I`ve got a reasonable length of hair at the back, bangs at the front and sloping wispy bits at the sides of the front....the legacy of me cutting my own bangs a bit too often, I suppose. The slope goes from my bangs back to about where my ears are, and at that point the wisps are about eight inches short of the rest of the length. There`s a fair amount of hair in there...so I want it to bulk up the length.

I want to keep the bangs. I do want to grow out all the wisps. I had a trim last month and there`s no damage there yet, but most of the wisps are just not long enough to get into a bun or braid. Not only is this messy but it means they blow around and tangle, rub and break on the pillow etc. I can`t see them growing much longer with this sort of treatment. But what I really want is bangs, then long...not this untidy mess inbetween.

I don`t want to cut the bangs back into the hair any more. I`m not sure about using hairclips, because the majority of them are metal. Stretchy hairbands over the front don`t suit me and tend to slide off. None of these can be used at night.

Apart from a satin pillowslip (which is on its way) and gel, any suggestions as to clips etc? How do other folk deal with the inbetweenies?

A phenomenon that other will attest to - shorter hair frequently grows faster than the longer hair.  With time, your shorter - previous bang hair - will catch up to the longer lengths in the back.  This does not happen quickly, but it will eventually happen. If you trim the length occassionally, the shorter hair will catch up even faster.

Aloe vera gel is great for keeping the wispies, inbetweenies and other unmanageable hair in place.