Why My Hair Elastic Holds More Than Just My Hair
Here I am, sitting in the waiting room of my doctor’s office (a place that has always filled me with significant anxiety), waiting for my appointment. The clock sound is ticking loudly in my ears.The smell of sterile products fills my nose. It is chilly here. Why is it always chilly here? My fingers reach to the end of my arm and grab the thin stretched-out hair elastic that sits on my wrist and begin to snap away at it. I can breathe again.
I wonder why it is that so many girls, like me, constantly keep a hair tie around their wrists? Is it solely so that if they need their hair out of their face they have it right there for them? Maybe. But, I know for me, that is not the only reason. Actually, I often find myself putting one on my wrist even if I already have one in my hair.
I found that everyone has their preference when it comes to which hair elastics they buy. For example, I have a lot of hair. One of those ordinary hair ties you buy for $3.99 at CVS won’t cut it for me. No, I have to go for the $7 extra thick, extra large elastics to keep them from just breaking apart in a matter of seconds. But, these mundane accessories do so much for me, so I might as well invest in the good ones. (And, maybe a lot of people don’t think of a hair elastic as an accessory, but it absolutely is. It can change someone's style drastically.) From a ponytail to braids to a bun, a hair elastic could honestly make or break the energy of an outfit.
Such comfort and stability are given to me by that thin elastic I keep around my wrist. Sometimes when I don't, I can physically feel its absence, like a slight tingle or itch that I find myself fighting against. Having it there, being able to snap it and flick it throughout the day lets out my stress, my anxiety. It kind of serves as a physical place to focus the chaos of my life on. I can take my mind off the worries and focus on the moment I am living.
There is also this kind of femininity that comes with hair ties. I mean, I’m sure if you're a girl or really anyone with long hair, you've been asked, “Do you have a hair elastic I can borrow?”, a million times throughout your life. And you know what? There’s a sort of pride that comes with sharing them. Like maybe you have jet-black hair, but today your hair elastic is beige because a friend of yours who is blonde gave it to you to save your hair from the massive rainstorm you just had to run through to get to class. It fills a quiet place in girlhood that actually means so much.
A good friend of mine, Nina Evans, whose hair I am always jealous of, with its bright cherry red color and how it lays along her shoulders so beautifully, agreed. “I had a colored pack of hair ties that I would match to my outfits in elementary school,” she told me. “I remember giving one of them to a girl during gym class…she was like ‘Oh my god, I don’t want to take it because I know you coordinated it!’” But Nina was excited to share it with her, even as a little kid, because with that small exchange came friendship and gratitude.
The internet may tell us that wearing an elastic on our wrists cuts off circulation and is bad for you. (Of course, anything tight around your skin could. Duh.) But the internet doesn’t know me. It doesn’t share my feelings. It also doesn’t know that those hair elastics are often stretched out and loosely lying upon my wrist. It doesn’t know that without having one there I feel stuck.
So, while my hair elastic plays an important role in keeping my hair away from my eyes, it also plays a crucial role in my daily well-being. It brings me not only style but peace and joy and friendship and everything in between. Where would I be without it?
