Banana Clip (Hair Accessories)

Picture two curved combs hinged together along their full length rather than at a single point, and you have the shape of a banana clip. You gather hair, position the open clip behind it, and press the two curved sides together until the teeth interlock and the spring running the length of the hinge holds them shut. The result is hair gathered into a vertical column rather than the round bundle a plain elastic produces.

Length is what makes the mechanism work at all. Because the hinge and the teeth run the full curve of the clip rather than meeting at one point, the grip spreads across a much wider section of hair than a small clip could manage, which is exactly why this shape can gather a full head of thick hair where other clips cannot. Shorter versions handle a half updo or one side section, while the longest are built for a complete ponytail.

A claw clip also closes with sprung jaws, but the hinge sits at one point and the teeth are short, built to bite through a twisted section rather than gather hair straight up in a column. A hair comb holds with no spring at all, relying on the angle you insert it at and the rotation that locks it against the scalp, where a banana clip snaps shut under its own spring and needs no technique to stay closed. Both a banana clip and a hair band gather a full ponytail, but where an elastic loop leaves a round bundle, this leaves a flatter, more architectural column standing up from the head.

Long, thick hair is where a banana clip earns its keep, since there needs to be enough volume for the teeth to close around and hold. Fine or short hair works against it on both counts: there is rarely enough bulk to fill the curve, and short hair often will not reach around it at all, so the clip either grips a handful of thin strands too tightly or fails to close properly.

Press the two halves together in the store and feel whether the spring resists evenly along its full length or only at one end, since an uneven spring grips the top of a ponytail and lets the bottom sag loose. Check the teeth for a molded seam down their length, a raised ridge left over from the manufacturing mold, since that ridge catches hair on the way in and out. Clean built up product from between the teeth with a soft brush, and store the clip closed rather than open, which protects the long spring from being forced wider than its resting shape.