Budget friendly hair toys? And does anyone make their own?

[sarana]

I have also crafted essentially free hair sticks from chopsticks.

Method:
-acquire disposable takeaway sushi chopsticks
-cut to desired length with pliers
-sand the ends rounder with a nail file
-paint with nail polish to make them smooth and colorful

It's fun and super cheap

[pullanmuru]

I've done some hair sticks with polymer clay. I do polymer clay jewelry and came up with the idea of coating a stick (I used a wooden barbeque skewer stick cut to desired length) with polymer clay. I also did one with a cheap wooden sushi chopstick, but it ended up a bit too thick for my liking. For me perfect circumference would be somewhere in the middle of those two examples, so when you add the clay, it doesn't get too thick. Craft stores probably sell craft wood in different sizes, I would need to check that one day.

But the possibilities and choices of color and style are endless with polymer clay, and you can add all kinds of glitters and mica powders to clay as well. And when you wet sand and polish the baked stick it creates a very smooth surface. One could even use a glaze to get it really shiny but I didn't glaze mine because from my experience some glazes start to peel off when exposed to stuff like makeup, perfumes or hair spray etc.

[namarieyyy]

Perhaps you can try the search term "octopus clip" which is a style of claw clip that's much more secure for long hair than a regular one. If there's any online equivalent of alibaba, shopee, or amazon in your place you might try searching there? Or perhaps look around flea markets or thrift shops for something that looks like an octopus clip... sometimes getting a great deal is just plain timing. Not sure if this is helpful to you but I have tried a friend's octopus clip and it definitely felt different to a normal claw clip

[bparnell75]

I amen Ali express also, but it does take about 6 weeks for shipping.

I just ordered 4 more twisted metal forks to wear with my self made figure 8s

[MusicalSpoons]

There is a lady selling used hair toys at a page called longhairedjewels.com. I almost bought a Jeterfork from there. I believe it's based in UK...? Not very expensive either, since it's pre owned.

Just a point of pedantry, these are not used, she's a reseller rather than selling secondhand things She bought them a looooong time ago, before Jeter closed down and the Ketylo maker disappeared so I guess she's just selling them based on what she paid.

Would those combs with stretchy beadwork between them work for what you need? They probably have a proper name but I don't know what it is.

African Butterfly Clips, I think.

There's also the self-made flexi thread https://forums.longhaircommunity.com...d.php?t=123110 it's currently kinda dormant, but good for inspiration. (I have a ton of supplies myself but never the creativity to make decisions and get on with it, I'm much better at following a pattern to make things.)

eBay and Etsy have a lot of items handmade in East Asian countries which tend to be pretty inexpensive, although the quality can vary. If you have some sandpaper just in case you'll probably be fine though!

[lapis_lazuli]

African Butterfly Clips, I think.

Heh thanks for this... I just went down a rabbit hole and ordered one... for now

[Mariekeeee14]

I always have some chopsticks at hand that I can saw to my desired length and then I sand them down to smooth them. Then they don’t snag. I use these in volleyball, since my teammates complained about my other toys poking out. I can make sure these are at a usable length but that the ends are sorta covered by my bun. It’s very cheap as well

[rozzi80]

This is a great thread. My hair is just now getting long enough for me to use hair forks (2 pronged). So I have purchased a handful and am trying to learn how to use them. So far I have been lucky and have not had any trouble with them snagging my hair.

[Nefcerka]

Well, I just never even heard of hair toys until I came here and I never needed them really, because only now did I reach waist length and my hair is very fine and rather thin, and I feel most accessories pull on my scalp... All I use is one elastic and two bobby pins and this combo lasts me a year until one of the set breaks... Now I´d like to master some new fun buns, so I started looking into hair toys, but hair sticks are just unavailable in my country. No shops sell them, only a handful of custom-made sticks are available, but at high prices which are definitely not in my budget range right now. I will order some chopsticks with painted ends (cats, floral) and just shorten them and see if that works for my hair.