The 1980s Banana Clip Is Back and Reinvented for All Hair Types

Upgrade your Banana Clip Styles

1980s banana clip vs stretch banana clip styles

A recently published article in Southern Living about how banana hair clips have made their nostalgic return from the 1980s is a fun read.

A reminder that banana clips create the most flattering hairstyles and bring us easy style options.

However, as experienced product developers, there’s one thing we’d like to make clear since as wonderful as Banana Clips are, there is a reason they fell out of style. The video and article state:

“The clip works extra well on textured or curly hair, and we can already see a high banana clip updo complementing any turtleneck this fall.”

We certainly agree a turtleneck will complement a banana clip style this season. Especially if it’s an on trend tortoiseshell hair accessory.

However, what we don’t think was quite right was that it stated a classic traditional plastic 1980s banana clip “works extra well on textured or curly hair.”

Now, HairZing is in the hair accessory business - we know big thick textured hair as well as fine thin wispy fragile hair, and we can definitively say that traditional banana hair clips do not hold thick textured hair well at all.

Here’s proof that traditional banana hair clips absolutely cannot hold thick textured hair:

And that’s where HairZing Stretch Banana Clips come in.

Our focus group of 750 active women across the USA in 2012 made it clear they loved the way traditional banana clips made their hair look, but were not enthusiastic about the design flaws that made them painful and frustrating to wear.

We could clearly see room for screaming improvement based on those voices. So we redesigned banana clips from the ground up. It’s humbling to take on the re-invent of a classic design women remember lovingly, but that is exactly why we decided to do it.

At HairZing, keeping the flattering styles only banana clip accessories can create was vital, but expanding the amount of women with “real hair” who could wear them was more important.

The only way to do that was by designing out the flaws so they would hold thick, curly, textured hair comfortably without pressure all day until you take them out.

Amazingly, there’s a lot of women with perfect hair. Perfect weight, volume, cut, length, color looking for ways to flatteringly style it.

Unfortunately, the reality is most women don’t have this type of hair.

Traditional banana clip teeth are weak

The teeth of plastic banana clips are plastic, which means they break and snap easily.

Not only that, but they can end up stabbing your scalp and literally slicing your hair because you have to force your locks to hold under pressure between the combs.

How many plastic clips have you had to buy because they break?

Banana clip teeth are short, and designed to close and clamp onto your hair like teeth in a jaw, with the intention of having them interlock.

Sometimes, banana clips come with an “eyelet” design, a wide hole in the middle of the plastic. We see these types of hair accessory teeth on traditional side combs the most.

Like so many design elements with good intentions, the holes can also damage your hair when it gets squeezed and caught in between.

Traditional banana clips crush your hair in the hinge closure

The hinge closure piece old banana clips and fish clips use was designed to do one thing, hold the two combs together so the top could snap shut.

As anyone who has ever worn a clip with a hinge knows, they are notoriously unforgiving.

If something strong (the hinge) must close around something soft (your hair) in order to hold in place, your hair is going to take a crushing beating. Ladies, traditional clips are a recipe for disaster for your hair.

The original designer might have also been responsible for conical underwire bras and pantyhose that promise “one size fits all”.

Not all plastics are bad, but all plastic creates friction in your hair. It’s science.

Don’t blame plastic, it's just doing what it does, but the result you are left with is often frizzy and uncontrolled strands with visible dents and creases from the pressure.

Let’s face it, plastic is a go to material because it is less expensive and easy to mass produce, not because it benefits your hair.

So what about us? What about our hair? That should always be the starting point, and now it is. HairZing designed with hair health in mind. Less Friction, no pressure and a simple stretch that holds it all together.

But what about metal vs plastic in your hair?

Contrary to popular belief, metal is actually the best material for your hair, not plastic.

Metal earned a bad rap because of the way most metal clips are created -- mass produced like cookies being cut out of a production line.

When you slam a shape out of thin metal, you leave sharp edges like a metal top taken off with a can opener.

Right. Who thought this was a good idea?

Oh...the conical underwire bra from hell designer.

Then, we put sharp metal clips in our hair, which slice and dice curls like scissors.

Also, most women are wary of how heavy the majority of metal hair accessories are made.

Nothing says “I feel carefree and ready to take on the world” like strapping a kettlebell to your hair in the morning..

Luckily, if you seek, you shall find. We searched until we found a metal that was not being used in banana combs. Not sheet metal. Metal wire.

Took a while to get our heads around it but under testing we realized that besides being flexible, it was strong enough to hold hair.

Wire is also rounded, soft and super lightweight. A practically perfect material because it also creates less friction so your hair can begin to restore it’s health by stopping the daily damage we do taking accessories in and out of our hair.

View this video where we cover using a banana clip horizontally (sideways) instead of the traditional vertical position the old banana clips use:

HairZing Banana Clips use Stretch (not pressure) to Safely Hold Comfy Styles

The traditional 1980s plastic banana clips don’t actually hold thinner fine hair OR thick hair well.

Women with perfect hair do great, but for the rest of us the struggle is real.

The thicker your hair, the more it can’t be contained by a hinge.

The thinner your hair there is nothing to jam between the combs so banana’s slip out minutes after you leave your bathroom.

By adding stretch elastic for the first time to a redesigned banana comb shape, we were able to guarantee that your hair will be held without pressure, pulling or pain.

We are not savants.

This is science.

Adding stretch to anything hair related creates a completely different hair holding experience.

The kind you have to feel to believe.

It’s very similar to the first time you put on yoga pants or fleece. Difficult to describe, but something you never forget.

Just take a look at one of our customer reviews from Diane K. who has thick textured hair:

Thick Textured Banana Hair clip Review

HairZing Banana clips were invented to stretch across the amount of hair you have, holding any type and texture including:

Thick
Curly
Wavy
Natural / Coily / Kinky
Fine / Thin
Straight
Sleep
Very long hair
Soft / Fragile
Course

banana hair clip styles stretch banana by hairzing

Take a look at some specific thick banana hair clip styles and how to do them on this post.

No teasing to give it a damaged tangle of hair to grip onto so it won’t slide out. No watering eyes as you try to close it shut and hear your hair go “snap, crackle, pop”.

This means you get to use the stretch banana clip for many more style options

The traditional banana clip inspired many other hair products, claw clips, butterfly clips, and even fishtail clips that many women used to pull their hair up into messy buns and updos, and of course ponytails.

The great part is, by adding stretch, HairZing’s banana clips are designed to give you control.

You can wear them vertically, horizontally, or rakishly off center. It no longer matters how much hair you have, or what type of hair you were gifted at birth (or in a stylist's chair).

All that matters is the natural curve of your head acting as the catalyst so the stretch holds comfortably in place.

Again...science.

If you’re the kind of woman who likes to get things done (like us), you put your hair up when you want to focus without distraction...and look powerfully great at the same time.

It takes the right state of mind to solve the world's problems, can’t do that with hair falling in your face.

Not to mention, our hair is an expressive tool. It’s who we are, it sets the tone for how we approach the world.

It's healthy to feel confident. Frankly, the world needs more confident women wandering around.

That’s also a scientific fact.

Now You Try

We’ll always have the nostalgia of the way banana clips can make you feel, and give your hair a very special look. Now, we get to experience it with healthier hair and many more options.

Comfort is always worth having, and as we are heading into the fall, I’m ready to cozy in.