When I first got to these forums, Sakina suggested to me to use Amish hair pins to hold my hair up.  (THANKS SAKINA)

These things are AWESOME!  When I first started looking for information on them I found it hard to come by.   So, I compiled some simple information here in case anyone else wanted to know about them!

Amish Hair pins aka handmade (usually by the Amish) straight hair pins are a simple pin made from Stainless Steel, so they don't rust, nor are they coated with anything that will peel off later and catch your hairs! (like bobby pins!  Ouch!).  

They look like this!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/frostburnx/AmishHairPin-3inch.jpg

They won't bend or get out of shape, even if you have heavy, thick hair, yet the tines of the pin are flexible enough to slide in and out of your hair easily.   The pins are also twistable, in case you have very smooth hair, you might want to twist the pins slightly as you put it in, and it will help hold the hairs even better!

 These pins hold my hair better than anything else I have ever tried!  

They come in 3 sizes.
Small: 2" Long
Medium: 2.5" Long
Large: 3" Long

The longer/thicker your hair is, the larger the pin you will want.  I have waist-length, thick hair, so I went with the Large 3" becuase my hair makes a pretty big bun!  These pins are mainly used for holding buns in place or other similar hairstyles or for pining any head covering on to your head so it will stay in place.  If you are trying to just get your bangs out of your face, these pins won't really work for you.

I got my pins from Ebay, but a good site I found that sells them is http://www.prayercoverings.com/catalog.php?item=38&catid=5&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D5

They typically come 12 to a pack, which is more than enough to keep some in your hair, some in the bathroom, some in your purse and so on!  I found I can comfortably hold up my bun with 3 pins.  They are also REALLY inexpensive!  Prayercoverings.com sells them for $3 a dozen!!

I hope this encourages others to try these pins out becuase they truely are AMAZING!  They hold my hair, as many others have described it, like GLUE!

I am in no way affiliated with prayercoverings.com or any other manufacturer of Amish or straight hair pins.

It is amazing how a simple hair pin can do so much.  I love my pins for "fancy" styles or when I don't want to use hairsticks.  

well ive only been using mine for a few days but omg, they are amazing!  I ride my bike to work and then work all day and I cant fuss with my hair so it really needs to stay up and on my head, tight, but not TOO tight, and these pins are perfect!  not to mention theres no clips or anything to hurt my scalp!  I like sticks but more for a relaxed look and feel.  If I use sticks for my buns on workdays I will end up having to redo my bun once or twice, and I really dont like to redo my bun unless I can comb/brush it out really quick, and I can't easily do that at work.  these are hairsavers!

You're welcome, Tara!  I'm glad you love them as much as I do.

http://www.plainlydressed.com/ is where I typically buy mine, they have 1-5/8" in addition to the sizes you mentioned 12 for $3.00.  I still have some layering in my hair so I like the shortes ones to control those pesky pokey outey bits without adding weight to the bun or pins I already have in.

thats a very true!  I dont have layers so I dont need the shorter ones, but I love them so much im tempted to get them...just in case!

can anyone tell me what gauge, or thickness, the wire used to make them is? I have a blacksmith/iron fabricator boyfriend... it'd suck to buy something he can easily make for me...

heh, thats the reason I cant buy many things, if I know I can make it!  Um, hmm, Im not sure on the guage, nor have I seen the guage listed anywhere.  Maybe try googling "making amis hair pins" or "making straight hair pins"

I think I will, googling it didn't even occur to me. Thanks!

I <3 Google!!

I tried to find the gauge via Google last night with no luck.  I'm going to see if I can find a wire gauge tonight and measure my pins.

I used to do a lot of wire work for jewelry making and what not but I cant for the life of me think of what gauge the pins would be :\

Whew - you'd never think this would be so hard.  I took one of my hair pins and started trying to figure out the size of the wire.  First I tried to use my knitting needle sizer, but the smallest size I have is 2mm and the pin was smaller than that.  Then I tried hubby's drill bit sizer, but again the smallest drill bit sizer was still too big.  I then pulled out his wire stripper.  This was looking good - one of the holes seemed to be the right size, but all the markings on the tool were worn off.  So I checked Sears for their wire strippers, to see what sizes a typical stripper tool could handle.  I found that the smallest size wire was most likely 20 gauge.  My pin fit thru the 2nd to the smallest size hole.  So my best guess at this point is that the wire used is 18 gauge wire.  Hubby just used his calipers to try to measure it and his guess is 3/64" or .046".

Hope this helps!

Hey... so if we hadn't used up all the wire in making coils for chain mail... I could have bent some pins? DRAT. well, Paul thinks there's still some wire hiding in the shop somewhere. This gives me new incentive to find it!

you would also need to fin dout how they set the pins, I know most metals and wires you can tap with a small hammer after youve shaped it to keep its shape, but the hair pins dont bend out of shape, and im not sure how they achieved that.

I know that stainless steel work hardens... which means that as soon as you bend it, its bloody hard to bend back. It's perfectly easy to spool wire onto a 1/4 inch metal rod... unwinding it, however... I'M certainly not going to try, LOL.  I've had to work hard to get any sort of ease at working with the links, they just plain don't want to bend.

I'm not sure about the tines of the pin.. but the bend itself probably won't go much of anywhere without some serious effort. bend the legs slightly and then back... and it ought to hold.

well I guess the best way to start would be to make some prototypes!