Doctors warn popular claw clips can pierce the head in car crashes
Emergency medicine doctors warn that popular claw-style hair clips can become embedded in the head during car accidents and cause serious injuries. They recommend switching to a soft hair tie before driving.
A discussion circulating on social media has seen hundreds of emergency doctors and nurses share everyday items they personally would never use, given the injuries they've witnessed linked to them. Alongside familiar warnings like riding a motorcycle without a helmet or letting children on a trampoline without a safety net, medical staff also named something far more mundane: the popular claw-style hair clip.
Why the accessory can be dangerous
These metal or plastic clips allow hair to be gathered quickly and have become popular again as 2000s-style aesthetics returned to fashion, helped along by celebrities such as Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner. However, doctors say the real danger emerges specifically in car crashes. Physician Dorianna O'Leary explained that if the head is forcefully thrown back against the headrest, a claw clip can cause injuries to the head, neck and scalp, digging into the skin and creating deep lacerations that sometimes require surgical removal. A former intensive care nurse added on social media that during a crash such a clip can "embed itself in the skull."
Real cases back up the warning
The warning is not merely theoretical. In 2023, 19-year-old British student Gina Panesar suffered severe head, facial and eye-socket injuries when her car overturned on a rural road, with the clip in her hair forced into her head on impact. Last year, a similar accident happened to 22-year-old Australian fashion influencer Ella Carter, who suffered a concussion caused by a plastic claw clip.
Doctors stress that claw clips are not dangerous in everyday use — the risk only rises in situations involving sudden head movement or a strong impact. Their advice is simple: before getting behind the wheel, opt for a soft hair tie or another accessory that cannot embed itself in the head on impact.
