The 11 Best Hair Clips for Thick Hair

Our top choice for thick hair is the Faelbaty – Butterfly Claw Clips because their long, wide, and curved design securely grips full hairstyles without feeling bulky or hurting the scalp. Each claw measures 5.25 inches long and 1.5 inches wide with tapered edges. It easily fits half-up or bun hairstyles too. Next to the Kov Essentials claw, it’s our second largest claw, but its butterfly design makes it more sleek and minimal.

The Faelbaty claws are made of a durable acrylic material and passed all of our rigorous tests without breaking or cracking. It fared well against the most durable claws like the Kov or Camila, which are both made of cellulose acetate. We threw the claws on hardwood floors, twisted the prongs back and forth, and even tried prying it open, and it still didn’t break.Read more…

Most importantly, we liked how much tension was on the springs of each claw. It wasn’t too tough to open, but strong enough to hold our hair without falling when working out or even during our head-shaking tests.

These claws come in a pack of four and retail for around $4 per claw–making them very affordable. There are also many colors to choose from, no matter what style you prefer. After months of testing claws for thick hair, we picked the Faebaty claw clips the most often when running errands or even going to parties because they perfectly hold up thick hair and look stylish.

The Kov Essentials – Daily Clip is our largest (1.5 x 5.25 inches) and one of the most popular claw clips we tested. Compared to the Faelbaty clips, the Kov Essentials is larger because it has an open rectangle design.

When we first opened this package, we were shocked at its size and loved how it easily fit all of our hair comfortably. Styling our thick hair with the Kov Essentials clip was the easiest process because we could open the claw wide and grip it onto the twisted bun effortlessly.Read more…

One small issue we had with this claw clip was the tension on the spring. We would’ve preferred a slightly stronger spring with this clip size like the Faebaty or Camila Paris claws. So after placing the claw onto our hair, we sometimes needed to press the prongs together to ensure the claw was securely in place. Albeit, the Kov Essentials spring is still adequately strong enough to hold up all of the thick hairstyles we tested–even our tester with thick, four feet long hair had no issue using this claw clip.

The Kov Essentials clip is made of cellulose acetate, which means it’s almost indestructible. Where some claws, like the Tocess or Revlon clips, break during stress tests, the cellulose acetate material will stay rigid, but when flexed it does bend and returns to its original shape without snapping in half. Kov Essentials states on its website that if your clips bend over time, you can reset the clip by placing it in hot water.

At $30, this is the most expensive accessory we tested, and you will also need to pay for shipping. But if you’ve got extra thick AND long strands, this upgrade is worth it because the Kov Essentials Daily Clip in extra large effortlessly holds up the thickest of hair comfortably. All Kov Essentials come with a 6-month warranty, so these products are durable but also have a guarantee.

The Camila Paris – AD718 is one of the more expensive claw clips we tested and features an octopus-style design. The shape means the rounded body comprises extra long prongs that overlap to hold the hair in place securely. There are also extra tines inside each prong for more grip.

The springs on the Camila claw are one of the strongest we’ve tested, and it hurt our hands to test the durability. Even though it’s made of plastic, this claw didn’t break during bending, twisting, or throwing. It feels like a sturdy plastic material (unfortunately, Camila Paris doesn’t describe the material).Read more…

This claw offers the most secure hold on thick hair, but there are some caveats. For example, the combination of a 3.5-inch body length with extra long prongs makes it harder to wrap around buns or twisted buns. So you need to maneuver the hair and prongs to fit the rounded and flattened shape of the claw. The result is a very tight bun, but it does feel awkward putting your hair up at first.

Another issue is the overlapping prongs can sometimes tug on your hair or scrape the scalp as you place the claw. This often disappears, but it’s an uncomfortable experience when doing your hair at first.

With these issues in mind, we do prefer using the Camila Paris – AD718 during a workout because it stays in place during rough movements like running or jumping. At $14 per claw clip, it was one of the more expensive brands, but with its durability and overall fit, we recommend this for even the thickest hair.

The Tocess – Big Hair Claw Clips are one of the more popular brands we’ve tried that are one of the most affordable clips we tested. These clips come in a pack of four and retail for around $2.50 each. Offered in many colors, we picked a colorful matte set that we’ve in different TikTok videos and posts from the Internet.

Each claw is 4.25 inches long and is designed in a traditional claw shape (like the Revlon clips) where the body is primarily made up of curved prongs–think the claw clips of the 90s. Unlike the claw clips from back in the day, these clips feel sturdier with taut springs making for strong grips over our hair and matte coatings that hold onto the hair even more.Read more…

While we wish it was slightly wider in size to clamp onto our thick hair easily, it still felt comfortable and secure to wear during the day. We might have had to maneuver all our hair into the claw clip, but once it was on, it easily stayed put even during our workout and head-shaking tests. We think the extra tines inside the prongs help secure the hold onto the hair.

The Tocess clips are made of plastic, so they’re more fragile than other brands, which we found out quickly during our throwing tests. The clip’s handle chipped off at two throws, making it unusable. Luckily the pack comes with three other clips, and now we know not to throw them around too rough.

The Canitor – Rectangle Claw Clips are another traditional rectangle style that measures four inches in length and does manage to fit most of the hair with some maneuvering. But after aggressive head shakes, it quickly loosens and falls off.

This is still a good choice if you need to get your hair out of your face and don’t move much. The Canitor claws also easily hold up hair buns and keep the bun from unraveling. Don’t necessarily think about taking this to the gym, but it’s a good option for quick errands.Read more…

Each Canitor claw is made of high-quality acrylic and passed our durability tests. The Canitor didn’t break during our bending, twisting, throwing, and spring tests. Each package comes in a four-piece set and retails for $3.25 per clip. These affordable clips also come in various colors too.

We were initially excited to test another TikTok favorite, the Teleties – Large Hair Clip, because the many TikTok user videos testing their durability was shocking. These videos featured users driving (with a car!) over a Teleties claw clip, and they easily survived. Teleties states that their nylon material is meant to bend and flex for everyday use.

However, we were disappointed when we started our durability tests, and the Teleties clip broke after the first throw! This is one of our more expensive claw clips that’s known for its durability, so we were surprised at how fast it broke. Luckily, we received a free replacement and it passed our second throw test.Read more…

We believe our experience was based on a defective claw clip based on our further testing, but we still felt a little dissatisfied because Teleties markets all of its products with the highest standards and quality. Teleties does have a one-year warranty on all of their products, so we feel slightly better that they offer this guarantee. Their customer service was also quick and helpful.

The fit of these clips was adequate on thick hair, and it’s shaped with a clam-shell or baguette design. They stayed on during rigorous workouts (however, they slipped during our head-shaking tests) and were comfortable on our scalps. At $15 per claw clip (with free shipping), we wouldn’t necessarily pick this as a top contender because there are other claw clips, like the Camila clip, that are more durable and fit our hair better at the same price.

The Bouniq – Mini Claw clips come in a pack of four and are reasonably priced at $3.25 per clip. While these are too small for fitting all our thick hair all at once, they are great for mini buns or half updos to get your hair out of your face. They offer a unique design where the prongs are slanted and grip your hair at a better angle when worn.

Made of cellulose acetate resin like the Textenation clips, Bouniq clips are also super strong and passed all of our durability tests. None of the clips broke as we tested the spring 50 times, tried to pry open the claws, threw them on the floor multiple times, or twisted them back and forth. We also didn’t notice any bending on the prongs during any of these tests.Read more…

Wearing the clips was very comfortable due to their smooth material, and we didn’t find any defects on the edges of the prongs or body of the claw clip at all; This is something we often find with many of the claw clips. They come in a tortoise shell pattern of two colors and are great for going out on the town because they’re super cute.

The Textenation – Tortoise Shell Jaw Clips come in a different shape than other brands I’ve seen and have extra long tines that overlap. Made up of cellulose acetate, this claw clip is super durable and passed all of our durability tests. Cellulose acetate is known to have more bendable qualities, so during our tests, we noticed the Textenation clip easily bent open, twisted back and forth, and sprang open and closed multiple times without breaking.

Unfortunately, during the use tests, the longer and overlapping tines didn’t quite hold together an entire head of thick hair–this type of claw is best for half-up hairdos or buns. Since cellulose acetate material is quite smooth, there is also not much grip when holding the hair together, so you need to make sure the prongs are overlapped or wedged into the hair in a bun.Read more…

This clip comes in a pair, so each claw is $7, but Textenation also includes two free plastic hair bands. While we can’t recommend this for all thick hair types, we think it works well for half-up hairdos.

The Kitsch – Metal Hair Clip is much too small in length and prong size for thick hair. While it’s made very well and durable (it easily passed our durability tests), it was difficult to use on our thick and wavy hair. At three inches long, we could only use the Kitsch for half-up styles, but it would eventually slip after 10 minutes of walking around due to the weight of the metal.

It’s aesthetically pleasing, but the looseness of the metal spring was not strong enough to hold together thick hair with the weight of clip. There were times when we would have to push the prongs over our hair to affix the claw to our hair properly–and it often opened quickly due to the looseness of the spring.Read more…

While this could work for thinner hair, we wouldn’t recommend it for those who have thick hair because it will fall off quickly, even with half-up styles.

The Revlon – Strong Hold hair clips feature two layers of prongs and are made of plastic. These are the smallest clips we tested at three inches in length. We’ve used Revlon hair products for over 30 years and wanted to see if these held up to our thick and coarse hair.

We were initially interested in the double set of prongs designed to keep a firmer grip on the hair. While this worked fine for styling our hair half-up, we found that these clips could not hold up all our hair at once. The clips were too thin to grasp all our hair fully. When we put our hair in a bun, it was also tight on our hair and hurt.Read more…

During durability tests, it aced the spring test and quickly sprang back and forth 50 times. However, the plastic material wasn’t strong enough to withstand bending, twisting, or throwing. At about the third throw, the clip broke in half.

The Revlon – Strong Hold hair clips were our most affordable at $2 per clip and are more widely available at stores like Target or Walmart, so if you’re on a budget or have a hair emergency, this might be a decent choice. However, this is best for half-up hair do’s because it’s too small to hold an entire head of thick hair securely.

The Brinie – Metal Hair Claw is a similar style to the Faelbaty – Butterfly Hair Clips, so we were excited to try a metal version. One of the biggest differences between these two clips is a half-inch length. The Brinie is smaller, and its prongs are also much shorter–we found that this affects the grip on the hair significantly.

While the Brinie clips passed our durability test, we still noticed some bending on the metal when we twisted and bent the clip back and forth. These were easily adjusted, but we were worried this would weaken the metal down the line and affect the grip.Read more…

When we tried styling our thick hair into the clip, it barely held on and would often fall off within 5 minutes. It worked better for half-up styling, but it was incredibly uncomfortable to wear. The metal itself had a lot of imperfections along the edges and would often scrape our scalps when styling and wearing the clip. At $6, this is typical pricing for claw clips this size; however, we don’t think it’s worth paying any price for defective hair clips that don’t fit our hair and are uncomfortable to wear.