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Epic Win: Butterfly Clips


butterfly-hair-clips

Submitted by Catherine S

These were all the rage between 1997-1999. Girls loved to put front “corn-row” styles in the front of their hair with different color butterflies. The best ones were the glitter kind! Unfortunately, the wings broke off very easily…

Updated: Featured Comments
Apparently butterfly clips were really dangerous. Who knew?

Lynnie sez:

I chipped one of my front teeth with a butterfly clip. I had it in my mouth, biting the wings together with my front teeth so the spring was tight, jumped on my bed and accidentally released the spring, which made the clip spring back open and somehow chip my tooth.

To which Dodge replies:

you chipped your tooth w/ a butterfly clip? well i cracked my head open with some of them. in kindergarten, one of my friends was pushing me on a tire swing, and i fell off and my head hit the ground, and the butterfly clips actually went into my head. i had to go to the ER and get staples in my head (like stitches…) but i loved butterfly clips. they were so pretty:) ah, i miss the old days.

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» 50 Blasts From The Past

  1. BioRocks says:

    If these are on OUaW, can banana clips be far behind?

  2. Glob says:

    These used be be EVERYWHERE around my house. The floor, counter, shelves…

  3. Kassi says:

    OMG! I had thousands of these around the house and I wore them all of the time. I would separate my hair into like 8 different parts and twist them up and line them around my head. I had actually forgot about these. I bet my mother still has mine at her house.

  4. lepark says:

    Maybe it was just where I lived, but everyone loved the ones that had moving wings (on tiny springs). Wow, I had a bunch of these, but I’d completely forgotten about them. :)

    • Ela13 says:

      Oo.. they were popular where I grew up to. I had quite a few of them. They were really sparkly… I’d play with them in class. I loved my butterfly clips.. except when I stepped on them… then it was painful.

    • Beth says:

      Haha I still have some of them! I don’t think I ever wore them though… just got them to fit in.

    • Ariel says:

      I know what your talking about I had some of those too!

  5. Pooch says:

    So if these are on here, should I worry that my wife (we married … before 1997) has a bunch of new ones in her “hair stuff” drawer? I had no idea they were that old. I can vouch for the unpleasantness of stepping on one, too.

  6. Lynnie says:

    I chipped one of my front teeth with a butterfly clip. I had it in my mouth, biting the wings together with my front teeth so the spring was tight, jumped on my bed and accidentally released the spring, which made the clip spring back open and somehow chip my tooth.

    • Dodge:) says:

      you chipped your tooth w/ a butterfly clip? well i cracked my head open with some of them. in kindergarten, one of my friends was pushing me on a tire swing, and i fell off and my head hit the ground, and the butterfly clips actually went into my head. i had to go to the ER and get staples in my head (like stitches…) but i loved butterfly clips. they were so pretty:) ah, i miss the old days.

  7. NoAdditives says:

    The teeth broke more easily than the wings. I had tons with only two or three teeth but I refused to throw them away because I still really wanted to wear them. I had regular ones, ones with moving wings and ones with fabric wings. They were great! When I was in junior high…

    I was a nanny a couple years ago and the girls I cared for had head bands with the butterfly clips attached. Pretty lame. Part of the fun was making sure you had the skills to align each individual clip.

  8. ScruffyKat says:

    Still use them! They are great for holding up orchids and house vines. Other uses include closing coffee bags, chocolate chips, walnuts and other things in smaller bags. And best of all, chasing your kid sister around the house when mom was gone.

  9. Kelly Ann says:

    I still use them. XD

  10. just me says:

    I have a drawer full of them still, and put them in my 7 year old’s hair from time to time.

    I have stars, dragon flies, dolphins, and other shapes, too!

    (confession….I wear them sometimes, too, but the brown stars to match my hair so it is not so obvious. Keeps the shorter layers out of my face. I get compliments every time.)

    • Katherine says:

      You got dragonflies?? No fair! I use these little clips for pony tails for my 18 month old- way easier than trying to get a hair tie around it!

  11. Sharmed says:

    I couldn’t wear these. My hair is so thick and curly, it would of looked like I had a butterfly habitat all tangled up on my head.

  12. Olivia says:

    I still have some of these : )

  13. Chass says:

    I’m wearing a couple today. Win :D

  14. Casa says:

    We alwayes called them twisters, or tristers… but then we were all white girls who hadn’t heard of corn rows. *shrug*
    The next best thing to pig tails and a school girl uniform to drive a guy wild is a couple of these lil’ butterflys in your hair. ^^

  15. Psycholadeh says:

    One of those cut into my scalp once while my and some friends were playing… ouch.

  16. Tibby says:

    I literally just found one of these today in my pile of hair clips. Obviously the only option was to rock it at work!

  17. krissy87 says:

    I think I still have some too…I had huge ones, of various colours. And two beige ones that were slightly different…yep, they are painful to stand on, and really hurt if you bump your head with them…although I never drew blood- sounds as if others weren’t so lucky! Most of the girls in my class would put their hair in a ponytail and use the butterfly-clips to hold it in a bun. I also once divided my hair into about 10 or 12 plaits and pinned them up to my head with butterfly clips. Man, I loved those…and the miniature shark-clips (at least that is what we called them…)

    WIN!!

  18. little_star says:

    I still have all of mine that didn’t get broken. The clips (butterflies, stars, different types of fish) in all different colors, and my springy butterflies and dragonflies. I still wear them quite a bit. I’m 24. Constant nostalgia seems to be my mission in life.

  19. I had these, only mine were like these earth-toned colored ones. I had a few with moving, sparkly wings, but most of mine were all dark and pretty ugly now that I think about it. And for some reason I don’t think I ever wore them, I just collected a bunch of them in my Bugs Life singing jewelry box.

  20. Courtney says:

    Loved these! When my mom still liked doing stuff to my hair I would put them in. I loved that corn rows look! I had many colors, but yeah, on the playground, they did break a lot…

  21. Becky says:

    My sister (she’s about a year older) and I would have EPIC battles over whose clips were whose. Naturally, both of us claimed all the glitter ones were OURS. My mom’s only way to solve these arguments was to tell us to shut up and divide them evenly.

  22. XChemoKid says:

    I was on chemotherapy in 1999, these were one of few things I could put in my peach fuzz when I got bored of hats and scarves. LOVED them

  23. kitty says:

    ooooo i loveeeeeeeeeeeddddd those, i used 2 wer them lik evrywere.wow, i miss them .=\

  24. luv it says:

    lol i used 2pretend the lil spikey things[the things tat help ur hair in place] were teeth i pinched my brothers w/them =P hehebut i luved themi have pictures of me wering them wen i wuz like 3 yrs old!i had like sooo many colors, bu if i used 1 2 much, the spring/wing wuld brek,or i wuld sep on 1[ow,those hurt!!!!]but i luv luv luv them & sumtimes find sum around the house,& i will cherish them if i do, but eventully[like in 1 day]they wuld brek=[ now no mattr how much i look, i cant find them!& iy suks cuz they roked.

    ~age 13 & still luving them!!!!=[)

  25. Fumbe says:

    I had a million of these, mostly the glitter ones; I think I still have some in the bathroom… Oh how I hated these with a fiery passion, these and the other shape clips like bows and rocking horses and teddy bears, really just clips in general. Everyone wanted to put clips and ribbons in my hair and dress me up and I wanted to rip them out and go climb a tree.

  26. Amelia says:

    I used to use the big ones for my hair instead of bobby pins. Don’t havany of them anymore sadly.
    I remember seeing a church one Sunday morning one lady who had a stack of them in her short white hair (She was in her 70’s).

  27. Allison says:

    I had ones that changed colors in the sun. EPIC.

  28. lost90skid says:

    my mum never brought me these when i was little…
    but my friends gave me some :) or id find them hehe

  29. Crystal says:

    These make insane nipple clamps.

  30. Lisa says:

    Does anyone remember the ones that were big, floppy, and glittery? They were much larger than these, with an almost barette type clip, when you walked springs would cause the wings to “flutter”. they were covered in obnoxious glitter, and were incredibly stupid looking to have flapping around your head. I’ll admit to owning about a hundred of them in the later 90’s :D

    http://www.discountjewelryclub.com/af496960.jpg

    • Jeej says:

      Yah, those came out later. They were like roach clips with springy butterflys attatched! LOL

      What about those teensy tiny little buttons, they could only hold a few strands of hair?

  31. Lauren says:

    Is it really sad that I still have mine… and are wearing them RIGHT NOW? Lol, I still like them. I even wore a billion of them the first day of grade 10. :D

    I also had the fabric ones, and I even had a kit to make them (the fabric ones). I think I still have some of them too….

  32. Kelly says:

    I still have some of those from ‘99. I use them sometimes when I’m fixing my hair but never out in public. :)

  33. nomes says:

    OMG, these were only around in the late 90’s in the US? We had them in the early-mid 80’s in Australia. We (well at least everyone i knew lol) called them Molly clips, because a popular character called (what else?) Molly on a show called A Country Practice wore them all the time. Wow, that’s amazing – can’t believe we had that phase before the US – nowdays, it seems all the new trends come from there! Unless… they were around the US in the early 80’s, but never gained popularity like they did here in Aus (did Madonna never wear them?).

  34. We and some friends used them as TROPHIES!!! we used to collect them from our firsts girlfriends… When I was 18 I had to dump them because my then “serious” GF found them in one of my drawers and went berserk in jealousy!!!

  35. robowarrior says:

    I remember those. My sister used to wear them all the time in the late ’90s. We call that the olden days now.

  36. Luna says:

    zomg, I loved these! Except, somehow, most of mine were flowers instead of butterflies….but one of my friends when I was little got me a set of “fancy” butterfly ones: They were on the large size, but they were made of clear tinted plastic with glitter embedded in the plastic–not just glued to the outside. There were two clear ones, two that were tinted light blue, and two that were tinted either dark blue or purple, I think. I still have ‘em, but several of them are half broken, i think.

  37. Fae says:

    I had forgotten all about these! I used to do the cornrow effect with the smaller clips, but I had about a dozen of the big glittery ones, too. I set off the metal detector at airport security once because I was DETERMINED to have them all with me to see my grandparents (and therefore they all needed to be attached to me). Luckily, they waved the wand over my head and I was free to go.


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