POLL: What kind of hair elastics do you use?

[foreveryours]

I use pieces of scrap fabric or embroidery thread to tie off braids. I tend toward no elastic buns and use sticks and forks instead. I get a lot of breakage from even metal free elastics so I just don't use them.

I have used the same metal-free elastics (goody athletique) extensively over the long term (years) up the length of my braid and have found the same thing, I think from chronic compression. Now for the last several months I haven't used them at all but I still comb out a lot of "short pieces" from the length. Oh well.

Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment.

[fairylamb]

I exclusively wear scrunchies. I find that they are so much easier to remove from my hair. They're very gentle and the silk/satin ones are good for reducing frizz.

[SilverArrow94]

Can't go wrong with a scrunchie! I usually wear silk and satin scrunchies but I also have a very fancy one made of velvet that I keep for special occasions.

[_Melly_]

Scrunchie!

[BleachedBerry]

I think its called a Sprunchie
its an invisibobble inside a scrunchy, I have several colors

[mermaid lullaby]

I use the Goody ouchless hairbands

[MusicalSpoons]

None at all, the ones without metal still damaged my ends incredibly badly. I have tried small satin scrunchies for the end of a braid but my ends still hated that, I think with the pressure all in one place still. My hair doesn't like braids anyway but if I have to wear one (or exceedingly rarely, feel like doing a braided bun) I tie off the end with ribbon.

I bun with forks mostly, but also sometimes wear a stick, flexi-8, Ficarre or spin pins.

[LavenderFaerie]

Either scrunchies or those metal-free elastics that are made of softer fabrics.

[lapushka]

Either scrunchies or those metal-free elastics that are made of softer fabrics.

Also the terrycloth / bathtowel sort of elastics, often made for children's hair and they come in pastels often, but I have also seen them in black or brown. The so-called "hosiery" type elastics; to me they are *the* best. Last time I got some that fit around the wrist with a whole hand to spare (yes the space around the wrist is that wide), hence they fit around my ponytail so well! Wish I got more than just one pack of 5.

[shelomit]

When I wear an elastic hair-tie, I prefer the hosiery-type ones as well. Often, though, it either gets tied off in a ribbon or the braid gets made into a bun and doesn't need a tie-off at all.

As an aside, I have never really pony-tailed my hair. There's just so much weight at the nape of my neck that the elastics die like flies there. A few of the recent monthly hairstyles have involved pony-tailing off the hair, and I found that the hosiery ties did okay at that task, although they definitely stretched out to their max length more rapidly than they would with ordinary use at the bottom of a braid. More experimentation needed!