My Roman Empire is the scene in Protecting Up With the Kardashians the place Kourtney Kardashian Barker finds a thinning spot on her head that she attributes to sporting a excessive and tight ponytail manner an excessive amount of. It’s what acquired me interested in my very own hair loss scenario, prompting me to scrutinize my hairline and manually test my scalp for patches frequently (ah, actuality TV—a treasure trove of neuroses). I by no means discovered a full-on bald spot, however I did discover some thinning at my temples, a telltale signal of traction alopecia.

Whereas Kourtney addressed her hair loss with a platelet-rich plasma injection straight to the dome, I figured the least I may do was swap out my strand-snagging, pony-pulling, curl-crushing bands for ones that put rather less pressure on my ‘do. (I additionally considered how stress most likely performs a task in my shedding—and the way I’d have the ability to handle that higher for myself. I additionally began utilizing extra conditioning merchandise to assist stop breakage within the first place. However I’m not right here to speak about significant way of life modifications. I’m right here to speak about hair ties.)

All of that is to say, I’ve been on a years-long journey to discover a hair tie that doesn’t pressure my hairline, yank out chunks of my hair, or give me a headache—and final yr, I blessedly, lastly discovered The One: the Seamless Hair Tie from Heliums Cyndibands ($6, amazon.com). I got here throughout them after taking place an Amazon rabbit gap, the place I clicked via associated product hyperlink after associated product hyperlink and landed on these. They have been low cost, well-reviewed (3,550 five-star scores and counting), and would ship to me tremendous quick. On the similar price as my morning latte, there was subsequent to no danger in giving them a attempt, and the reward has been incredible.

The match and really feel

Straight out of the bundle, Cyndibands look tiny—they’re about 1.5 inches in diameter—however they’ll stretch to not less than double that (then snap again into form). They’re product of tremendous mushy seamless nylon and don’t have any type of metallic tab or connector. They don’t even have that onerous spot the place the band was glued collectively that some ponytail holders have. The easy Cyndiband is only a steady loop of extremely stretchy material. It couldn’t snag if it wished to. And so, gone are the times the place I’d dread letting my hair down as a result of my band would eat half of it on its manner out.

If these elastics sound flimsy, you’re proper—they don’t appear like a lot, however Cyndibands are mightier than they appear. I’d describe my hair as wavy and normal-to-kind-of-thick, and I can get a Cyndiband round my ponytail not less than 3 times—positively 4 if I’m having a half-up second. Right here’s the magical half: I don’t really feel the identical pressure on my hairline that I felt with different hair ties, even when I’m doing a excessive model. My hair feels prefer it’s being held in place by the Cyndiband as an alternative of preventing in opposition to it.