Hannah Morrill is an editor covering gifts and beauty. After nearly two decades in beauty, she has a dedication to sunscreen and retinol.
A mom bun, according to my lexicon, is a haphazard loop of hair secured up and off the neck by a mother with more important things to do. It doesn’t look good or bad; it just is. I’m the patron saint of the mom bun. I gave birth in a mom bun. I faced COVID-19 in a mom bun. I go on date nights in a mom bun (yikes).
A mom bun is fast, functional, and don’t-give-a-damn. But six years deep in parenting, sometimes I want to look like I do give a damn. And that’s where the Day Rate Beauty Petite Power Pin comes in.
This 5.5-inch sturdy metal pin comes in nearly a dozen shades. It holds most hair lengths and textures more securely and elegantly than a traditional elastic, but the technique takes practice.
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It’s secure, simple, and stylish
I’ve encountered lots of mom-bun alternatives, none of them particularly refined. Plastic claw clips and scrunchies are back, according to fashion, but they’re both clunky and casual. I’ll leave ’90s accessories to the cool kids.
The Day Rate Beauty Petite Power Pin is my affordably elegant fix for low-maintenance hair. It doesn’t look like much: an oblong U of nylon-coated steel with a few ripples on the tines. But this thing means business. Thanks to its steel core, it has absolutely no wiggle or give, and it doesn’t snap or buckle with tighter hairstyles. The nylon exterior helps it glide into hair smoothly, with no snags or snarls. And it doesn’t crack or chip at the bottom of a bag.
The Petite Power Pin is almost effortless, full stop. I have wavy hair that’s medium thickness and length, and I style it with the Petite Power Pin in a few ways, listed below in order of ease. All take less than 10 seconds at the most.
The Mom-Bun Adjacent
For this style reminiscent of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, I just twist my hair into a low cluster at the nape of my neck, holding all my strands with one hand. With the other hand, I jab the pin, tines downward, into the mass, nudging back and forth to get some hold. That’s it.
The Half-Up Hero
A close cousin to the above, only here I’m twisting just the hair that’s above my ears into a bun. Because I’m working with less hair, more of the pin shows, which is pretty. (Here’s a 41-second YouTube tutorial.)
The French-Twist Fancy
Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri sent this neat style down the runway this past fall. It might take a couple of tries, but each attempt is quick, and the result is more than worth the effort. I gather my hair with one hand at my nape and then tightly twist up my ends with the other hand, pulling vertically as I go. I tuck the loose ends downward behind the roll of hair and then neatly guide the pin to secure it, as in this 31-second video tutorial. Alternatively, I can go for a ’90s red-carpet updo and jam the pin into the twist, leaving the ends out.
All three updos are just as secure as a mom bun, keeping my hair out of my face when I’m ripping underdogs at the playground or shaking rocks out of Crocs. But I look and feel better wearing them.
I haven’t tried other pins exactly like this one because I haven’t found any. The famous French hairstylist Odile Gilbert makes similar metallic hair pins—hers are curved and more expensive—but the site doesn’t ship to the US. I’m curious about the plastic French pins from Machete but not curious enough to drop $35 on something that will inevitably chip, snap, and hit the landfill. And The Hair Edit, a brand at Target, just started making the Large French Hair Pin, which looks promising. It comes in only one, 5-inch length, though, and its flat, wide shape is a little more crude.
You can find pins of all sizes, but sleek, straight hair might not hold ’em
The Day Rate Beauty Petite Power Pin isn’t one-size-fits-all, but I’ve given one to a couple of friends with great success. People with thicker, longer, or curlier hair have instead appreciated the Day Rate Beauty Power Pin, which is identical to the Petite Pin, only 1.5 inches longer to lend more hold and strength. Those with shorter or slippery hair could probably make it work best along with the company’s 3-inch Foundation Pins.
But there also may be folks whose hair just isn’t suited for use with this pin at all. My sister has thick, straight, fine hair—the kind that doesn’t hold a curl or crimp, no matter how much willpower, heated styling, or hairspray she uses. We haven’t tried to use the pin, but my guess is her hair would elude it.
All of the Day Rate pins come in at least a dozen shades, plus pricier metallics. I have the prosecco version, which matches my ashy-blonde hair, and the gold color, which is shiny and looks like hair jewelry. It’s cute when the pins match one’s hair color. And it’s cute when they contrast, too.
Of course, my partner’s camera roll doesn’t lie: I haven’t forgone the mom bun entirely. But more and more, I’m reaching for the Petite Power Pin. It’s elevated. It’s considered. And it makes me feel a little more like who I was before I had kids. Or better yet, who I’m becoming now: a grateful and tapped-out woman with very good hair.
This article was edited by Catherine Kast and Jennifer Hunter.
Meet your guide
Hannah Morrill is an editor on Wirecutter’s style team, spearheading the gifts and beauty sections. For the past decade, she has worked as a freelance writer and editor for publications such as Allure, Elle, and InStyle, among others. She lives in Portland, Maine, with her partner and their two children.