As I developed my personal style in the late ’90s and early aughts, I loved dELiA’s catalogs and Limited Too, and my hair was always adorned with clips, from little butterfly clips to larger banana clips. So it’s not a surprise to me that I now own at least 15 claw-style clips as a full-grown adult.
Despite their suburban mall origins, they’re deeply functional; I have yet to find another style clip with the ability to swiftly sweep my hair off my neck in a way that is both elegant and relaxed. It’s so much less severe than a ponytail constricted by a stretchy elastic.
And once you remove the claw clip, there’s no dent in your ’do, unlike with so many other accessories. In fact, I find that my hair post-claw clip twist often looks as beautifully bouncy and voluminous as a second-day blowout.
Of course, what’s old is new again, and claw clips have made the transformation from quirky to cool. (If only the same could be said about all the fake band shirts and colored skinny jeans I bought in college.) My collection includes some classics, like a tortoiseshell clip and a pearlescent white one that wouldn’t look out of place on Lizzie McGuire.
But we’ve also gone so far beyond the butterfly in terms of novelty clips. I now have one shaped like a lobster and another like a tiny, shiny bunny; you might’ve seen girls on Instagram and TikTok with a hard plastic plumeria clip holding up their ponytails.
But in the sea of clips, there’s one that I’m always thrilled to stumble upon in the bottom of my purse: A Tocess Big Hair Claw Clip.
I was inspired to first buy them a couple of years ago when my colleague and senior staff writer Kaitlyn Wells recommended them. “I have long, curly—and sometimes unruly—hair,” she said. “The Big Claw Clips have become my go-to hair accessory for wrangling my curly hair come styling time or when it’s hot outside and I need to let my neck breathe. After two years, not a single clip has broken, and they do a bang-up job of staying put on nights I fall asleep with one in my hair.”
This pack of eight matte plastic hair clips includes two styles—a standard curved claw clip and a straight clip with a rectangular cutout—and they are surprisingly durable for the price. The clips hold many hair types well, but some people might find them too large.
Since then, I’ve bought several packs of clips and doled them out as gifts, including to my kid’s Gen Z babysitter and any friend who has hair longer than a bob. These matte plastic clips come in a pack of eight and cost less than a dollar each, so it’s not a huge extravagance, either. I keep a couple of them by my front door so I can grab one on the way out. Though it’s a plastic clip of dubious origin, it’s much stronger (and chicer) than it needs to be.