simple braids, & I very much enjoy using my sparkly & colorful claw clips, 2-balled ponytail holders, clips, barrettes, & scrunchies to anchor the styles in place. For the past 5 years or so, I’ve been noticing – mostly with teenagers & young-twenty-somethings – that they will do those same hairstyles, but they anchor them with very plain bobby pins, hair ties, or hair pins, & I’m very curious as to why they seem to not like hair decorations. Can anyone out there enlighten me?

Thanks in advance, & happy hair styling! :coolblue:

[Madora]

Well, I don't know why but for me, it is the HAIR that should be the main attraction, NOT the hair toy!

[CurlyCap]

Hi, everyone! :) I didn’t know how I would search for this topic on this site, so if there is already a thread like it, feel free to point me to it.

Since my hair-styling skills are *very* limited & my hair is fine & mostly straight, styles that work well in my hair are quiffs, side parts with tossovers, ponytails, & simple braids, & I very much enjoy using my sparkly & colorful claw clips, 2-balled ponytail holders, clips, barrettes, & scrunchies to anchor the styles in place. For the past 5 years or so, I’ve been noticing – mostly with teenagers & young-twenty-somethings – that they will do those same hairstyles, but they anchor them with very plain bobby pins, hair ties, or hair pins, & I’m very curious as to why they seem to not like hair decorations. Can anyone out there enlighten me?

Thanks in advance, & happy hair styling! :coolblue:

Don't know about where you're at, but around here I've noticed people learning to do more with less. I used to be the only one who would style my hair rather than go get it "done". Now lots of people are trying updos, and I'm getting more questions about how to use bobby pins and such to create updos.

Hair toys can be cheaper, but hair pins are cheaper. An if you do it right, people won't care that you don't have hair toys because the style will be so pretty.

This is, of course, coming from the woman with a cabinet full of hair toys...

ETA: Also, it just might be "I don't want to look like a little girl" syndrome. I love big, pretty scrunchies in every color, but I'm not some 'tween trying to convince people I'm an adult when I go to work. :shrug:

[jacqueline101]

The style is the most important factor not the toys. You want your hair to look good and be well styled. That is the most important thing. Aim for your hair looking perfect and nice well polished hair dos. Keep it worn up and the ends nice.

[pepperminttea]

Also, it just might be "I don't want to look like a little girl" syndrome. I love big, pretty scrunchies in every color, but I'm not some 'tween trying to convince people I'm an adult when I go to work. :shrug:

This would be my bet too. Hair bows and things are very cutesy, which is great if that's what you're going for, but if you're desperate to prove you're already an adult and be taken seriously, perhaps not so much.

[spidermom]

I can't speak for anybody else, but I prefer that my hair style itself take center stage, not the tool I've used to secure it. I have very few things that can be called "showy".

[JesusFreak88]

Hair toys tend to be expensive, which is why I don't have many. Hair pins are cheap to buy. On a college student's budget hair pins are all I can afford and I try very hard not to lose them.

[HintOfMint]

Disclaimer: I am only giving an honest answer to the OP's question. I do not mean to offend in any way.

I'm 25 and for people my age and younger it's a bit "tweeny" to have sparkly stuff in our hair. We did that when we were 10 - 12 and shopped at Claire's and Limited Too and the like. It was something we grew out of. Also, as we got older, we found that a lot of the sparkly stuff one finds at the mall looks cheap and a bit tacky.

Of course, jeweled pins can look really nice and not showy, if done right, but a lot of people are turned off by the sparkle overload we had as children.

[sycamoreboutiqu]

Gotta love the Ad placement at the bottom of the page - a BIG rhinestone studded Ficcare

[zombi]

My bet is on wanting to look more grown-up, too.

But also, simple hair things just seems like it's more in fashion now -- if they're emulating a red carpet updo, for instance, usually it was secured with simple things or even with the pins not visible at all.

[white.chocolate]

I think it's like asking "Why do people wear a certain type of clothes?" Certain kind of hair toys go in and out of fashion over the years. My answer to your question: I have no idea. :) Where I live, things are just the opposite -- way too much sparkly hair toys going around. But I guess many of the hair toys I see on LHC are rather more expensive than the common hair toys found at the stores that not many people can afford them? Just my guess, but not in all the only reason.

[Arya]

The girls I know mostly copy the styles they see in magazines, tv or in movies, and the use of colourful clips, sparkles, and scrunchies hasn't really been popular on screen/used by celebrities since the late nineties. A lot of my friends actually go to great pains to hide even bobby pins or plain hair ties, by winding hair around them.

Big satin scrunchies were really popular two years ago, when I was in Japan, though. I brought a bunch home and wear them all the time.

[Henrietta]

I guess that people do not care much about hair toys. Earrings are obvious, necklaces are obvious for them but hair accessories not so much. It changed lately since H&M and similar shops have hair accessories, but still, they are less popular than other things.
The syndrome "it's for small children, all those bows and colourful pins..." also works. I see people at my uni, I mean students, with barrettes and claw clips in various colours but this is all. I think that even if elegant metal forks, pins and Flexis would be accessible, nobody would use them. For them hair is hair, put it our of the face and go.

[Melisande]

I have a rule of thumb: simple updo - catchier hair toy. Complicated updo - simple or invisible hair toy.

[Kayleena]

Hi, everyone & thanks for all the replies! :coolblue: Sorry it took me a while to get back here again. Some of you brought up some points that totally did not occur to me, such as not wanting to be seen as “little girls” & letting the hair be the main attraction rather than the hair decorations. I guess I’ve always thought of hair accessories as “jewelry for my hair.” *lol* I don’t know where to look as far as following fashion, so I didn’t even realize that celebrities haven’t been using them. As far as the expense of fancy/sparkly/colorful hair decorations, I was basically raised to spend as little money as possible, so I do shop at Claire’s & regular stores for them. Since being married, I’ve found that DH prefers to pay a little more money for quality of things in general; my parents are the exact opposite, preferring to pay less money even if the quality is not as good. I guess that translated into hair toys & jewelry for me; most of my jewelry is not expensive either. Thanks again for all the thoughts; I have now been "enlightened" on this subject. *lol* Have a good hair day! :)

[carolinaberry]

I'm the opposite. I love cute hair pins. I have even been known to wear little girls' plastic clips (you know the ones that come in a pack of 12, different colors and shapes like flowers, cats, hearts, bows, etc)? I guess sit is because my hair is short and damaged that I focus on cute accessories though. I think if I had hair like some of you guys, that would be my focus.

[spidermom]

Well, I don't know why but for me, it is the HAIR that should be the main attraction, NOT the hair toy!

me too, short message and all

[Quixii]

Agreeing with what others have said, but also: well, some days we want to dress up, and some days we don't. Some days I'll doll myself up in a dress and fancy tights and shoes and do my hair all up in fun accessories and stuff, just for fun. Some days I barely drag myself out of bed into a t-shirt and jeans. My hair accessories reflect that. Or at the very least - some days I just want something more fun/showy, and some days I don't.

[AnqeIicDemise]

I treat hair toys like I treat the "!". I want my toy to accentuate a gorgeous hairdo, not drown it to the point of idiocy. ^-^

That and I'm lazy. I often forget where I left a toy and where so I make do with what I have.

[Carissamarie08]

Just isnt for some people. I have never preferred them.

[Littlewing13]

Im not a big fan of too much sparkle or little girly things, but the occasional flower clip or ficcrae or hair stick I like. I think simple is best though overall.

[carolinaberry]

Also, around where I live (CO Springs), I have noticed a lot of the younger generation (say 13-21) of girls try for very messy hairstyles. Like, they will tease their hair (backcomb, whatever) and then pin the top half back with about 20 plain bobby pins....very visible bobby pins. I always wonder why they use the plain pins so abundantly and visibly. To each her own, but I always wonder if the way they are purposely tangling it is causing damage.

[PrincessIdril]

I think that it is part of growing up. I still have flower, and sparkly pins from my teen years (I'm 22 now) but I keep them for when I dress up. For everyday I tend to not bother or just wear a simple Alice-band, as a lot of people probably see my hair accessories as a little childish and I want to be treated as an adult. I doubt my (future) employers or my lectuers would take me seriously if I turned up to an interview/presentation with a huge pink bow or flower in my hair!

Hair accessories, like clothes, need to be kept appropiate depending on the situation. I follow a Japanese street-fashion inspired by Victorian designs and when I wear that, the hair accessories come out because it's in keeping with the outfit. But I wouldn't wear this fashion to a job interview so the matching accessories stay at home too! Likewise when I have a meeting or something I either don't bother with accessories or I wear a simple, plain Alice-band because it looks more adult and professional.

I think it's also a fashion thing, having lots of "junk" in your hair just isn't fashionable. If you notice in Claires as an example, all the sparkly pins and whatnot are sold with the prom stuff. Flowers are mostly sold in spring/summer when floral clothes are trendy, cute clips are reserved for the kids section etc.

[Hollyfire3]

I have never really had any desire to wear flowers, bows or the like in my hair, but i wore them as a child, it is a subject of outgrowing them, but i do however keep a headband with cat ears on them (the halloween store type) that i have had for years and wear them on special, apporiate occasions, they are my favorite accesory by a long shot and i will never give them up (knocks on tree wood for good measure) some things are just timeless like that to a person, others, like sparkly hair things, tend to be liked by little girls. I am an earthy person, not a sparkly, flowery, girly-girl one, so that is just my opinion, from that point of view.

[lapushka]

For the past 5 years or so, I’ve been noticing – mostly with teenagers & young-twenty-somethings – that they will do those same hairstyles, but they anchor them with very plain bobby pins, hair ties, or hair pins, & I’m very curious as to why they seem to not like hair decorations. Can anyone out there enlighten me?

We used to pull our hair back with tiny claw clips. I never *ever* used bobby pins in that way, but I am noticing that teens tend to stick to bobby pins (and they use them a lot), seems that that's the trend nowadays.

[Tealpuffin]

To be honest i am just too lazy to do anything fancy with my hair :p normally i just bung it into a top knot which is great for benign neglect. Today I did decide to wear a scarf as well :p I would love to get some fancy hair sticks but i cannot afford anything at the moment.

[Kittyxx]

I think claw clips are kinda unfashionable now due to the fact most of them are plastic and can look a little cheap - plus much more difficult to hide ... although when i see people with bobby pins that don't remotely match their hair color and haven't been hidden I do wonder why they don't go for a little decoration lol

[MinderMutsig]

I get the appeal of a(n intricate) bun with no visible pins or anchors. They look like they are held up by magic and all the attention goes to the hair and hairstyle.

Don't get me wrong, I like a nice hairstick or hairfork (although I'm not a fan of glitter, bows and flowers on adults) but there is something about those magical buns that I'm really in love with.

ETA: I take that back. Flowers can be pretty on the right person and in the right updo. I also don't have a general disliking for glitter and use it a lot as nailpolish but I prefer my own hairtoys to be glitterless. Bows however are something I have a serious aversion to on everyone. Yes, also on little girls in pink dresses.