Earth Notes: On Green Hair Ties: Review

Updated 2024-01-25 10:14 GMT.
By Damon Hart-Davis.
Learning to manage longer hair with less damage to the planet!
Reuserly biodegradable hair ties landscape
Having gone from shaven-headed to foot-long hippie hair I have had to learn how to manage the mop, preferably without hurting the planet. I'm on a no-shampoo gig, but avoiding landfilled plastic waste from hair ties/bands seems like a good idea too. I review two 'biodegradable' 'natural' hair tie products.

Product: Wild & Stone biodegradable hair ties

Wild and Stone biodegradable hair ties Wild and Stone biodegradable hair tie green DHD ponytail Wild and Stone biodegradable hair tie yellow DHD ponytail
Wild & Stone | Pack of 6 | 100% Biodegradable and Plastic-Free Elastic Hair Ties | 100% Organic Cotton and Natural Plant-Based Rubber | No Crease Ponytail Holder (Multicolour)
  • Brand: Wild & Stone
  • Colour: multicolour
  • Weight: 30g
  • Height: 13.1cm
  • Width: 1.1cm
  • Depth: 8.2cm
  • SKU: B08PPTY25S
  • MPN: WS6-HAIR-TIES-CLR
  • InStock
  • valid at/until:
Review summary
  • Wild & Stone biodegradable hair ties
  • Does the hair tie job well.

    Similar in use, eg three twists for my ponytail, to the hair ties that I used previously.

    Simple pleasing band design.

    Have not evaluated biodegradability yet, but carrier is simple recyclable cardboard.

    As of 2023-02-26 buying another set as old ones fairly intensively used starting to get tired and one had stretched enough that it fell off my wrist!

  • Pros:
    • biodegradable, no plastic
    • pleasing design and colours
    • can 'store' on wrist as bracelet
  • Cons:
    • colours a little less bright than expected
    • join piece quite visible
  • Rating: 4/5
  • Published:

Product: Reuserly biodegradable hair ties

Reuserly biodegradable hair ties landscape Reuserly biodegradable hair tie DHD ponytail
Biodegradable Eco Friendly Elastic Thick 8mm Large Hair Ties for Women & Men - Organic Cotton Natural Hair Tie Ponytail Holders and Hair Ties for Buns - Plastic Free Hairbands (12 pcs, Natural)
  • Brand: Reuserly
  • Colour: natural
  • Weight: 30g
  • Height: 15.7cm
  • Width: 1.5cm
  • Depth: 11cm
  • SKU: B09PF9T45S
  • MPN: AB-234
  • InStock
  • valid at/until:
Review summary
  • Reuserly biodegradable hair ties
  • Does the hair tie job well.

    Noticeably smaller/tighter than other hair ties that I have used up until now.

    Simple uniform design with no join.

    Have not evaluated biodegradability yet, but carrier is simple recyclable cardboard.

  • Pros:
    • biodegradable, no plastic
    • simple design with no join/seam
    • large variety of colour variations available
    • requires only two twists rather than three
  • Cons:
    • too tight to 'store' on wrist as bracelet
  • Rating: 4/5
  • Published:
DHD lockdown hair and beard GONE outside with headphones 20200712 DHD lockdown hair and beard 20220930 long
Before and after subtle changes in length and style: the hair apparent.

Somewhere , after a poor visit to a barbers in a lockdown lull, I decided to let my hair and beard just grow, to see what happened.

My head hair has grown about the typical 6 inches / 15cm per year, and the beard about half that overall.

A few months in I made a furtive visit to the local pharmacy to buy something to keep my hair in order. I did not even know what such a bad-hair prophylactic was called. Luckily my new hobby cost ~£2 for ~20 "hair bands", such is the benefit of the product category being targeted to girls' pocket money budgets. I still have not used even half of them two years later, but those that I have degrade by the elastic stretching, and that results in some mixture of metal and synthetics going to waste. I have put them in recycling, but I suspect that landfill or incineration is their destiny.

I think that "hair ties" is what the things I use should be called, but another furtive visit, this time to Amazon, netted me a mixture of biodegradable "hair ties" and some items called "hair bands" (plastic, metal, elasticated fabric) such as Premiership footballers might be seen sporting. Those may be the subject of a separate review.

See the summary reviews above. There will be updates when I have used the ties longer, and if I can make them biodegrade (or not) in our compost heap!

2022-10-29: my daughter (16) likes both styles though prefers the Reuserly with the lack of visible join.

2022-11-02: I noticed in Boots a pack of 10 "pony bands" for £1 claiming to be "metal free" but no strong 'eco' claims.

DHD big hair FOSDEM 20230204

2023-02-42: the last untouched (blue) Wild & Stone tie came off the card to take to FOSDEM, though did not actually see any action. The green tie, which I have used the most, is quite stretched but still working fine, as are all the rest. They all live in a pile on my desk or one or two on my wrist. Though I have now updated profile pics to full 'big hair', so they may get a little less use.

Verdict: the hair ties work as expected, and I am happy with them. They are significantly more expensive than my initial furtive purchase, and may push my hair-care costs up by several £s per year, shock horror!

2024-01-23: green band died

One of the old green bands died on my desk ie lost all its stretch. I broke it open by pulling hard so that it cannot become a noose for wildlife, and it is on the way to my compost bin (nestling in shredded paper for now)...

~868 words.