Scrunchies or rubber bands: which wins your tug of hair?

Are you sitting in front of your vanity with a basket full of colourful scrunchies and a box full of rubber bands and taking hours to decide which one to use to get the perfect voluminous hair style? This is an everyday scenario for many who love to tie their hair and yet have an internal tug of war trying to decide what works best. Here’s a quick flow of what goes inside the subconscious mind while you walk the plank for the decision.

Scrunchies or rubber bands, which is better for the hair?

Open any social media and you find youngsters styling their hair with scrunchies. From cotton, silk, satin, organza, velvet to doing fancy hairbuns with XXL size scrunchies, it is all over the place. Since scrunchies are made of the same fabric that clothes are made up of, they are lighter and gentler on the hair. This means that you have less hair loss, hair breakage and less split ends. Scrunchies are known to hold your hair evenly, reducing the pressure on any part of the hair length, especially the roots. Thus, you would be experiencing less to no headaches and root damages. Also since they cause less tension and no –pain, they are perfect for longtime wears.

Going back to classics, when during childhood the only saviour for tying your hair used to be the rubber bands – mostly black but also multi-colour variants; it is equally difficult to let go of this nostalgia. However, here are a few things to keep in mind before using rubber bands. They are perfect for short term usage. Say you have applied a hair mask and want to keep your hair tied. Using a rubber band would keep your hair in place and since they are mono-coloured and basic, slight damage to them will not make your heart heavy. Further, rubber bands pull your hair very tightly. This not only causes tension at the root of the hair but also leads to hair breakage while trying to remove the band. Unlike any other hair accessories which are easily re-usable, rubber bands tend to break off after one or two uses and cannot be re-used often.

So who wins the hair war?

Both scrunchies and hair bands have their specific purposes when it comes to tying your hair. Ideally, before reaching out for either, you must consider the ultimate purpose – how long will you tie your hair, is there a chance of the band getting damaged, would you like something that would complement your outfit- and once you have the answers to them all, reach out for the right accessory – a basket full of scrunchies or a box full of rubber bands.