Monday 27 April 2015

Invisibobble & the OPIA knockoff : standoff

I have heavy hair. It gives me a headache and I keep threatening to cut it all of Miley-style. I never do. Invisibobble have been on my radar for a while now, since they launched actually, but I have been a bit skeptical. I mean really. An old style telephone handset cable thingy is going to hold my hair, not give me a headache AND not leave a kink in my hair... yeah... Just call me Skeptical Cindy.


Anyways, as is the way with these things, I picked up the original, more expensive ones first... then spotted a knock-off made by Penneys in-house brand OPIA while browsing a few days later. Its been Three weeks and Hannah and I have given both of them a proper testing... neither of them have snapped, so we are off to a good start!



They look basically the same, with Invisibobble showing a tighter coil. It is a stiffer "bobble" than the OPIA version, which seems a bit looser and this really shows when you actually tie your hair up.

Invisibobble costs €4.99 for three bobbles and one goes round my hair 3 times, as you can see. It holds my hair in place pretty much all day, although I do a fair amount of jumping and running around, so I might have to re-do the pony once or twice during the day to re-capture the fly-aways.

Invisibobble 

Considering I would have to re-do my pony every hour or so with an ordinary elastic, this is progress. I also liked that even after straightening my hair (and allowing it to cool a bit) when I tied it back using the invisibobble to do my face and then let it down again I didn't have a kink in my hair. Its not invisible... but it works. And it holds a high pony relatively well even while doing a 40 minute HIIT class.

Just don't expect to tie up wet hair, sleep on it and get no kink. The only way you are not going to get a kink is to not tie it up and dry it before you go to sleep.

OPIA

 OPIA's ones cost €1.50 and you get 12.  goes 4 or 5 times, depending on how many times I've used the "bobble" and how much I stretch it. Its just not as good as the original. It holds my hair and I haven't had a headache while wearing it, but I have to keep re-tying it to keep the pony at the same height I had it in originally. The good this is that as long as your hair is dry, it won't leave a kink in your hair either.


Getting both out is easy enough, but my hair is straight: it just slips out over the ends with a little coaxing and neither of them tugs out my hair. The Invisibobble untables easily and mostly returns to its original shape within a few minutes. OPIA kinda tangles and stays that way, kind of like its stretched out, and no amount of re-shaping helps.


I picked up 2 bundles of OPIA's bobbles for our holiday as Hannah loses hairbands at a rate of knots, its like she think the hair-elastic fairy comes in once a week and magically replenishes her stash. And I don't mind if she loses these ones, which is why I bought her pink ones. I'm keeping the original ones for me. The other set of OPIA ones (black, brown & clear) is going into the cupboard for Hannah once shes lost the pink ones.

By that stage I hope to have gotten my hands on a few more of the original Invisibobbles in colours different to Hannah's colours. So we can tell them apart. The Invisibobble website has some very cool tutorials that I want to give a try as well... just as soon as I master how to curl my own hair.

If you are stuck and you just want to try the concept, get the OPIA ones. Or you could just get a box of the original ones and enjoy your headache-free pony-tails.



**Purchased both with my own money...Opinion my own



2 comments:

  1. These bobbins are FECKIN REVOLUTIONARY and I don't say that lightly. I'm with you on the OPIA ones losing shape far too quickly but Claire's have an inbetween version. 4 for €4.50 - they're still not Invisibobble standard but they are AOK for my grúaig at a fraction of the price and still a 97.5% improvement on regular bobbins with Houdini tendencies. Great post, C! x

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    Replies
    1. Ah thanks Sue... I'll have a look-see in Claire's for the in-betweeners. I need to get those spiral clips things too... Normal Bobbypins hold very little in place for me. Even when I use a packet of them all at once.

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