DIY HAIR TIES

We can minimize our carbon footprint by being resourceful and creative, by making things ourselves out of what we already have instead of buying newly-manufactured items.

Take simple ponytail holders or hair tieslike these, for example. They’re adorable, right? But instead of oohing and aahing,coveting them, and buying them, which usually entails using up some amount of fossil fuel to go out and get them or to have them shipped to us, why not make our own? They’re just extremely easy to make, ridiculously so.

We can make them out of anything stretchy or any material with a little give. If we have any of these lying around then we’re good to go:

• Old T-shirts. Cut the material into strips.
• Old bras. Cut away the straps or the elastic bands. Printed or colored ones will look awesome!
• Old panties. Cut away the elastic waistbands or the band around the thighs.
• Strips of stretchy lace from camisoles or slips.
• Any kind of garter or foldover elastic .

Cute and colorful work best. We are, after all, making hair accessories. But even if they’re not, we can always dye them or glue on some appliques to kick them up a notch. So shall we start? Let’s gather up our materials and find a suitable work area.

The only other tools we need are scissors and a ruler or measuring tape.Then we have to measure and cut our material into strips, a quarter to half of an inch wide and nine inches long. And then we fold each strip in half and tie a knot near the loose ends, and… voila! We’ve just made a hair tie!

It’s so easy, that it seems inconceivable why people still bother to buy them. They’d definitely spend more time, money, and energy going out to shop for these things.

If we so desire, we can then dye the hair ties or embellish them with accents – beads, fabric flowers, or anything else our imagination can come up with. They don’t have to go in our hair either. These ties really look great as bracelets that we can stack and combine, mix and match, to go with our OOTD (outfit of the day).

We can also make headbands instead of hair ties, just cut the strips a little bit longer so they fit around our heads comfortably.

This DIY is fun to do alone as it’s very therapeutic, and the products of our efforts don’t have to adorn only our hair, but we can make these as really lovely personalized gifts for our friends! But what’s even better is to do this activity with friends, as an alternative to a girls’ night out – a girls’ night in! How about that?

We don’t have to be politicians, lobbyists, scientists, or policy makers to do our part in protecting our earth. Each of our everyday acts and our everyday choices add up to more healing, more protection, more conservation than anything even the President can do by himself.