Most claw clips and a lot of elastics are made from plastic, and plastic wasn't designed with your hair or the planet in mind. It was designed to be cheap to produce. That's why claw clips crack at the hinge, why the little rubber grip on an elastic peels off after a few washes, why you end up buying the same three-pack over and over.
I wanted to build something different, and it came down to materials. Every Day Rate pin is built on an upcycled American stainless steel core, coated in a plant-based nylon finish derived from castor seed rather than petroleum plastic. No peeling tips, no chipped paint, nothing that degrades with use the way plastic accessories do. It's also packaged in FSC-certified materials and made in batches specifically to avoid overproduction waste, since a hair accessory brand generating a pile of unsold, unwanted product isn't actually solving anything.
None of this would matter if the pins didn't also work better, so I want to be clear that this isn't a tradeoff. A plastic-free pin built on a real steel core holds its shape and tension far longer than a plastic claw clip, which loses grip strength the more it flexes open and shut. As a claw clip alternative, a well-made hairpin isn't just gentler on your hair, it's also going to outlast the clip by years, not months.
The honest tradeoff is cost. Better materials cost more to source and produce, close to three times what conventional plastic alternatives run. I think that's worth it. A hair accessory for buns that you replace every few months because it cracked or lost its grip isn't actually the cheaper option once you add it up.
If you're looking at a hair clip for buns and thinking about switching away from plastic, the change is a small one to make and a real one for both your hair and what you're not throwing away every few months.
If your claw clips are cracking, chipping, or losing their grip faster than you'd like, it might be worth trying a pin built to actually last.
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