Review: Goody's Ouchless hair elastics Maker of a large variety of hair products, namely brushes, elastics, barettes and hair ties, Goody manufactures a new type of hair elastic designed to be hair-friendly. The elastics come in two shades; black and trasparent. The package claims each bag contains 52 elastics; while I did not count each and every one of the elastics, there are a lot of them in the bag. The name of the elastics suggests a hair-friendly nature, and the package reads: "ELIMINATES tangles, pulling and split ends", "New snag-free matireal". The back of the package mentions that the elastics are made of polyurethane matireal that "Virtually glides out of your hair". I picked up a package of the clear elastics at my local drugstore for $3.49 Canadian dollars. They do not seem difficult to find, I have even seen them at a grocery store in the hair section. On opening the package I noticed the elastics were like small and very thin rubber bands, but much smoother. The package claims that the smoothness of the matireal is what makes the elastics un-harmful to hair. I picked up an elastic to test the strength of it, with the length and weight of my hair and the vigourous physical activity I do in my dance classes, I require a hair elastic to have enough strength to hold my hair without slipping. I noticed the elastic required a bit of stretching before wrapping it around your hair. The plastic loosens up a bit, but that can be a bad thing because they eventually lose their elasticity; though admittedly, they aren't so expensive that it's a big deal when you have to throw one out. The elastics are so thin and tiny that (especially if you buy the clear ones) they are difficult to find if you drop one, but I doubt they will do any dammage to a vaccuum cleaner. Because of the thiness of the elastics and the very stretchy matireal they are composed of, they did not hold the base of my ponytail very well. The weight of the hair seemed to be far too much for the elastic, despite the thin nature of my hair, even when using two Ouchless elastics at once. I occasionally tried using two of the Ouchless elastics on top of my other two normal hair elastics at the base of my ponytail. They offered some additional support, but miniscule and hardly worth it. I then tested Goody's claim that the elastics "virtually glides out of your hair" by doing as I always do and grasping one part of the elastic and gently pulling until it reaches the ends of my hair. Snag-free? Not quite.... I was very dissapointed to know that Goody's claim of Ouchless elastics being "snag-free" was untrue. As I slowly pulled the elastic out of my hair several strands got wrapped and tangled around the elastic at the ends of my hair and I saw and heard the snap of hair breaking as it is pulled beyond it's elastic capabilites. So, the claim that these elastics will not snag or tangle or pull or cause split ends is just plain untrue. Waste of money? Well, hold on a second... While I do not recommend using the Goody Ouchless elastics for most ponytails, the elastics do have some good use and aren't a total waste. I found these elastics to be very useful for tying off the ends of braids, particularly small thin or tapering ones if the ends of your hair tend to be thinner than the base of the braid; especially with the clear elastics as they sometimes look nicer on the end of a braid than a solid coloured elastic. I repeat, I recommend using them for tying the ENDS of braids only. Being close to the ends of the hair makes it less able for hair to get very tangled around the elastic as it does not have to be pulled very far to come off the hair. But also watch the elastic carefully if you can while you pull it out and I always recommend pulling out all hair elastics slowly so you can try to predict and prevent tangles and breaking the hair. Conclusion: These elastics have a vaild use, though not really what they were intended for. Don't believe the claims on the box as my experience with them proved them to be untrue. While nice and elegant due to the thiness and small size of the elastics, I only recommend them for finishing off the ends of braids rather than using them as a normal ponytail elastic.