It’s cheap. It looks harmless. And every celebrity from Hailey Bieber to Kendall Jenner have been spotted wearing them.
This hair accessory lies around in almost every woman’s drawer or handbag, being the go-to accessory to keep hair neatly out of one's face, pull together a messy bun, or just instantly transform a bad hair day to a good one. But doctors and ER professionals said this accessory could be extremely dangerous under certain circumstances.
Highlights
- Your favorite hair accessory could become a weapon during a crash.
- Women have suffered serious injuries after their claw clips shattered or pierced their scalps.
- “Did you know that we have to surgically remove these from patients’ skulls?” emergency department physician assistant EmilyER said.
It’s cheap, convenient and loved by celebrities, but doctors have issued warnings about them
Claw clips may be the easiest way to take your hair from “blah” to “va-va-voom.” However, some doctors said that they don’t belong on your hair while driving.
“Did you know that we have to surgically remove these from patients' skulls?” emergency department physician assistant EmilyER said in a 2024 TikTok video.
“Take these out when you drive and put in your rubber bands or scrunchies or something,” she advised her viewers.
Peter G. Whang, an orthopedic surgeon and professor at Yale School of Medicine, said there are chances of claw clips causing injuries during accidents.
“Given their shape as well as well as their location, claw clips certainly may give rise to significant injuries to the back of the head, scalp, or neck as a result any type of impact from a motor vehicle collision,” he told Bored Panda.
Women have suffered serious injuries after their claw clips shattered or pierced their scalps
Although such injuries might be common, he said they are relatively minor most of the time.
“With how commonly we see patients wearing these hair accessories, it is not at all uncommon to see injuries related to their use occurring during car accidents,” said the doctor.
“Fortunately, most of the time they are relatively minor, but there is the potential for more serious trauma as well,” he added.
Women have already learned the hard way what can happen when a claw clip meets the force of a car crash.
In 2023, British student Jeena Panesar, then 19, was driving home when her car hit a tree and flipped. Her head slammed against the roof, making the her claw clip penetrate into her scalp.
She explained that the claw clip wedged into the back of her head when the collision took place, after which the car roof clamped down into her head.
“The doctors told me I had a 30cm-cut from my left eyebrow to the back of my head, which they thought was caused by the car roof and my hair clip,” she told BBC.
“I had a 30cm-cut from my left eyebrow to the back of my head, which [doctors] thought was caused by the car roof and my hair clip,” one woman said
Australian fashion influencer Ella Carter also issued a warning when she suffered a serious concussion and ongoing whiplash symptoms because her claw clip “basically just crumbled.”
“A guy in a four-wheel drive rammed me from behind,” she told the Daily Mail about the December incident.
“Almost instantly I felt something shatter in my hair. I was really dazed and confused and thought it might've been glass,” she added.
At the time, the hair accessory did not puncture her skin or skull. But the force with which it shattered and smashed into the back of her head led to a heavy concussion that lasted for three weeks as well as painful whiplash.
In another unfortunate incident, a 61-year-old Chinese woman was simply crossing the road when she was hit by a car.
She landed on her head upon impact, causing her claw clip to pierce into her scalp. Some of the clip’s teeth became lodged in her head, almost hitting critical nerves and blood vessels.
While there isn’t too much data on the subject, a National Safety Council survey revealed that out of 400 ER doctors, 15% of them reported treating patients who had sustained injuries from personal accessories that were made worse in car crashes.
These accessories included items like claw clips, hard barrettes, and large earrings.
In recent times, numerous doctors have taken to social media to reveal the potential dangers of wearing claw clips while driving.
Dr. Dorieann O’Leary urged her viewers to take off car clips when they are getting inside a vehicle because they have the potential to cause injury during road traffic accidents.
“If our head is forcefully propelled back I to the head rest, metal claw clips can cause head, neck, and scalp injuries,” she said.
In such cases, the hair accessory can become lodged in the scalp, cause lacerations, and may need to be removed surgically.
“I’ve definitely stopped wearing mine whilst driving since reading Jeena’s story!” she added.
Some doctors believe viral videos may be exaggerating the risks involved
Some doctors said the viral warnings online may make it seem like claw-clip injuries seem more common than they actually are.
“A lot of people are assuming when they see videos with all this blood back there, that the claw clip itself has been embedded into the skull and is maybe causing bleeding in the brain and stuff like that,” Dr. J. Mack Slaughter, an emergency room physician and content creator, told NewsNation.
Dr. Slaughter said he surveyed his fellow doctors to see if they had come across claw clip injuries, and he said the neurosurgeons he interacted with hadn’t seen any cases at all.
He also said such cases, if and when they do happen, are less likely to be so serious that they would have to get neurosurgery involved. They would take care of it in the emergency department, he added.
But “at the end of the day, if you get into a car accident, the more you can mitigate damage to your body, the better,” he told the outlet. “So as long as … you don’t have everything just perfectly styled and ready for your prom or something like that, I would take that claw clip out before I get in the car.”
“Same thing happened to my wife,” one said online, “we were hit from behind by a drunk driver. The hair pin shattered”
