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Reference Desk
What are the tiny butterfly clips in every 1990s photo?
They are mini butterfly clips: small hair clips moulded in a butterfly shape, worn several at a time along a parting or around a half-up twist. The 1990s original is a hinged claw clip about two centimetres across, in solid or pearlised plastic. Butterfly clip is a recognised barrette type alongside the claw clip and the snap clip.
Three different objects sold under one search
This matters because the three do not hold hair the same way, and listings rarely say which one you are buying.
| Type | Mechanism | What it is for | How it dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini butterfly claw | Two hinged jaws on a spring | Small sections; the 1990s and Y2K look | The original; still made |
| Butterfly snap or alligator clip | A sprung metal bar, or a bendy snap | Front pieces pulled back | Also 1990s, seen less often in period photos |
| Organza or wired butterfly on a clip | A decorative butterfly glued or wired to a plain clip | Bridal and photography styling | A 2010s-2020s object, not a Y2K one |
The finish dates a clip as well as its shape. Clear and smoke translucent plastics are the period-correct finish for the late 1990s, in line with the Y2K aesthetic’s bright colours, translucent plastics and glitter as Wikipedia describes them.
What they cost
Across 337 butterfly-clip listings in a US affiliate feed pulled on 8 September 2026, the median ask is $12, the cheapest is $1.43 and the highest is $100. A hundred and five listings ask under $10 — 31 per cent of them, the same share as a week ago. The median is the figure to trust here: it read $12 on 1 September against 180 listings and $12 again tonight against 337, and it held at $12 at every depth of this pull past the first hundred rows. The count moved because this read went further into the same feed, not because the category grew. The market is still almost entirely second-hand: 45 of the 337 listings come from a conventional retailer, and those are the cheapest rows in the set.
The editorial call: buy the moulded claw, not the organza. The organza butterflies photograph beautifully and slide straight out of clean hair, because the clip underneath is a plain snap carrying a decoration. The 1990s object works because the butterfly is the clip.
Last verified 8 September 2026. Clip terminology from the source below; price figures computed from 337 listings in a US affiliate product feed pulled the same day, read to a depth of 800 rows for the keyword “butterfly hair clip”. The median ask is unchanged from 1 September at $12; the listing count is larger because this read went further into the same feed than that one did, which is a property of the query and not of the market. Price figures are computed from a CJ Affiliate product-feed pull of US advertisers made on 8 September 2026. Peer-to-peer marketplace asks of $500 or more are excluded as seller placeholders, as are repdigit asks such as $999 and $9,999 wherever they appear; retailer prices are used as published. Counts are deduplicated row counts, never a feed totalCount.
Frequently asked
What are the small butterfly clips from the 1990s called?
Mini butterfly clips, or butterfly claw clips. Butterfly clip is a recognised barrette type alongside the claw clip and snap clip.
Are butterfly hair clips still made?
Yes. New moulded butterfly clips are sold by general craft and accessory retailers, and the cheapest listing in this survey is a $1.43 new pack.
How much do vintage butterfly clips cost?
The median ask across 337 US listings on 8 September 2026 was $12, unchanged from the $12 measured on 1 September, with 105 listings under $10 and a top ask of $100.
What is the difference between a butterfly claw clip and a butterfly snap clip?
A claw clip has two hinged jaws on a spring and grips a section of hair. A snap clip has a sprung bar or a bendy strip and holds a front piece flat.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Hair clip — the barrette family and its named types, including butterfly clip, claw clip, alligator clip and bendy snap clip
- Wikipedia, Y2K aesthetic — the period's use of bright colours, translucent plastics and glitter, which is the finish these clips were moulded in
- CJ Affiliate product feeds, US advertisers, queried 1 September 2026 — every count and price figure on this page is a deduplicated row count from that pull
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How this page was made. Drafted with AI (Claude); not yet independently re-checked. How we work