I tested Burlybands right before this, which was helpful because it made me realize strength is not the only thing I care about in a hair tie. Burlybands held my hair, but it also felt like a lot of hair tie for me.
Kknekki is different. It still holds my hair well, but it does not feel like I’m signing a legal agreement with my ponytail.
Kknekki wasn’t an obvious choice for this experiment when I first started sourcing hair ties. I discovered it through a comment on a Reddit post where someone was asking for a good hair tie for thick hair. Say what you will about Reddit, but I’m eternally grateful that I stumbled across that comment.
When I went to Kknekki’s site, my eyes lit up. I cannot express to you how many colors are available. Also, what you see is what you get. Their marketing was not overrun with influencer energy.
This is going to sound crazy, but I added over $100 worth of these hair ties to my cart. For this experiment, that is crazy because I had no reference for how well this hair tie would actually work. But there were so many fun colors. I kept adding and justifying why I needed them in my head. I had neutral colors to match my hair and fun colors because, why not?
Then I went to check out and learned that Kknekki was not currently shipping to the United States.
Talk about a total bummer. I figured, okay, let me find a retailer here that sells them. How hard could that be? Turns out, pretty difficult. Nonetheless, I persevered and still managed to buy too many of them.
I tried these because I was hypnotized by the variety and the exclusiveness. I ended up buying way too many because when I hunt for something, I hunt to kill.
A Quick Look at the Brand
I did not look into the brand history before testing Kknekki. I looked it up after wearing the hair ties for a couple of weeks, which feels more honest.
According to Kknekki’s about page, the brand was originally founded in South Korea in 1987 and is now owned, designed, and operated by a Norwegian family company. I was born in 1986, so I did enjoy that this hair tie had lore almost as old as me.
I was also more interested when I realized the brand started in South Korea. As an Asian woman with thick hair, part of me did think, okay, maybe that explains why this hair tie is doing so well.
Kknekki describes the brand as combining Korean haircare heritage with Scandinavian design. Once I saw the hair ties in person, I understood that more. They look cute, but they also look intentional.
The brand says each hair tie is made with a unique weaving technique on rare vintage knitting machines from the 1960s, using more than 60 interwoven threads. That helped me understand why the hair tie looks and feels different from a regular elastic.
What I Bought
Kknekki has over 700 color combinations, so naturally I went overboard. But how did I do that if they were not shipping to the United States? Like I said, I hunted. I hunted hard.
I ended up buying too many hair ties from two sources. The first place I bought from was Poshmark. This was not what I would consider ideal, but I spoke to the sole seller on Poshmark. She discovered Kknekki through the German exchange student she was hosting, and that was her connection to getting them.
That was enough for me to understand why this was not a normal “add to cart and move on” situation. The sourcing was oddly specific, but at that point, so was I.
The second place I purchased from was Gracie’s Apparel & Accessories. This store did not appear on my radar initially, but I eventually found it on a Google search whim. I did reach out to ask how they were able to get Kknekki here, but alas, they did not respond to my email. I do not blame them. It is best to keep those secrets.
The colors the Poshmark seller did not have, Gracie’s Boutique seemed to have. Between the two sources, I ended up with more Kknekki hair ties than one person technically needs, and somehow there are still colors I want. Spiritually, I stand by my actions.
For this review, I opted to rotate between three. Two were the traditional material and one was velvet. I thought three was reasonable because of the velvet guest star making its appearance, and the other hair ties I tried previously came with at least two or three. I mean, this is a hair tie experiment, right?
What I Thought Before Trying It
Before I tried Kknekki, I thought, “You’re a big stupid idiot if these don’t work,” while staring at the pile of hair ties in front of me. I bought way too many, but they’re like Pokémon. You gotta catch them all.
They also almost felt too fancy to me. I think we take hair ties for granted and just accept what they look like. It never occurred to me that a hair tie could be both functional and stylish without being annoying about it.
What I Found
Hold: Yes, with a halo on top. I did not find myself continuously adjusting my ponytail, which is usually where a lot of hair ties start to reveal their crimes.
Tension: The tension is very Goldilocks. It is just the right amount of tension without feeling weak or aggressive.
Loop Count: I easily got three loops in. I thought it might feel looser compared to the others, but again, it was just right.
Weight Handling: This hair tie handled the weight and thickness of my hair without slippage or shifting. That said, I also did not get the hair ache when I took it down.
Durability: This hair tie is very durable. I had concerns over the bead being an issue, but I quickly learned that it actually enhances the hair tie.
The bead likely covers where the elastics are joined. So instead of having a glue lump where your hair can snag on it, the bead eliminates that problem.
Removal: You could just slide it off, but it has enough hold that I feel more comfortable unlooping it once and then removing it. That feels safer for my hair, and I am already bleaching it, so we do not need to add chaos.
Dent / Crease: This hair tie did not leave a dent or crease in my hair. This is not something I care about either way, so I consider it a bonus.
All-Day Wear Comfort: I do not think about it when I’m wearing it. It is a very comfortable hair tie to wear all day, which is exactly what I want from something that is literally attached to my head.
Versatility: It is versatile in terms of all the color choices. I’m mostly thinking in terms of neutrals, and all of them look great against my hair. This is a hair tie I would not feel weird wearing to a choreography session or to a dinner date. That is weirdly hard to find.
Wrist Wear: This leans more toward traditional wrist wear. It is not tight, and I do not notice it on my wrist. I will wear one in my hair and one on my wrist. It is also nice to look at. You do not see it and immediately think, HAIR TIE.
Would I Reach for It Again: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, the Kknekki hair tie is my favorite hair tie of all the ones I tried in this series.
Other Things I Didn’t Expect
I did not expect Kknekki to become a favorite for my cat as well. I shared before that she found the Teleties fun to play with. She has not gone for the other hair ties, so I thought Kknekki was safe.
Apparently not. I’m not sure what it is, but she likes to paw at the velvet one. So now the velvet Kknekki has also passed some kind of unofficial cat approval test that I did not ask for.
I also was not expecting to have to try so hard to buy Kknekki hair ties in or shipped to the United States. Even if something is sold out on one site, a quick Google search normally gets me where I need to go.
With Kknekki, Google turned up more European stores that had them, but I would load up my cart only to be told the products were not being shipped to the United States. It seems like a lot of European retailers are not shipping to the United States currently, which is why I eventually searched Poshmark.
I eventually found Gracie’s Apparel & Accessories, which is located in New York, on a Google search whim. That is how annoying this became. I was no longer shopping. I was investigating.
The Potential Negative
The potential negative is the price. At this point in my 10-plus years as a Blonde Asian with long, thick hair, I have spent the better part of my life dealing with crappy hair ties and I’m over it.
Kknekki hair ties cost about $5 USD per hair tie. That can be hard to justify when you can get a whole pack of hair ties that could last you a year for the same price.
After wearing so many hair ties and actually paying attention to how they make me feel, I’m willing to spend the cheddar to be free of hair tie probz. I hate that this is where I landed, but unfortunately, this is where I am.
Final Thoughts
Leave it to me to somehow go overboard and buy more than I originally intended when these are hard to find in the United States. But now, alas, I have successfully found a hair tie that works for me.
I was concerned that I dropped a bunch of money on hair ties that would not work the way I wanted them to, but I’m wondering if this was one of those meant-to-be situations. Dramatic? Yes. But I did buy a pile of hair ties from multiple sources, so we have already crossed that bridge.
Still, Kknekki is the best hair tie I tried in this experiment. It holds my hair, it feels comfortable, it looks good, and it does not make me feel like I’m fighting my ponytail. The only real problem is that it is not easy to get. Kknekki feels like a hair tie made by people who actually thought about what a hair tie has to do all day, which is apparently rarer than it should be.
My next hair tie post will put some of these hair ties head to head because apparently this experiment still needs more drama.
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