I love using chopsticks to put my hair up. But the ones at the accessories store are just a little too short for my long, thick hair. Rather than accept style defeat gracefully, I headed to a local store that stocks fruits from Thailand, noodles from China, candy from Japan, and a wide variety of chopsticks.
Chopsticks for eating are two to three inches longer than chopsticks for hair. This can be a good thing, but even if the extra length isn’t needed the fancy chopsticks from the grocery store are more fun than mass-produced options. Plus, at $2.99 a pair, they’re much cheaper!
But what I really like to do is to get a few sets of plain chopsticks and decorate them myself. Sometimes I add feathers and rhinestones. Sometimes I paint them and make them glittery. On my last trip, I got some squarish, black plastic chopsticks. They are too long, so I used a Dremel rotary tool to cut them off, being sure to take material from the top to preserve the taper at the bottom. I used the Dremel to make a little notch in two of the sticks, and then used epoxy to secure a scrap metal ring standing up. I found some little shell flowers in my bead box and added those.
Now I have a pair of chopsticks that are the perfect length to hold my hair. Plus, they match my style far better than anything I can buy in a store. And they cost me a third of what a plain pair meant for hair would. You can’t go wrong with that.
