This accessory called a duelette doubles as a bracelet and hair holder. It’s made for people like me, who throw their hair in a ponytail when they go to the gym, then later suddenly realize their hair would look better down, or their scalp feels stretched to headache proportions from being pulled back too long. They take off the hair holder and either throw it down on their desk, if they’re home writing, or on the passenger seat, if they’re driving. Or they put it around their wrist, which both looks stupid and cuts off circulation.

Enter Chilly Jilly hair holder. This elastic band is decorated with gold and/or silver-plated beads. The knotted ends have an additional sliding bead for adjustment. It’s a great idea. But the execution isn’t quite there.

Granted, it looks better than a regular hair holder. But it’s not that pretty, especially the white one I received as a sample. And the ends that stick out are kind of scruffy looking. To avoid cutting off circulation, it’s much looser than a regular hair elastic, which is good from a bracelet point of view. However, this backfires when you put it in your hair. I wrapped it around my ponytail three times. My hair is fairly thick but very straight, which might partially account for why the duelette wanted to slide off. Really, it has that feeling of a sad old stretched elastic that’s on its last leg, bound for the trash bin. I kept trying to tighten it by pulling on the beads. It survived a weight lifting class, holding my hair in a very loose ponytail. But I had to jettison it halfway through Bombay Jam. Don’t even think about jumping rope in this.

Now if you want to use this accessory for a low, non-athletic ponytail at the nape of your neck, it might work okay. The duelette comes in black or white with gold, silver or a combination of the two beads. Chilly Jilly also makes lounge pants, gloves and jackets. All can roll up and fit into tiny drawstring bags.