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In a thread further down, one of these hair ties with metallized plastic strips was shown. I just bought a bag of them in rainbow colours. The metallized plastic strips make them sparkle. You can see from the photo I took that they are about 1/3 of a millimeter wide. They are much thinner than a strand of hair.
Who else here uses these, and can they do damage to hair? (I am guessing they are alright, but I want to be sure.)
Scott
Hi Scott.Generally from past experience I try to avoid any hair ties that have metal in them either to decorate or to bind the ends together.This is because my hair always managed to get caught on the edges and ultimately break somewhere along the length of the hair.So now I've discovered the "scunci"ties and they've been great.Check out www.scunci.com and see what they have that you may like.Most stores do carry them but you'll have to check around by you.I'm attaching a pic so you can see what the packaging looks like.Let me know what you think Scott.
Mark
Thanks Mark, the small ones would interest me most. The big ones have to be wrapped thrice rather than twice, which is difficult for me to do on the uppermost tie. Further down, 3, 4, or 5 twists is easy.
The good news is that fully 75 of the 150 rainbow hair ties in the bag have no metallized strips in them. They are on my keyboard. The other pile has metallized plastic strips in them. The metallized strips are a miniaturized version of Christmas tree tinsel. They are 1/3 of a millimeter wide and 40 microns thick. The thickness is half the diameter of a typical hair strand. It is questionable as to whether they really can cause damage, but until I am sure, I don't want to put my mane at risk. I have waaaay too many years of blood sweat and tears invested in my mane. (The "pink" ones are actually magenta. The flash makes the colours look lighter.)
Your friend always
Scott
They make the ties look sparkly. Mylar is made by encasing foil in a layer of plastic. Mylar can have sharp edges, you can actually get 'paper cuts' from mylar bags. Mylar is used in a lot of snack bags, to give them a reflective surface. Thicker mylar is used as a substitute for mirrors, because it doesn't break, but it's reflective surface operates just like a mirror. If you rub your fingers over the surface of those ties, they feel rougher than the standard fabric ties. You can actually "feel" the mylar. My guess is that they could possible nick or cut hair strands, I personally would not use them.
I did some quick research and mylar has a greater tensile strength than hair. It is 234 megapascals for mylar vs 190 megapascals for human hair in good condition. That right there tells me mylar is probably harder than hair too. These strips stretch to more than 3 times their original length before breaking. The data sheet on mylar shows breakage at about twice original length. There may be different formulations of mylar that are able to stretch much more, I just don't know for sure. To be safe, I won't use them until I can figure out a quick and easy way to extract them from the hair ties. An exacto knife a magnifying glass and tweezers will likely work. In the mean time I can use the half that don't contain mylar strips. (see photo)
Thanks so much for your reply.
Scott