The 90s Hair Accessories Everyone Is Wearing Again

The ones that came back and stayed are the claw clip, the scrunchie, the padded headband and the skinny bandana. All four are worth owning now because the modern versions are made properly: bigger teeth, stronger springs, fabric-covered elastic that does not saw through your hair by ten o'clock.

You wore all of these the first time round. The difference now is that you are choosing them because they work, not because everyone in your year had one.

The Claw Clip Is the Useful One

Buy one big claw clip and you have solved half the nights out where you cannot decide what to do with your hair. It takes an unwashed second day, it takes heat out of the back of your neck in a warm room like Digital on a Dreamworx afternoon, and it goes up in four seconds.

Size is the whole game. A clip too small for your hair will slide down over an hour until it is hanging off the ends. Get one that feels slightly too big when you hold it.

What It Costs

Very little, which is the appeal. A useful drawer of these runs to somewhere around ten to twenty pounds in total from a high street shop, and the pieces last years if you buy the sturdier versions.

• One large claw clip in a neutral colour. This is the one you will actually use.
• A handful of fabric scrunchies, satin or velvet rather than the thin shiny sort.
• A packet of proper grips, the ones with the little bumps, in a shade near your own colour.
• One padded headband or a bandana if you like the look on you.

Spend the money on the claw clip and save it on everything else. A cheap clip with a weak spring is the only item here that will genuinely let you down mid-evening.

Scrunchies Earn Their Place

A fabric scrunchie holds a ponytail without leaving the dent that a thin elastic does, and it does not drag at the same spot every time you take it out. That is the actual reason they came back, rather than pure nostalgia.

Satin sits smoothest and is the one to reach for if your hair is fine. Velvet grips harder and suits thick hair that slides out of everything else. Keep one on your wrist when you go out and you have a fix for hot, flat or fed-up hair without touching your face.

Butterfly Clips, With One Change

The tiny butterfly clips are back, and they still look sweet, but there is a way to wear them now that does not read as a school disco. Use three or four, all in the same colour, in one line or one small cluster. Not fifteen scattered over the whole head.

They also hold almost nothing, so treat them as decoration on top of a style that is already secure. Pin the hair properly first, then add the clips.

The Skinny Bandana and the Headband

A folded bandana tied back behind the ears keeps a fringe off a warm forehead and looks deliberate. Fold it narrow, tie it under the hair at the nape rather than on top, and tuck the ends in.

A padded headband does the same job with less effort but sits harder against the skull, so if you are out for six hours, put it on ten minutes before you leave and check it is not pressing. Anything you can feel at the start you will really feel by hour four.

What Holds Up on a Long Day

Heat and dancing undo hair in a specific order, and six hours at Dreamworx gets through the whole sequence: the front goes first, then the crown, then whatever you tied at the back. Plan for that rather than fighting it.

• Put the front up or pin it back from the start. It is the bit you will keep touching.
• Anchor the crown with two grips crossed into an X, which holds far better than two side by side.
• Carry one spare hair tie. Not four accessories, one tie.
• Choose a style you can redo yourself in a mirror in under a minute.

The Ones That Have Not Aged

Be honest about a couple of them. The thin plastic headband with the teeth gives most people a headache by the second hour. The tiny zigzag clips slide out of anything smooth. Hair mascara is best remembered rather than repeated.

None of that matters much when they cost so little, but there is no point carrying something all evening that you know does not stay in.

Making It Look Current

One accessory at a time. A claw clip with plain earrings looks modern. A claw clip, butterfly clips and a bandana together looks like a rerun.

Match the accessory to your hair colour or go plainly contrasting, and keep the rest of your look simple around it. The whole appeal of these is that they are easy, and stacking three of them takes the ease straight back out.

It is the same instinct as a floor filling for a flashback, which is what we call an older track. The good ones come back because they still work, not because anyone is being sentimental.