Each type of hair clip serves a different purpose, and some can be damaging to your hair while others give it time to heal. If you’re stuck choosing between flat, claw, and traditional snap hair clips, we can help make your decision easy.
For example, if you’re going to be lightening your hair for summer you’re likely going to do some temporary damage as all hair coloring techniques cause some hair issues through the loss of protein. Traditional snap clips may squeeze your hair tight, and this may cause unnecessary breakage. And breakage is more likely to happen with friction, so if you’ll be sliding the snap clip into position, you’re creating more opportunities for strands to break.
That’s why a claw clip or flat claw clip is better. You can gather your hair and gently let the claws grip into place for a strong hold with less friction. You get the same look as a snap clip, but less pulling and friction as you can position it the first time allowing the claws to sink into place vs. the hair clip sliding it around and clamping your hair into place.
And the hairstyle you choose will also shift the type of hair clip you’ll want. A hair clip French twist will need a claw clip that can hold the coil of hair in the chamber without snapping. Although a flat clip can hold it if you go with a large enough size, you don’t get the depth and volume if you want to wear it for fashion.
At the same time a flat hair clip will be perfect for working out and watching tv because you can lay your head back during yoga, and not have the wings cause an “ouch moment”.
Traditional claw clips and open styles push your hair back when you do a ponytail giving depth and volume. And you can place the clip under the ponytail for an additional boost of depth, or over a hair coil to let the clip become part of your look. Traditional banana clips and claw clips also let you create cascading effects with your hair, and traditional snap or flat clips don’t.
Claw clips can look great with space bun hairstyles and pigtails, and because these looks require the hair to have height, flat and snap clips won’t work. Butterfly styles make fantastic adornments too.
When you want comfort all day long, and know your head is going to be resting against things from a dentist’s chair to a movie theater recliner, or flying on a plane, go with the flat clip or snap clip. These are comfy while giving you the freedom to relax, whereas you’d have to take the claw hair clip out and find somewhere to store it while you rest your head. And top knot buns look fantastic over top of a flat claw clip where a traditional claw clip would have to rest over top covering the bun.
When it comes to sports, flat clips are going to keep your hair closer to your back and hold lower so you can wear a softball helmet, and they hold nicely for running sports. Traditional hair clips can be great for this as well, but claw clips tend to get placed higher so they don’t work with head gear, and snap clips may take more time to set into place making them not as good as a flat claw clip when you need to get back in the game and fast.
All hair clips have a time and a place, and hopefully this guide helps you know when to choose which. If you found it helpful, subscribe to our blog below for more content just like it.
